What Is a Summit? How to Host One: 15-Step Checklist

Looking for a way to showcase your company's thought leadership? A summit can elevate industry leaders and result in real solutions for pressing problems or concerning trends.

In this article, we'll cover how to host a virtual summit that makes a positive impact. Use our 15-step checklist to manage each stage more efficiently, from planning to review.

What is a summit and when should you host one?

A summit is an event that centers on conversations between thought leaders or industry experts. Think of it like a high-level meeting that focuses on a single topic or point of discussion.

What is the purpose of a summit?

Summits create spaces where leaders can discuss critical issues or trends that affect an industry or region. Most summits have two goals:

• Sharing and debating ideas with fellow experts
• Developing solutions and action plans to address these issues

In addition, summits can also be educational. Audience members don't usually contribute to summit sessions. However, they can learn from speakers and network with other attendees.

Who usually hosts summits?

Government agencies and intergovernmental organizations host many of the most high-profile summits. Yet industry associations and businesses of any size can also benefit from this event format.

For example, companies in the financial sector or the healthcare industry can host valuable summits. In-person or virtual events allow industry leaders to discuss and resolve these issues.

How large is a typical summit?

Summits range in size from a few dozen people to several thousand attendees. The ideal size for your event depends on the scope of the issues you plan to discuss and the goals you aim to achieve.

For example, a niche problem with a negligible impact may warrant a smaller event. An issue that affects an entire industry may be a better fit for a large-scale summit with an extensive guest list.

Remember that not all audience members need to attend the summit in real time. You can record live events and distribute replays to reach a wider audience over time.

Summit vs. conference: What's the difference?

Wondering whether you should host a summit or a conference? Let's compare the two formats side by side.

Purpose

Summits aim to bring industry leaders to a consensus on a topic. They also result in solutions and action plans.

Conferences focus more on sharing research and knowledge. They prioritize education rather than action.

Topics

Most summits have a narrow focus on a specific topic. In contrast, conferences usually include a much wider range of topics.

Structure

Of the two event formats, summits are more formal. At a summit, audience members mainly listen to speakers—who tend to be industry leaders. Attendees can also connect with each other at networking sessions.

A conference is a formal event too, but it usually allows for more flexibility. Conferences often welcome audience participation. Many include interactive portions like workshops and panel discussions.

Audience

One of the biggest differences between a summit and a conference is the guest list. Summits are more exclusive and feature handpicked speakers. Audience members typically attend by invitation only.

Conferences tend to be more open. Speakers can often apply to present research or lead discussions.

Size

Both formats can be large events with hundreds or even thousands of attendees. However, summits can also be more intimate events with short guest lists.

In contrast, conferences are designed to be much larger. They generally have a longer list of guest speakers and a wider range of attendees.

How do summits compare to other event formats?

Unsure which format to use? Here's how other common event types compare to summits.

Summit vs. seminar

Like summits, seminars are educational in nature. However, live and virtual seminars are some of the most interactive professional events. They focus on knowledge sharing and audience participation, and they encourage questions.

Summit vs. panel discussion

Similar to seminars, panel discussions also tend to be interactive. They include two or more guest speakers and a moderator, and they also welcome audience engagement. Think of panel discussions as a less formal version of a summit.

Summit vs. roundtable

Like panels, roundtable discussions are moderated conversations among experts. However, roundtables usually welcome input from everyone in attendance. Compared to summits, roundtables are more informal and more inclusive.

Summit vs. workshop

Workshops also encourage audience interaction. However, workshops typically have a hands-on component as well. Even virtual workshops create space for attendees to apply their knowledge and solve problems.

Summit vs. symposium

Another popular event type for the healthcare industry, symposiums are small-scale events that focus on sharing research and knowledge. A symposium is academic in nature and often requires speakers to submit papers for peer review.

15-Step checklist to organize a successful virtual summit

Curious how to plan and promote an online event for your organization? Use this virtual summit checklist as a guide.

Phase 1: Before the summit

This is the preparation phase that lays the groundwork for attracting attendees and getting event registrations. Start with these steps:

1. Set goals for the summit
2. Decide on a main topic
3. Secure speakers, event organizers, and partnerships
4. Choose an online event platform
5. Plan the agenda
6. Design a marketing strategy
7. Check your email cadence

1. Set goals for the summit

First, get clear on what you aim to achieve. Most summits focus these overarching goals:

• Discussing different perspectives on a shared problem
• Creating actionable solutions and frameworks

However, you may have other summit goals as well. Consider outcomes that align with business goals, such as:

• Establishing your company's executives as leaders in your industry
• Forming relationships or partnerships with fellow industry leaders
• Creating an engaged community of professionals
• Increasing brand awareness for your business
• Generating leads for your business

2. Decide on a main topic

What issue will serve as the focus of the summit? You may already have a topic in mind, based on your executive team's areas of expertise.

If you haven't chosen a topic yet, work with your team to brainstorm ideas. Tactics like mind mapping and starbursting often work best for small groups to come up with ideas quickly.

When choosing an online summit topic, It’s also helpful to consider your audience’s preferences. Consider:

• What type of content interests them?
• What problems will your virtual summit solve or what goals will it help them achieve?
• Which speakers, experts, or influencers do they admire?
• What time are they most likely to join the live stream?

Use tools like Answer The Public or Also Asked to explore trending topics, popular questions, and common pain points within your industry.

If you need to narrow down a list of potential topics, use data to guide the decision. For example, you may be able to predict how popular a topic will be based on how often it appears in places like patient notes or industry forums.

Confirm that the topic you choose fits with the goals you set. If you want to establish your executive team's reputation for leadership, for example, then an emerging trend may be a good choice.

3. Secure speakers, event organizers, and partnerships

As soon as you have the virtual summit topic, reach out to potential speakers. Summit speakers don’t have to be influencers or well-known personalities, so long as they’re experts with relevant experience.

• Do you intend for the summit to focus on internal goals like brand awareness or lead generation? It may make sense to book speakers from within your organization.
• Do you plan to focus on community or partnerships? finding speakers from outside your organization is likely to be more effective.

Consider sponsorship or partnership initiatives with relevant companies in your niche. Partnership marketing can help boost your event figures and pool resources to deliver more high-budget events as well as discounts, memberships, or pre-sales that interest your target audience.

If you can’t manage the technical aspects of your virtual summit alone, hire an experienced event organizer. An organizer can help you set up the virtual conference platform, manage the registration process, moderate the sessions, and troubleshoot any technical issues during the live event.

Pro tip: Invite potential partners to participate or speak at your summit early on to ensure their availability and provide them with ample time to prepare for the event.

4. Choose an online event platform

When you add a virtual component to a summit, you create more flexibility for attendees and speakers alike. However, it’s important to choose the right software to manage the event.

With the right virtual event platform, you can:

• Host a large audience without crashing
• Share a recording for attendees who missed the live sessions
• Create custom registration and landing pages
• Set up automated email reminders
• Export your email list and attendee information to find the most engaged prospects

Livestorm can do all of this and more. Since our video platform supports up to 3,000 live attendees and sessions up to four hours long, you can host in-depth discussions and welcome small or large audiences.

Pricing is another important factor to consider. Livestorm’s virtual event software starts at $79 per month for up to 100 attendees and unlimited team members. Plus, it has a marketplace of 1,000+ integrations to help you plan, promote and execute a successful event.

5. Plan the agenda

Virtual summits can range from half-day events to multi-day events. The ideal duration depends on your event's goals, format, and target audience. You’ll need to define:

• Event format: Keynote speeches, panel discussions, breakout sessions, or workshops
• Interactive elements: Q&A sessions, live polls, quizzes, or virtual networking opportunities
• Comfort breaks: Allocate enough time for short breaks to avoid attendee fatigue
• Event flow: Order of sessions, breaks, and interactive elements

Once your virtual conference agenda is ready, share it with your speakers and add clear time slots to help them plan for the big event.

6. Design a marketing strategy

When you use Livestorm to host events, you can build branded landing pages and customize fields on your registration form to gather as much information as you need to tailor the event content.

Embed the registration form on your virtual event landing page and share it as part of your social media event promotion.

Use social media channels and event marketing tools to promote your virtual summit. Don’t just depend on your mailing list. Find groups and community discussions where your potential target audience is already engaged, like Facebook and LinkedIn groups.

Pro tip: When promoting your online event in social communities, remember to check the group guidelines for self-promotion, content relevance, or posting frequency to avoid being marked as spam or removed from the group.

7. Check your email cadence

Depending on the virtual summit software you choose, you may need to set email reminders manually in your customer relationship management (CRM) system. But since Livestorm integrates with most major CRMs, the process is much simpler.

With Livestorm, every registrant gets a series of email notifications:

• A ‘thank you for registering’ email
• A confirmation email with event details and a schedule
• A reminder email prior to the event
• Post-event follow-up email thanking attendees
• An upsell email promoting future events or related products and services

When choosing your virtual event software, look for a platform that lets you adjust delivery dates on automatic emails and select send times that best suit your audience.

Phase 2: During the virtual summit

As the event takes place, concentrate on real-time engagement, content delivery, and seamless execution:

1. Kick off the event
2. Engage your audience
3. Run breakout sessions
4. Promote the event on social media
5. Share downloadable resources
6. Guide attendees to take the next step

8. Kick off the event

Once your audience arrives and it’s time to start the event, introduce yourself and your team. Give them an overview of what to expect from the event.

This is a good opportunity to highlight in-app features like the Q&A tab, polls tabs, chat box, and emoji reactions to help attendees navigate the virtual event platform.

Remember to record the event, especially if you plan to offer it on demand. Some webinar platforms require you to start the recording manually. But with Livestorm, you can set the event to start recording automatically.

9. Engage your audience

Give your audience a chance to ask guest speakers questions. You can run Q&A sessions during certain breaks or after each speaker’s session. Invite attendees to:

• React with an emoji if they agree or disagree with the discussion at hand
• Add questions to the Q&A tab
• Allow attendees to upvote questions so speakers know where to focus their energy

You can then assign a moderator to screen questions and ensure they’re relevant and appropriate. They can easily manage the question list and forward them privately to the speakers.

Pro tip: With Livestorm's question upvoting feature, attendees can submit their questions and vote for the one they want answered the most. Questions that receive more votes move up in priority, making it easy to identify the most popular or relevant one to your attendees.

10. Run breakout sessions

Breakout rooms give your attendees a space for discussion in smaller groups so they can share thoughts, ask questions, and network with other attendees. Depending on your goals, you can run breakout sessions like:

• Interactive workshops or sponsor showcases: Product demos, how-to sessions, case study reviews, or industry insights
• Networking opportunities: Speed networking or topic-specific meetups
• Group discussions: Roundtable discussions or industry-specific discussions
• Interactive games: Trivia or team-building exercises
• Q&A sessions with speakers: Ask me anything sessions or expert panels

Many virtual meeting platforms offer breakout rooms, but with Livestorm, you can create as many breakout rooms as you need and add up to 25 simultaneous speakers. You can even assign a facilitator or note-taker to each room.

11. Promote the event on social media

Event promotion doesn’t end when the summit kicks off. As you host your virtual summit, share event content online to keep your audience engaged.

First, create a unique hashtag for your event. This makes it easy to track mentions and engagement related to your event on social media platforms like X, TikTok, and Instagram.

To create even more buzz, encourage attendees to share user-generated content (UGC). Invite participants to share quotes, insights, and event highlights across social media channels during the live event (using your event hashtag).

You can even ask attendees to:

• Record short videos sharing their experience of the virtual summit, what they learned, and how it will impact their business
• Share their thoughts and insights in real-time on Twitter using a branded hashtag
• Customize a premade graphic or meme related to the summit and share it on social media using a specific hashtag
• Post a photo of themselves attending the virtual summit and tag the speakers

12. Share downloadable resources

To create a successful virtual summit, attendees must be on the same page as the speakers. When speakers mention specific industry insights, research reports, or eBooks, share those files with attendees.

If you’re using Livestorm, you can easily share those downloadable files within the meeting room with the Handouts plugin. Providing such resources can help position your brand as a thought leader in your industry and build trust and credibility with your target audience.

13. Guide attendees to take the next step

End the presentation with a clear call-to-action (CTA) that prompts your audience to take action. Whether the audience needs to sign up for a mailing list, register for a future event, or schedule a demo call, the value of your virtual summit should extend beyond the event itself.

Pro tip: Use Livestorm to create and share customized clickable CTAs within the event room. And if you're using a different platform with a Chrome browser, you can generate a free QR code that links to a specific page by adding it to your presentation.

Phase 3: After the virtual summit

Once the event concludes, shift your focus to implementing lead nurturing strategies that convert attendees into customers or brand advocates. Use these final steps:

1. Follow up with qualified leads
2. Analyze metrics for your next virtual event

14. Follow up with qualified leads

Send a thank you email to everyone who signed up—even if they didn’t turn up. This is a great opportunity to share the event recording and send a short feedback survey. You can also use the recording to create on-demand videos.

And when you host events with Livestorm, you can use the transcript app to convert conversations into high-quality evergreen content. These blogs and podcasts are always accessible to qualified leads, creating a pipeline of potential customers.

15. Analyzing metrics for your next virtual event

The last step is to view your virtual event’s success metrics to identify what you should keep doing or improve for your next events. When you use Livestorm, you can easily track analytics data like:

• Number of registrants, attendees, and no-shows
• Number of replay viewers
• Messages, questions, and polls
• Average view duration

Keeping historical data can help you benchmark your performance against industry standards, identify trends and patterns to refine your virtual event strategy and improve the overall impact of your events.

Livestorm for your next virtual summit

A successful virtual event doesn't require a complex tech setup. With Livestorm, you can host virtual summits that reach local and global members of your industry.

Here's how Livestorm can simplify your event workflow:

• Landing pages and email sequences to improve registration and increase attendance
• Browser-based software that speakers and viewers can use without downloading an app
• Networking opportunities to encourage audience interaction
• On-demand recordings to distribute knowledge after the event

Livestorm can help you do more than merely host a summit. With our virtual event software, you can educate your community, share thought leadership, and elevate your organization's top voices.