The best place to start with virtual summits is wherever you are right now. If you're only curious, learn what a summit is first. If you're deciding, check whether it fits your offer. If you've already hosted one, go straight to follow-up, because that's where attendees turn into clients.
This page is a reading guide to the VirtualSummits.com library. I wrote it for coaches, therapists, healing practitioners and anyone running an expert-led service business who does good work but sees clients arrive in bursts. You don't need to read everything. Find the situation that sounds like you and follow the links in that section.
If you'd like to know who we are and why Jennie and I built EventRaptor, that's on our About page. Everything below is about your next move.
Key Takeaways
- Find the situation below that matches where you are today, and read those articles before anything else.
- Settle on your offer before you pick a summit topic, so the event leads people toward something they can actually buy from you.
- If you're a therapist or practitioner, treat your summit as public education and check your licensing board's advertising rules before you promote it.
- When you compare summit software, list the jobs you'd otherwise do by hand (speaker pages, schedules, promoter links, CRM updates) and see which option takes the most of them off you.
- Write your follow-up plan before the summit opens, so registrants hear from you while the event is still fresh in their minds.
Which Situation Sounds Like You
| Where you are | What matters most at this stage |
|---|---|
| Just curious | Understanding the format and whether experts like you use it |
| Deciding whether to host | Whether your offer and your timing suit a summit |
| A therapist or practitioner | Teaching ethically, peer referrals and protecting your time |
| Comparing software | How much manual work each option removes |
| Planning your first summit | Topic, audience, offer, format, dates and speakers |
| Already ran one | Follow-up, reuse and turning attendees into conversations |
I'm Just Curious What a Summit Is
A virtual summit is a free online event where you, as host, bring together a group of experts to teach one topic over a few days. For someone who helps people for a living, the appeal is that you get to teach in public, standing next to respected peers, and people see how you think before they ever book a call.
At this stage you only need the basics. Read what a virtual summit is and how coaches and experts use one, which covers how the format works, who it suits and what to expect.
I'm Deciding Whether to Host One
The most useful thing to check now is your offer. A summit can grow your visibility and your list quickly, but people need somewhere to go once they trust you, so have a coaching program, group, intensive or service ready for them. A summit works best alongside a clear audience, a meaningful offer and consistent follow-through, and it won't create demand all by itself.
The other worry I hear at this stage is "Nobody knows who I am." That's more common than you'd think, and it's less of a barrier than it feels. Read hosting your first virtual summit before anyone knows your name to see how hosts borrow credibility from their speakers. Then read the fastest way for a coach to go from invisible to in demand without running ads for the bigger case.
By the way, a full summit isn't always the right first step. EventRaptor also runs smaller formats like workshops, meetings and collaborative giveaways, and sometimes fixing your follow-up comes before any event at all.
I'm a Therapist or Healing Practitioner
Practitioners often warm to summits faster than they expect, because the whole format is about teaching. Sharing a stage with respected colleagues tends to build professional referral relationships, and the public gets a low-pressure way to learn from you before booking anything.
Keep a few guardrails in place, which our guide to virtual summits for therapists covers in more detail. Present your sessions as education, never as therapy, and don't promise mental health outcomes. Never use testimonials or stories from therapy clients. And check your licensing board's advertising rules before you write your registration page or promotional emails.
Here's a hypothetical. A couples therapist might host a three-day summit on communication for new parents, inviting a pediatric sleep consultant, a financial planner and two fellow therapists, then invite attendees to a private-pay workshop afterward. The guide to recruiting summit speakers who promote and bring qualified leads will help you choose peers whose audiences fit yours.
If time and tech are what's holding you back, our done-for-you team can run the summit for you, so your part is to teach and host.
I'm Comparing Summit Software
Start by listing every job a summit creates: speaker applications, agreements, speaker pages, the schedule, registration, reminders, promoter links, Zoom access and CRM updates. Then see which option takes the most of those jobs off your plate.
| Option | What it does well | What you'll still handle yourself |
|---|---|---|
| DIY stack (GoHighLevel, Kajabi or ClickFunnels plus Zoom, templates and a VA) | You probably already own the tools | Speaker pages, links, schedules and replay-expiry workflows, built by hand for every summit |
| HeySummit | Dedicated summit software | It takes a percentage fee on ticket sales, caps attendees by plan, and has no GoHighLevel integration, speaker agreements, giveaways or done-for-you service |
| Webinar tools (Zoom, Crowdcast, WebinarJam, Demio, StreamYard) | The live stream, usually one webinar at a time | Speaker workflow, promoter tracking and CRM sync |
| Community platforms (Skool, Circle, Mighty Networks) | Hosting a summit inside a community | A public registration funnel and speaker management |
| Enterprise platforms (Cvent, ON24, Bizzabo, Airmeet) | Large corporate events | They're priced and built for corporate buyers |
EventRaptor sits on top of GoHighLevel as the summit layer, so you keep GoHighLevel for your CRM and sales. It includes speaker agreements with e-signatures, promoter leaderboards your speakers can see, collaborative giveaways and an optional done-for-you service, and it takes no ticket fees on summit sales.
To be honest about the limits: live sessions run on Zoom. EventRaptor doesn't offer team accounts, or in-event networking, Q&A and polls. If any of those are must-haves for you, factor that in. It does include video view analytics, so you can see how session and replay videos are viewed, and video hosting is available through CRMRaptor, EventRaptor's GoHighLevel solution, so your recordings and replays don't need a separate video host.
I'm Planning My First Summit
Decide five things in your first week: topic, audience, offer, format and dates. Everything else (speakers, pages, emails) follows from those choices. The first-summit plan and checklist takes you through them in order and shows where each one goes in EventRaptor.
Next come the speakers. Choose them for audience fit and agree on promotion up front, so nobody's surprised when you send swipe copy and links.
What EventRaptor Takes Off Your Plate
This is the part most first-time hosts dread, so here's what changes. Speakers apply, sign their agreements and upload what's needed through the platform, so you don't chase files across email threads. The schedule, speaker pages and attendee dashboard come from the speaker and session records, which means you won't rebuild a page by hand for every speaker. Reminder and follow-up emails run on the event's timing, and registrants sync to GHL/CRMRaptor with tags, ready for follow-up.
If you'd rather not touch any of it, our done-for-you team can produce the whole summit.
I've Run a Summit and Want More Clients From It
Your list grew, people enjoyed the sessions, and then things went quiet. That's usually a follow-up problem. You need a clear next step for attendees, a VIP or offer that matches what they came for, and emails that keep going after the event closes.
One example: Lucy Bedewi, a personality-driven copywriter, hosted the Out-Earn Your Man summit in September 2021, which we produced 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 what another host will get.
For your next steps, read turning one virtual summit into six months of content and clients to get more out of the recordings you already have. If you sell a premium offer, filling your coaching calendar with high-ticket clients through a three-day summit shows how to build the next event around it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I Need a Big Email List to Host a Virtual Summit?
No. Your speakers promote the summit to their own audiences, which is how hosts with small lists grow quickly. What matters more is picking speakers whose audiences fit yours and agreeing on promotion before they say yes.
Can Therapists Host a Virtual Summit?
Yes, as long as the summit is presented as public education and not as therapy. Avoid promising mental health outcomes, never use therapy client testimonials or stories, and check your licensing board's advertising rules before you promote it.
Do I Need to Be Technical to Run a Summit on EventRaptor?
No. EventRaptor was designed for people who are new to technology, and speaker records feed the pages, schedule and dashboard automatically. If you'd rather not run any of it, the done-for-you team can produce the summit while you teach and host.
Does EventRaptor Host the Summit Videos?
Live sessions run on Zoom, and EventRaptor provides the join links for each session. Video hosting is available through CRMRaptor, EventRaptor's GoHighLevel solution, so your session recordings and replays don't need a separate video host. EventRaptor also includes video view analytics, so you can see how session and replay videos are viewed.
Is a Virtual Summit the Same as a Webinar?
A webinar usually features one presenter teaching one session. A virtual summit brings several experts together around one topic over a few days, so you need speaker management, a schedule and promoter tracking that a webinar never calls for.
Your Next Step
Pick the section above that describes you and read its first link today. That single article will tell you more about what to do next than skimming the whole library.
If you'd like help working out whether a summit, a smaller event or better follow-up makes sense for your practice right now, Book your Client Attraction Planning Call. We'll look at what you sell, how people find you today, and which kind of event would actually fit your business.