VirtualSummits.com is published by EventRaptor, the virtual summit platform and production team that Jennie Eriksen and I run. We acquired VirtualSummits.com in November 2023. Since then, everything here has been written for coaches, therapists, healing practitioners and other experts who want to use summits to become known and win clients.
I'm Steve Eriksen. If you're good at your work and you've helped plenty of people, but clients still arrive in bursts, I wrote this site for you. You probably don't want hype or another tool to learn. You want a plan you can trust, and you'd like someone else to carry the technical side.
On this page I'll tell you who we are and why we built EventRaptor. I'll also cover what it does and doesn't do, and what you'll find in the guide library.
Key Takeaways
- VirtualSummits.com is run by EventRaptor, and we've hosted 13 summits of our own and over 40 for clients, so you can treat the guides here as a working playbook.
- If the tech worries you, start with the platform: we designed it around a 70-year-old client who then ran a twelve-speaker summit without anyone's help.
- Plan your follow-up before you finalize your speaker list, because registrants only become clients when someone keeps the conversation going after the event.
- If you need speakers, join Speaker Connections, a free Zoom event on the first and third Tuesday of every month.
- Decide how much help you want before you start, whether that's self-serve on the platform, done-with-you support or a fully done-for-you summit.
Who Publishes VirtualSummits.com
EventRaptor's legal name is EventRaptor Services Inc. It's registered in Delaware, USA, and we founded it in 2021. Jennie and I run it from our laptops as we travel, which tells you something about how we think a business should work. The systems should be strong enough that the people running it don't have to sit in one office.
VirtualSummits.com used to be a competing virtual summit platform. When we acquired it in November 2023, we took on a site that summit hosts had been reading for years. We've since rewritten it, so every article now reflects how we run summits today and who we run them for.
How Two Summits Changed My Business
I'm an engineer with an MBA. From 2014 to 2020 I was Chief Technology Officer at Brave Thinking Institute. I'm a tech and automation nerd, and I'm also an extreme introvert. Speaking for four minutes at a monthly company meeting used to terrify me.
On July 6, 2020, I left that job to start a coaching business. I had no list to speak of and no credibility in my new field. I didn't have any connections or an audience either. What I had was a six-week course priced at $497.
My First Summit Was Built in Two Weeks
The Solopreneur Accelerator Summit started on August 31, 2020, eight weeks after I started the business. It had 27 speakers over four days, and I built it in two weeks. Please don't copy that timeline.
For the first two days I barely introduced myself. On day three I started pushing through the fear, and that began a long process of getting over it. My list grew from about 100 people to 750, which meant 650 new leads. I sold four places on the $497 course and $3,500 in VIP tickets, about $5,500 in total, eight weeks into a brand-new business.
The Second One Came Easier
My second summit ran in January 2021 with 37 speakers. More than half of them approached me, which never happens when nobody knows your name. It added 863 people to my list, and the three-day event it promoted took more than $30,000 in orders for my group coaching. Seven months in, those two summits had added about 1,500 people to my list and generated more than $40,000 in sales.
These are my own results from my own business, and they don't predict what another host will get. But they changed what I believed. By February 2021 I was convinced that every coach needs a virtual summit, because it's the fastest way I know to build authority and get clients.
If you're starting where I started, with a tiny list and no reputation in your field, this guide on hosting your first virtual summit before anyone knows your name walks through how to approach speakers.
The Client We Designed EventRaptor Around
Once I started helping other coaches run summits, I hit a wall. None of the summit systems on the market worked for my coaching clients. They were built for people who enjoy software, and most coaches don't.
So Jennie and I built one. We designed it around a real person, a 70-year-old group coaching client who'd only been using computers for two or three years. If she could run a summit on it, we figured anyone could.
In December 2021 she ran a virtual summit with twelve speakers on EventRaptor without help from anyone else. We still test new features against her.
The first summit Jennie and I ran on EventRaptor was Own Your Stage, in February 2022. It took about 20 hours of admin and brought in about 600 registrations, with 466 new people joining our list. We sold 109 VIP tickets at $47, made more than $24,000 in sales within two weeks of the event, and passed $50,000 from that one summit by February 2024 as new registrants kept buying. Again, that's our result, not a forecast for yours. The figure I'd point you to is the 20 hours. That's what the platform was built to make possible.
What EventRaptor Is
EventRaptor has three parts, and most people only need one or two of them.
| Part | What it covers | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | Summit and virtual event software built to be easy for someone new to technology | Hosts who want to run their own summit |
| Service | Event design and production, done-for-you summit management, and CRMRaptor, our white-labelled GoHighLevel CRM | Hosts who'd rather teach and sell while we carry the build |
| Community | Speaker Connections, plus the audiences built through our own summits | Hosts looking for speakers and speakers looking for stages |
We've offered done-for-you and done-with-you summit design and production since February 2022.
The Work You No Longer Do by Hand
Anyone who has run a summit from their inbox remembers the copied Zoom links, the chasing for speaker headshots and the guessing about who actually promoted. Here's what changes when you use EventRaptor's summit features:
- Speakers apply, sign their agreements and upload their materials through the platform, so the email threads disappear.
- Your schedule, speaker pages and attendee dashboard are built from the speaker and session records, so you don't rebuild a page by hand for each speaker.
- Each speaker gets a promoter link, and a leaderboard they can see shows who's sharing.
- Welcome, reminder and follow-up emails go out on the event's timing.
- Registrants sync to GoHighLevel/CRMRaptor with tags, so your follow-up can start the moment someone signs up.
We take no ticket fees on summit sales. Support is by 24/7 live chat and 24/7 email tickets, and Zoom support sessions can be booked, subject to availability.
EventRaptor has video view analytics, so you can see how your session and replay videos are viewed. Live sessions run on Zoom, and video hosting is available through CRMRaptor, our GoHighLevel solution, so your recordings and replays don't need a separate video host. You should also know what EventRaptor doesn't have. There are no team accounts, and there's no in-event networking, Q&A or polling either. If those matter to your event, plan around them from the start.
On a done-for-you summit, our team handles the speaker outreach, the registration and event pages, reminders, promoter links and the VIP offer, so your job is to teach, host and sell. Lucy Bedewi, a personality-driven copywriter at My Write Hand Woman, hosted the Out-Earn Your Man summit in September 2021, and we produced it for her on EventRaptor. Her email list grew from 25 people to 825. She booked 4 discovery calls right after she presented, all 4 became clients, and her talk brought in $10K in sales. That's one person's result, and it doesn't predict results for another host.
The Numbers So Far
Here's where things stand:
- More than 575 summits have run on EventRaptor since the first published event in July 2021.
- Those events have taken more than 110,000 registrations.
- Our speaker directory lists more than 3,800 speakers who want to be invited to events.
- We've hosted 13 summits of our own and over 40 summits for clients. Our own summits have brought in more than 6,450 registrants.
- More than 5,000 people on our list came from other speakers promoting our summits.
That last number deserves a closer look. Five thousand people found us because someone else shared our event, which is the main reason summits work for hosts who are just starting out.
Why We Care So Much About Follow-Up
After a while I noticed something uncomfortable. EventRaptor made running a summit easy, yet many of our customers still struggled. They'd add hundreds of people to their list and convert few of them, or none, because they had no process for turning registrants and attendees into clients.
In my experience, a good follow-up process might turn 10 to 15% of those people into clients. That's what I've seen, not a promise. But the gap between that and zero is why "build it and they will come" is a myth.
I learned this the hard way too. At one of our summits I was too exhausted to put a proper offer together. Speakers and attendees loved it, and it added 476 new people to our list, but it made only about $1,800 during the event. I still count it as a success, because those people will keep buying for years. It also taught me what happens when the host takes his eye off the offer.
So the software won't create demand on its own. A summit still needs a clear audience, an offer worth buying and someone who follows up. If you want a practical way to build that last part, read how to turn every guest appearance into a follow-up system that books coaching calls.
Speaker Connections and Why Jennie Started It
Speaker Connections is a free networking event on Zoom where speakers looking for stages meet the hosts who have them. Those stages include summits, podcasts, live streams and in-person events. It was Jennie's idea, and she's been the heart and soul of it since it started in February 2022.
It meets twice a month, on the first and third Tuesday, for about two hours. Usually 70 to 110 speakers and hosts attend. If you're planning a summit and your speaker list is thin, it's one of the easiest places to start.
What You'll Find in the Guide Library
The articles here cover the whole life of a summit, from the first idea to the follow-up months later. You'll find guides on picking a topic and recruiting speakers, building registration pages and writing registration questions. Others cover live delivery, VIP offers, promoter campaigns and turning attendees into conversations.
If tech nerves are what's holding you back, start with hosting your summit like a pro when you're nervous about the tech and live delivery. If you're juggling speakers, files and links across your inbox, running a professional speaker event without managing everything from your inbox will help.
A note for therapists and healing practitioners. A summit can be a comfortable way to teach in public, stand alongside respected peers and build professional referral relationships. Summit content is education, though, not therapy. Don't use stories or testimonials from therapy clients in your promotion, and check your licensing board's advertising rules before you publish anything.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who Owns VirtualSummits.com?
VirtualSummits.com is owned and run by EventRaptor, which Steve and Jennie Eriksen run. They acquired the site, which was previously a competing virtual summit platform, in November 2023. Every article is written by Steve Eriksen.
What Is EventRaptor?
EventRaptor is a virtual summit platform, a production service and a community. The platform handles speakers, registration, event pages, promoter links, reminders and GoHighLevel sync. The service can run your summit for you, and the community includes Speaker Connections, a free twice-monthly networking event for speakers and hosts.
Do I Need a Big List To Run a Virtual Summit?
No. Steve's first summit started with a list of about 100 people and grew it to 750, because speakers shared the event with their own audiences. That's one host's result, but it shows that a summit works by borrowing reach from speakers before you have much of your own.
Does EventRaptor Charge Ticket Fees?
No. EventRaptor takes no ticket fees on summit sales, including VIP tickets. You can compare plan options on the EventRaptor pricing plans page.
Can EventRaptor Run My Summit for Me?
Yes. EventRaptor has offered done-for-you and done-with-you summit design and production since February 2022, and has hosted over 40 summits for clients. On a done-for-you summit the team handles speaker outreach, pages, reminders, promoter links and the VIP offer, while you teach, host and sell.
Your Next Step
You don't need to decide today whether to run a summit, a smaller event or simply fix your follow-up. Start by writing down where your last five clients came from. Then ask yourself whether that source would still be there if you took a month off.
If the answer makes you uneasy, talk it through with us. Book your Client Attraction Planning Call and we'll look at what you sell, how people find you now, and whether a summit makes sense for your business at this stage.