Preparing for Your Live Crowdcast Event

Bread loaf lectures are hosted live via Crowdcast in a webinar style. Though it won’t be possible to see the attendees, you will be able to see people participating via their comments in the Chat field.

On the day of your lecture, please use Chrome and log into your Crowdcast event 15 minutes early. The Event Host will then bring you into a Green Room to get things started. The audience cannot see or hear the host and presenter while in the Green Room, and Crowdcast makes is clear when the event is about to go live.

When the event is live, the Event Host will welcome the audience and share a brief reminder for the attendees about the Ask a Question and Chat field features in Crowdcast and then hand things over to you.

Please plan to present the lecture for up to 50 minutes. We are including a Q&A with the Event Host coming back on screen to ask you questions submitted by the audience via the Ask a Question field. The Q&A is ten minutes so includes time for just a few questions usually. The full time for the entire event will be one hour. The recording becomes available moments after the lecture finishes.

It will be possible to share screens during your lecture, if you wish to. It will also be possible to share a handout, if you have one. It is very important to decide on screen sharing in advance of the tech test so you will be able to practice with the Event Host to work out the technical kinks. It’s also helpful if you can decide about the handout, too, but it will be crucial to decide in advance about screen sharing.

Some things to know about using Crowdcast: 

• Presenters must use Chrome to log in.
• If possible, it’s best to plug an ethernet cable into your computer directly rather than using wireless.
• To prevent a slow connection, close all other applications and tabs on your computer and make sure others in your location aren’t using wireless devices. (This may prevent feedback, too.)
• If feedback becomes an issue, headphones can help, so please wear headphones or have a pair handy in case they’re needed. 

A Bread Loaf Event Host will contact you in mid-July to schedule a Crowdcast tech run through that will take place in the weeks leading up to the session. In the meantime, please let us know of any questions you may have by sending an email to blwc@middlebury.edu.