Checklist for the planning of your Social Reporting

6 months before your eventThink about what reporting method makes best sense for your purposes. There are different types of reporting methods. Here you find an overview.

Picture your reporting:

Why and what topics it should cover? How to integrate reporting in the event? How to visualize reporting product at the event? What to do with the reporting products after the event? More on this here.

Define also what audiovisual channels you want to use: text, photo, audio, video, graphics, cartoons, etc.

Set the requirements for a reporting coordinator find a qualified person and involve her/him in your planning at an early stage.

The SDC MultiMedia group can help you to find reporters and coordinators.

Check the logistics and make sure your venue is well equipped for audiovisual reporting:

Broadband internet access in all rooms Separate room for reporting activities accessible 24/7, equipped with tables,

chairs, flipchart, pin board Possibly a separate Internet connection for the reporting team to upload large

amount of data without interruption.

3 months before your eventThe reporting coordinator should by now have recruited a reporting core team. Set clear responsibilities within the reporting core team:

Who will rather moderate? Who will take care of filming and editing? Who is writing and collecting text contributions? Who will concentrate on photo? Who is the overall coordinator?

SDC made good experience with a core group reporting team of 2-3 members. Or put another way, one reporter for every 20 participants.

Present your reporting plan to the core team and include their feedback into your plan.

Finalize the reporting agenda: Define a list of priority topics and with what instrument you want to cover

them

SDC Learning and Networking Division (2014)

Were possible, define who should be interviewed on what topic Plan several free time slots every day for reporting activities in your agenda

e.g. after group discussions Add at least 2 hours per day for the post-production Plan meetings with thematic focal point during the event to monitor the

reporting and assure a good content quality

Create your online reporting platform:

Create a reporting webpage such as a blogor a sharepoint page Create a section on your shareweb with a link to your reporting webpage Use the social media that are part of your reporting strategy and inform

participants about the reporting tools

The Intraweb Team supports you in these questions

Organize audiovisual equipment; contact the Multimedia Group for renting.

1 month before your eventIf you plan a full social reporting process:

Contact participants to look for social reporters. It proved to be an advantage, if this request comes from a familiar network member (e.g. the network facilitator);

Inform social reporters that they can contribute however they want (text, photo, video, graphics and audio) and they should especially be encouraged to publish their personal learning moments in a post in order to present it as their back-to-office report;

The reporting coordinator then should send an invitation for a crash course. If possible, all social reporters should participate to get to know each other and to assure that reporting tasks can be assigned democratically;

Structure your reporting platform before the workshop. Here a few good tips how to do that.

One week before the event Unify the look of your videos:

Have a title slide ready Decide how your captions and titles should look like Prepare a template for the end-titles

One day before the event Meet with all reporters for a crash course on video reporting, blogging, twittering, etc. In 2-3 hours the reporting coordinator/ core group should:

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Show how to prepare interviews and impression videos (plot, rules for open questions)

Show how to produce good video and photo material (picture frame, handling of the zoom and panning, position of interviewer and interviewee, attention to background noise). This checklist for video reporters might be useful.

Explain how the reporting platform works Explain other social media tools that will be used during the workshop Show where to place content on specific topics Explain the process for publishing and support (who can help, when and how) Give some time to practice (e.g. let the reporters produce articles, where they

present themselves and post them on the reporting platform) Make a plan of all requested reporting slots and let reporters subscribe for one

slot each. In each slot there should be two reporters – one concentrating on the moderation and one responsible for the technical production

During the event Make sure, that reporters receive personal support from the reporting core

group Publish as soon as possible in order to have an almost real time reporting Regularly show and promote your reporting products: show motivational

videos or slide-shows in the morning, make sure that participants have easy access to the reporting platform during the event

If you do not want too many articles reporting on a similar topic, have core group members filter incoming materials: choose the best pictures, group articles on similar topics, etc.

Meet regularly with the Focal Point and Moderator to monitor the reporting and decide adaptations if needed. Also start to choose articles/pieces of the report to use for follow up activities

One week after the event While the attention for the event and the reporting is still high use the dynamic to start your follow up activities you planned in advance. Use Elements of the reporting as inputs for e-discussions, start to elaborate documents based on results of your event, etc.

One month after the eventHave your reporting platform restructured so that contents are in a thematic order and easily accessible.

Further reading Lessons from social reporting Experiences Learning with photos and videos

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