 In this video, I'm going to share the best practices I follow as a contest moderator when conducting a Toastmaster speech contest. This practices can be applied to any Zoom event where you want to control the audience and you want to ensure there are no distractions or disturbances when the event is in progress. If you follow all the steps, I can assure you that you will be the tech moderator and everyone will want for their event. So let's get started. The first thing I recommend is to ensure you are running the latest version of Zoom. The Zoom client is constantly updated with security patches and you want to make sure that you are up to date. To verify, log into your Zoom client, click on this profile button and click check for updates. If you see the message you are up to date, you are good to go. If not, install the recommended update and proceed. The next part is not really about Zoom or technical setup. To conduct successful events, preparation is everything. Don't just waltz into the meeting on the day of the event and expect to do a great job. You have to meet the event organizers and the participants before the contest and do a dress rehearsal. During the dress rehearsal, do an audio video test with all the participants to make sure that they are audible and visible. Here I have set up a meeting with four participants. Two of the participants cannot speak, but I think a participant Priscilla can. So let's ask her to unmute herself. Hi Priscilla, can you unmute yourself and say a few words? Hello, this is Priscilla, contestant at the Table Topic contest. And I'm looking forward to the contest. Great. I can hear you clearly and I can see that your video also is very good. So you're all set to go. The next thing we must make sure is that the contestant will be contesting using the same device. Let's verify with Priscilla. Yes, I will be using the same device. The next thing you must make sure is that all the participants are running the latest version of the Zoom client. Priscilla, can you verify that you're running the latest version? How do I do that? Open your Zoom client, go to your profile section and there is an option they're called check for updates. Okay, give me a second. Okay, it says here you are up to date. You are on the latest version 5.4.9. Excellent. And the last thing you need to validate with the participants is that they are comfortable to go in and out of the breakout rooms. The way I set up breakout rooms is as follows. I click on the breakout rooms and choose the option manually created breakout rooms. Click on the create button and we can give a name to our rooms. Let's say for the contestants, I want to create an isolation room. Next click on the options and the way I set up my breakout room is as follows. First of all, disable the option for the participants to choose their breakout rooms. Also, disable the option to allow participants to return to the main session at any time and this prevents them accidentally coming into the main session while a speech is going on. And the third option you must enable is to automatically move all the assigned participants to the breakout room. When we open the breakout rooms, all the participants will be automatically transferred into the breakout room without them having to press any buttons on their device. Now that the breakout room is set, let's assign Priscilla to the isolation room. I cannot assign Sam and Yo-Yo because I know they won't be able to press any buttons on their device. Let's select Priscilla and click the button open all rooms. As we can see, Priscilla is now in the breakout room. When it is time to bring the participants into the main session, all I have to do is click on the name of the participant, click move to and select main session. The participant will get an alert on their device indicating that the host wants them in the main session and within a few seconds, the participant should appear in the main session. And we have Priscilla with us in the main session. Additional things that you can verify during the dress rehearsal is that all the role players are ready with their scripts. If screen sharing is required, identify the person who will do the screen sharing as he, she will need co-host rights. We will be disabling screen sharing during the event itself. If you do all of this before the event and everyone feels comfortable, then and only then are you assured of a successful event. That's my take home message for all moderators, preparation. In summary, here's the checklist before the event. Update your Zoom client to the latest version. Have a dress rehearsal before the event, which includes an audio video test with all the participants. Ensure participants will use the same device that is tested. Ensure participants update to the latest version of Zoom. Test breakout rooms with the participants. Role players are ready with their script and finally identify role players who will do screen sharing to assign the co-host rights. Let's fast forward to the day of the event itself. Now it is all technical because everything is ready and everyone is prepared. Once you start the Zoom session, the first thing you want to ensure is the waiting room is enabled. You do that by clicking on this option security and ensure that the waiting room is enabled. This will ensure people do not enter the main session without being validated. In a contest environment, the next thing I like to do is to hide the profile pictures and what this does is any person whose video is not on will just show their name and we can see that by clicking on this button. Since Priscilla's video is not on, all I can see is her name and not her profile picture. You want to make sure that the share screen is off. This will prevent any Zoom bombing or any participant showing inappropriate content when a contest is in progress. I recommend keeping the chat on, but the way I configure chat is I click on the chat button. Next, click on these three buttons and select host only. This will ensure if there are any problems during the contest, people can reach out to you and highlight to you that there is some problem. If you completely disable the chat, then you would have no idea if something is going wrong. The rename themselves option I like to leave it on, especially the participants they like to name themselves once they enter the main session based on the contest that they are participating in. The unmute themselves option definitely needs to be disabled. We don't want people unmuting themselves in a middle of a speech and disturbing the speaker. For video, I recommend leaving it on because participants will want to switch on their video and you don't want that extra headache of asking participants to switch on their video. A few additional settings I like to do when it comes to participants is to click on the participants and at the bottom when we have these three buttons, I make sure that this is enable mute participants upon entry. I will get an alert which says all new participants will be muted. I will not allow them to unmute themselves. Click continue. And the final thing you want to make sure is that when someone enters or leaves the meeting room, Zoom doesn't play that annoying noise which you can disable by making sure this is off. Now we are ready to start the contest. Once the event starts, you have to pay full attention to everything that is happening. You can delegate responsibilities to other role players by assigning them co-host rights. With the new version of Zoom, co-hosts have exactly the same rights as a host. So there you have it. Follow the steps of preparing for this event, following the checklist of the event and setting up the security for the event itself. And you are guaranteed to have a smooth event. I wish you all the best.