Run the Webinar: CEC Circular Cities Week 2020

 

Planning a CEC Circular City Week is an exciting opportunity to build your profile while helping the transition towards a circular economy. To help you run a smooth and successful webinar, we have put together a comprehensive checklist, with clear instructions and top tips. Please review this checklist and refer back to it at every stage of the event planning, regardless if you are new or a veteran of event organizing, it will most certainly help.

 

Session objectives

• Raise awareness about the potential for the circular economy framework to build more resilient cities, considering the current covid pandemic; and
• Create a global open-source report fathering takeaways from all participating cities to share suggestions on how to implement circularity to build a resilient city.

A) How to run a webinar

Name your webinar: “CEC Circular Cities Week 2020 by CEC Your City”

E.g. CEC Circular Cities Week 2020, by CEC New York

Outline the agenda

The content needs to be clear and short which gives a great overview to the participants of what they need to follow till the end of the webinar. Agenda template:

• CEC and Circular Cities Week Overview  
• Optional: Summary of CCW 2019 Workshops
• Panel Discussion and Q & A
• Wrap Up + Next Steps

Choose panelists for your event

You can invite 2 or 3 panelists for your webinar from different industries (preferably well-known industries) that are working in a field of circular economy in your city. The panelist should be individuals that are aware of the challenges and opportunities of implementing circular local initiatives and should be able to give advice and suggestions on how to move forward to make your city circular. Speaker invitation template.

Webinar slides

Please see the slides for this webinar: Circular Cities Week SLIDES  (you need to download it to “PowerPoint” and edit as you see fit for your occasion).   

 

Structure your panel session

Panel Webinar: a panel webinar has several speakers who talk over a specific topic. A moderator will need to facilitate this type of webinar.

 

5 minutes (Introduction by CEC Organizer, use the slide is in the toolkit):

• • Welcome participants and introduce yourself
  • Introduce the panelists briefly  
  • Describe what you will be speaking about during the webinar
  • Describe the method for participants to ask questions (chat, Q&A, etc) 
  • Share screen to show your slides to participants and present the slides

30 minutes (Panelists to share experiences on existing circular local initiatives and identify next steps towards implementing circularity in your city):  

• • All panelists’ advice on next steps for implementing circularity in your city will serve to produce a CEC global report with all the suggested next steps for each city  

10 minutes: Q&A

5 minutes: CEC Organizer will wrap up the session and inform all the participants of next steps

Choose software

• We recommend Zoom, which is easy to use and free up to 100 participants. Watch this video on how to run a webinar on Zoom. 
• Check also Best Practices for Hosting a Digital Event. 
• There are also other softwares that you can choose such as Google Meet, GoToWebinar, Adobe Connect, WebEx, ClickMeeting. 
• *Google Meet is free and anyone with a Google Account can create a video meeting, invite up to 100 participants, and meet for up to 60 minutes per meeting for free. For additional features such as international dial-in numbers, meeting recording, live streaming, and administrative controls, see plans and pricing.

Send webinar’s invitation  

To be able to invite people, this depends on which software you choose, as you need to send the link of joining to your webinar. Please check the Zoom “How do I invite others to join the meeting”.

 In your webinar’s invitation email you need to include:

• What: Your webinar title 
• When: Time of the webinar (date, time and duration)
• Who: Include your CEC Chapter and the panelists name
• How: Ask them to register (buttons, links, etc.)
• Why: Explain what is the reason for hosting this webinar
• Content: use the agenda items
• REMEMBER to Bcc any email address you use and not to include email addresses in your invites so that personal information is not made public
• You need to mention if the webinar will be recorded or not. 

 

Prevent technical issues 

• Choose a set. This can be anywhere such as your office or your house as long as you keep it professional. Keep assured that during your presentation no one interrupts you. 
• It is necessary to check your webcam and microphone before your webinar. 
• Make sure during the presentation your laptop is plugged in and there is no update running, as it makes the process slow. 
• Please be sure you have a stable internet before you start your webinar. 
• It is suggested to log into your webinar 15 minutes before the scheduled plan to check if everything works well. 

 

Add poll questions in the webinars

You can use different methods such as polls and surveys after the session asking your participant’s feedback. Please check on how to create Polling for Webinars in zoom.

 

B) Partners & collaborators

Which sponsors/partners can I approach and how? Which collaboration agreement can I use?  Look at tips and the email template to approach partners/sponsors HERE.

C) Promotion

With the support of the CEC brand, you can be confident that you will have a full session. However, promoting your session in a smart way can drive up your attendance.

 

How do I promote my CEC event?

• • CEC website: Sign in to the CEC website and click “Add Event” to add your event description, the link to join your event, banner and CEC local logo. Here is the image banner  and you will not be able to edit it online. Please click “File” -> “Download as PowerPoint” to edit it on your desktop. Add your CEC rectangle local logo, your event date, the logos of your sponsors and then click “Save as JPG or PNG”. Then you can upload the image to your event’s description.
  • Blogs: If you have a personal or professional blog, write a post about the circular economy and your CEC event. If you know of sustainability bloggers interested in writing about your CEC event, brief them about the event and ask them to publish a guest post on their blog.
  • Press is an exciting way to bring attention to your session.
  • CEC local chapter social media channels: Your personal or company social media as well as your CEC local social media channels. Check the CEC brand and social media guidelines before opening a CEC local social made page or group.
  • CEC global social media channels: If you would like CEC global to help spread the word, write to chapters@CircularEconomyClub.com with the event registration link and 30 words explanation about your event. 

D) Completed the Circular City Week 2020, what next?

• Send a Thank You email to your panelists, participants, team members, partners and collaborators.
• Send theses documents to chapters@circulareconomyclub.com:
  1. 1 page summary of your panel session in terms of key learnings and advice on next steps from panelists on how to implement circularity in your city;
  2. Share the number of your participants, preferably include from which sectors (e.g. city governments, private and nonprofit sectors, and academia); 
  3. A screenshot photo from your webinar to ensure it appears in the CEC gallery for this global event.
• Send the Letter to the Mayor including the summary of your panel session to support your city council explaining the circular economy and how to go forward to make your city circular. 
• Upload your screenshot photo to the CEC Facebook and LinkedIn groups with a title: ‘CEC (YOUR CITY) Week”, by CEC (YOUR NAME) – Date’.

If you have any question or need further support, please do not hesitate to contact chapters@CircularEconomyClub.com

 

Thank you for your interest in CEC and your passion for the circular economy. If we work collaboratively and act globally, we can have a real impact and that’s why we have come together on this exciting journey.