One event, one contact for the technology
An online citizen dialogue has many parts: a page where participants arrive, a livestream that runs reliably, a chat where questions are asked, and someone who prepares those questions so the host can put them sensibly. We deliver that as a package. You take care of content, speakers and hosting; we take care of everything technical.
The service grew out of public information events for infrastructure and construction projects, where residents and the interested public are informed and can ask questions. We use the same approach for staff assemblies, information evenings and expert talks.
What the package includes
- Landing page with livestream and chat, provided before the event day so you can publish the link in invitations and press releases. The chat is opened at the agreed time.
- Livestream with video direction: speakers and host sit in their familiar video environment, e.g. Microsoft Teams. The presentation runs in a separate environment based on BigBlueButton, where speakers and host can switch pages, zoom, point and annotate themselves. Our director combines the presentation and speaker pictures into one stream and delivers it via a streaming host in Germany.
- Chat without barriers: the chat log is visible without signing up, and a name or alias is all it takes to join in. There is no audio function for participants, which keeps the event controllable.
- ChatCluster for co-moderation, set up exclusively for your event: review questions in real time, bundle them by topic, edit or delete them, and pass them to the host in a dedicated client. On request opened in advance so questions arrive before the date.
- Rehearsal for the moderation backend, clustering tool, video and audio, usually a joint technical check with speakers and host one hour before the event.
- Video direction and support throughout the event, with an additional person on standby in case someone is unavailable.
- Follow-up: user statistics with participant numbers over time, chat log as an Excel file, recording as a video file via a cloud service and, on request, a transcript in text form.
For event series, such as several dates on one project, each event gets its own ChatCluster. All data, from the chat to the recording, is stored on servers in Germany.
Why questions need to be bundled
At a public information event with a few hundred participants, more questions quickly come in than can be answered during the event. Many of them concern the same issue in different words. Anyone expected to read the chat live and host at the same time loses track.
That is why we separate the roles. The co-moderator works in ChatCluster: reading the messages, merging identical concerns into one question, assigning them to topics and passing them on. The host sees only the prepared questions in their client, in the order set by the co-moderator, and puts them to the speakers. Participants see that their question has arrived, even if it was merged with others.
Hybrid events
If part of the audience is in the room, we integrate the venue picture into the stream and bring questions from the room and from the chat together in the same moderation view. The technology in the room, i.e. microphones, cameras and sound, is not our field. For that we work with your own people or suppliers, or bring in event technicians we know from previous projects. We take care of the interface: how the venue picture gets to the director, and how online questions get into the room.
Who this is for
Public authorities, municipalities and project sponsors that need to inform the public about construction and infrastructure projects and give people the opportunity to ask questions. Companies that broadcast staff assemblies or company briefings to several locations. Associations and educational institutions with lecture series where the audience should be able to ask questions without the event getting out of hand.
The software behind it, ChatCluster, was developed by oxalis. We adapt it when an event needs something special, and on the day we know how everything works together.