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David A. Fields had scheduled an in-person two-day workshop \\xa0for early April \\u2013 his Solo Practice Accelerator.

When the coronavirus pandemic made it impossible to conduct the event in person, David and his team converted the event into a highly interactive, world-class virtual workshop.

That took planning, technology, and setting up a studio in David\\u2019s living room.

In today\\u2019s episode, David shares very practical tips on what it took to run a world-class virtual workshop that engaged attendees as much as an in-person event.

I strongly encourage all my friends to sign up for David\'s weekly newsletter - the first thing I read every Wednesday morning:

https://www.davidafields.com/blog/

David also kindly shared this checklist:

People\\xa0(not equipment, but will make some of the buying list clearer)

• Presenter
• Video controller (managing the different inputs)
• Zoom controller (managing breakout rooms, etc.)

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Computers

• Laptop for the presenter \\u2013 any laptop will do
• Laptop for the Video controller \\u2013 this is a dedicated laptop\\xa0with a ethernet port, that connected to Zoom.
• Laptop for the Zoom controller \\u2013 this was for the team member who managed the Zoom breakout rooms
• PC with large monitor and wireless keyboard \\u2013 this was for the Video controller to be able to send notifications to the presenter. (For instance, \\u201cSpeed Up\\u201d or \\u201cQuestion\\u201d)

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Tablets

• We used Samsung Galaxy 8\\u201d tablets \\u2013 one per every three participants. (These were used for the breakout rooms.)\\xa0https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Galaxy-Android-Tablet-Black/dp/B07VDB92RK/

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Video Equipment

• Panasonic HC-V770 videocam with HDMI output. There are probably better cameras and fancier ones with remote control pan and tilt. This is a high quality camera, though, and it gives a \\u201cclean\\u201d HDMI output without any symbols on the screen. Not all videocams do that.\\xa0https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RBG5J02
• Roland V-1HD video switcher. Possibly overkill, but allows for picture-in-picture, easy switching, etc. by the Video controller.\\xa0https://www.amazon.com/Roland-V-1HD-HD-Video-Switcher/dp/B017Y3JSZ8
• HDMI splitter. This allows the presenter to present to the big screen as well as the feed into the Zoom conference.\\xa0https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005HXFARS
• Avio HDMI to USB converter. All the inputs (cameras, presenter\\u2019s laptop output) video mixer are in HDMI format and so is the output from the video mixer. You need some way to get that HDMI output into your computer so that Zoom will treat it like a webcam. This cool little box from Avio did the trick well. We got two of them.\\xa0https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZH7HRKW
• We also used a lot of lighting equipment, including a soft lightbox (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GCN6HV7) a lot of LED lights (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004TJ6JH6) with power adapters (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CQG4V18), and a slew of tripods and Zipwall polls.
• Finally, about 5 miles of HDMI cables and extenders. For example,\\xa0https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CTD1HAW\\xa0and\\xa0https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HUWVMBW

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Monitors

• Presentation monitor \\u2013 Any large, 4k HD monitor should work fine. We used this one:\\xa0https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-UN75RU7100FXZA-FLAT-UHD-Smart/dp/B07NC8ZDVL. We definitely needed that size or larger monitor for me to stand next to and still have the slides super legible.
• Confidence monitor \\u2013 Again, any monitor will work fine. It has to be large enough that the presenter can see it and view all the participants in Zoom\\u2019s gallery view. My first choice would have been a 49\\u201d ultrawide, and that\\u2019s what we\\u2019ll use next time. The ultrawide allows you to see the whole gallery and also Zoom\\u2019s chat and participants windows easily. (https://www.amazon.com/Acer-EI491CR-Pbmiiipx-Technology-DisplayHDR400/dp/B07NFJ6M3R). Unfortunately, none were quickly available when we were in the throes of pulling this together, so I settled for a 40\\u201d regular monitor. We bought two like this, but only used one:\\xa0https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Electronics-UN40M5300A-40-Inch-1080p/dp/B071ZVQVFQ.

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Audio

• We used a Movo lavalier mic, which worked fine. We have other, fancier equipment, but couldn\\u2019t actually create better sound than plugging the Movo directly into the Video controller\\u2019s laptop.\\xa0https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HX40Q3C
• We also provided a headset to every attendee.\\xa0https://www.cdw.com/product/sennheiser-culture-sc-60-usb-ml-headset/3091260

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