Kicking off any project effectively sets the tone and establishes momentum for success. Conversely, a mushy, disorganized, or lengthy beginning to the project risks implicitly communicating, “This webinar is going to be a drain on my time.”

The purpose of a project kickoff meeting is to establish a foundation of shared knowledge of the project. This provides direction to each team member (producer, promoter, and presenter) about roles, expectations, and timelines for deliverables.

What follows are the details you’ll want to cover to get everybody on the same page.

Producer’s project overview

The producer is the virtual meeting planner or project owner. Typically they own managing timelines, coordinating rehearsals, and setting up the conferencing platform.

1. Title? You can change it later, but your web conferencing solution will want you to name it something to get started
2. Date and time? Don’t forget to clarify the host time zone
3. Purpose? How will success be measured?
4. Primary internal stakeholder? Who’s driving this, or who stands to win/lose based on success?
5. Primary contact? If the producer needs a decision made, who signs off?
6. Recording? Will recording the event be required? What will it be used for?
7. Rehearsal date(s)? Don’t put it off. Coordinate calendars now.

Presenter’s overview

1. Presenters? Who’s presenting? Who’s moderating? What is their contact info and preferred contact method?
2. Experience? What is their experience with the platform? This will help determine training and rehearsal needs.
3. Content format? Will presenters use PowerPoint? Desktop demo? Flash or video?
4. Interaction? How do they envision interacting with the audience? Poll? Q&A during or after? Live audio questions?
5. Other? What else do the presenters need to succeed?

Promoter’s overview

1. First invitation or advertisement? Working backward from the event date, when is the preferred “drop date” for promotions? Remember, for many types of promotions this will be drop dates, plural.
2. Types of promotion? What channels and tactics will be used? Are their any special features in the web conferencing or webcasting solution that can be utilized? (See this for more ideas)
3. Presenter dependency? When does the presenter need to get info to the promoter so copy can be written and media planned?
4. Producer dependency? When does the producer need final copy or other elements (e.g., logo, images) from the promoter to get the registration site built.
5. Other dependencies? What else needs to happen to successfully integrate the webinar into the bigger organizational plan (e.g., tie it into the CRM)?
6. Contingency? What happens if registration rates miss expectations? What happens if they far exceed expectations?