# What a Virtual Summit Is and How Coaches and Experts Use One

> A virtual summit is a free online event where a host and a group of experts teach one topic. Here's how it works, who it suits, and what to expect.

URL: https://virtualsummits.com/what-is-a-virtual-summit
Author: Steve Eriksen (https://eventraptor.com/about-steve)
Publisher: EventRaptor (https://eventraptor.com)
Published: 2026-05-20
Updated: 2026-11-01
Section: Product News

A virtual summit is a free online event where one host brings together a group of experts to teach on a single topic, usually over a few days. People register with their email to watch, the speakers share it with their own audiences, and the host comes away with a bigger list, new professional relationships, and a lot of people who've just watched them lead the room.

That's the short answer. This guide is for coaches, therapists, healing practitioners and anyone else running an expert-led service business, especially if you're good at the work but clients tend to come in bursts. A summit lets you teach while respected peers stand next to you, and very few marketing activities give you both of those at once.

I ran my first summit eight weeks after I left my job to start a coaching business. I had almost no list and no connections. Below I'll explain how summits work, what running one involves, and what honest results look like.

## Key Takeaways

- A virtual summit is a free, multi-speaker online event on one topic, and its main job is to grow your list and make you known in your niche.
- Your speakers promote the summit to their own audiences, so a small list doesn't stop you from reaching a lot of new people.
- Most hosts earn some money during the event from a paid VIP or all-access pass, and more afterward through follow-up and a post-summit offer.
- Choose a format you can actually carry. [A one-day or live summit](/one-day-summit-vs-multi-day-summit) is lighter to prepare than a prerecorded multi-day event.
- Plan your follow-up before you invite a single speaker, because follow-up is what turns registrants into booked conversations.

## How Does a Virtual Summit Work?

The topics vary, but the moving parts are the same in nearly every summit.

1. You pick a topic your ideal clients are worried about right now. Narrow topics work better, so "sleep for exhausted new parents" will pull harder than "wellness."
2. You [invite speakers who serve the same audience](/summit-planning/summit-speaker-recruitment) without competing with you head-on. Each one records a session (an interview or a presentation) or agrees to a live slot.
3. You build a registration page, set the dates, and start promoting, typically two to four weeks before the summit opens.
4. Speakers and affiliates share the summit with their own lists using their own promoter links, so registrations arrive from many audiences at once.
5. Registrants get emails before the event to keep them interested and remind them what's coming.
6. Sessions open on a schedule. On a multi-day summit, each day's speakers become available that day and close again after a set window, often 24 or 48 hours.
7. When the summit ends, free access closes. Anyone who wants to keep watching buys a pass.
8. Then the follow-up starts. Usually that's a series of emails, an invitation to a workshop or a call, and your offer.

People usually describe a summit as collaborative marketing, because everyone on the lineup helps fill the room. You can see why it reaches further than anything you'd do alone.

## How Do Free and Paid Summit Models Work?

Most summits are free to attend, and that's deliberate. Free registration means the people who join are new contacts you can keep in touch with, and growing that list is the main reason to host, and the start of [how a summit can change your business](/can-a-virtual-summit-transform-your-business).

During the event, the money usually comes from an upgrade, called a VIP pass or an all-access pass. At its simplest, it gives people ongoing access to the recordings after the free window closes. Many hosts add more to it:

- Transcripts or audio versions so people can listen on a walk
- Bonuses contributed by the speakers, such as mini-courses or templates
- A seat on live Zoom calls with the host and speakers during the summit

That last one works well. When VIPs get a front-row seat on the live calls, the pass gives them something real, and people have a reason to upgrade early in the event. One blogging summit host told a podcast audience she offered two tiers: an all-access pass with replays, audio and transcripts, and a higher pass that added courses from her speakers.

Some hosts charge for the ticket from day one. You can do that, but you'll usually get fewer registrants, so it suits hosts who already have an audience.

Remember, for most coaches and practitioners the bigger return comes after the event, when people who've spent a few days learning from you are invited to work with you. In my experience a good follow-up process might turn 10 to 15% of registrants and attendees into clients. That's what I've seen, not a promise, and it only happens when the follow-up is built.

## Why Does a Summit Build Authority Faster Than Posting Content?

When you post content, you're one voice competing for attention one post at a time. A summit puts you in front of a crowd, introducing respected people in your field, and that position does a lot of the trust-building for you.

Three things happen at once. Every speaker brings part of their audience, so you borrow reach you haven't had time to earn. Attendees spend several days with you, which is far more time than any post gets. And the people you interview become professional relationships, which often lead to referrals, podcast invitations and joint events.

The relationships grew fast for me. At my second summit, more than half of the 37 speakers approached me. If you want more on this, I've written about [why summits build authority and qualified leads faster than random content](/growth-strategy/virtual-summits-for-lead-generation).

## Virtual Summit vs Webinar vs Podcast Guest Appearance

All three are worth doing. They just do different jobs.

| | Virtual Summit | Webinar | Podcast Guest Appearance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who's on stage | You plus a lineup of speakers | Usually you alone | The show's host interviews you |
| Who brings the audience | You and every speaker | Mostly you, from your list or ads | The podcast host |
| What you collect | Registrant emails that go onto your list | Registrants, mostly people who already know you | No emails unless listeners visit your opt-in page |
| Preparation | Several weeks of planning and promotion | Light to moderate | Light |
| Best for | Growing your list and your standing in a niche | Teaching or selling to a warm audience | Reaching a new audience one show at a time |

## Who Is a Virtual Summit For?

### Coaches

Proven coaches who get results but rely on referrals and posting are the people summits suit best. You already know how to run a good conversation. A summit gives you more people to have those conversations with.

### Therapists and Healing Practitioners

A summit lets you [educate the public alongside respected peers](/summit-planning/virtual-summits-for-therapists-explained), which builds trust and opens referral relationships with other practitioners. Present it clearly as education, not therapy, and don't promise mental health outcomes. Don't use stories or testimonials from your clients either, and check your licensing board's advertising rules before you promote anything.

For example, a couples therapist might host a three-day summit on staying connected after a new baby. The lineup could include a pediatric sleep consultant, a lactation consultant and a financial planner. Every speaker reaches the same parents, and none of them competes with the therapist's private practice.

### Consultants and Other Experts

Consultants, authors, trainers and other experts can use a summit the same way, especially if they're credible in a previous career but still unknown in their new market.

One thing about fit: a summit works best when you already have an offer. If you're still deciding what you sell, sort that out first.

## Live or Prerecorded, One Day or Several?

Prerecorded summits are the most common, and some stay open on demand as [an evergreen summit or an ever-summit](/what-is-the-difference-between-an-evergreen-virtual-summit-ever-summit). Attendees can binge sessions or watch one a day, and the host knows everything will play as planned. Tom Tate, who ran a 20-session prerecorded summit with a two-person marketing team, said part of the reason was being able to sleep at night knowing tomorrow's sessions were ready. The trade-off is the back-and-forth: booking recordings, editing and uploading.

Live summits bring more energy and real interaction. Some hosts find them easier to prepare, as long as every speaker knows their time slot and time zone. Plenty of hosts mix the two, with prerecorded sessions and a daily live call.

A one-day summit is faster and less risky, so it's a sensible first event. A multi-day summit takes more work but grows your list more. If your list is small, this plan for [running a first virtual summit in 90 days](/summit-planning/first-virtual-summit-small-list-90-days) shows how to scale it to what you have.

## What Does It Take to Run One?

Here's the honest list: a topic and an offer, speaker recruitment, speaker agreements, a registration page, a schedule, speaker pages, reminder emails, promoter tracking, Zoom links for live sessions, a VIP sales page, and follow-up that lands in your CRM. Doing all of that with spreadsheets and email threads is exhausting.

Steve and Jennie built EventRaptor because no summit system on the market worked for our coaching clients. We designed it around a real person, a 70-year-old group coaching client who'd only used computers for two or three years. In December 2021 she ran a twelve-speaker summit on EventRaptor without help from anyone.

In practice, speakers apply, sign their agreements and upload their materials through the platform. Your schedule, speaker pages and attendee dashboard come from those speaker and session records, so you don't rebuild anything by hand. Each speaker gets a promoter link, and a leaderboard shows everyone who's promoting. Reminder and follow-up emails go out on the event's timing. Registrants sync to GHL/CRMRaptor with tags, so your follow-up can start the day they sign up. Live sessions run on Zoom. Video hosting is available through CRMRaptor, EventRaptor's GoHighLevel solution, so your session recordings and replays don't need a separate video host, and EventRaptor's video view analytics show you how session and replay videos are viewed.

To find speakers, you can use our directory of more than 3,800 speakers who want to be invited to events, or come to Speaker Connections, our free Zoom networking event on the first and third Tuesday of each month. If you'd rather not run the summit yourself, [our done-for-you team](/lets-build-your-summit) can produce the whole thing. Then your job is to teach, host and sell.

## What Results Can You Realistically Expect?

My first summit, the Solopreneur Accelerator Summit, started on 31 August 2020 with 27 speakers over four days. I built it in two weeks, and I don't recommend that. My list grew from about 100 people to 750. I sold four places on my $497 course and $3,500 in VIP tickets, about $5,500 in total, eight weeks into a brand-new business. That's my result, not a forecast for yours.

We produced Lucy Bedewi's Out-Earn Your Man summit in September 2021. 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. This is one person's result. It doesn't predict results for another host.

And I've had a summit go the other way. I was too exhausted to put a proper offer together, and it made only about $1,800 during the event, even though it added 476 new people to my list. Those people will keep buying for years, but the lesson stuck with me. Your offer and your follow-up decide what a summit earns. For the months after the event, here's how to [turn one summit into six months of content, clients and conversations](/coaching-business/summit-six-months-content-clients).

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Is a Virtual Summit Free to Attend?

Usually, yes. Most summits let people register and watch sessions free for a limited time. The host earns from an optional VIP or all-access pass that gives ongoing access and extras, and from the offers that come after the event.

### How Many Speakers Does a Virtual Summit Need?

There's no fixed number. My first summit had 27 speakers, and one of our coaching clients ran hers with twelve. A one-day summit can work with fewer, so pick a number you can manage and support properly.

### Do I Need a Big Email List to Host a Summit?

No. Your speakers promote to their own audiences, which is why summits work for hosts with small lists. I started my first one with about 100 people on my list and finished with 750.

### What Is the Difference Between a Virtual Summit and a Webinar?

A webinar is usually one presenter teaching people who already know them, in a single session. A virtual summit brings in many speakers over one or more days, and each speaker helps promote it. That's why summits reach so many more new people.

### Can a Therapist Host a Virtual Summit?

Yes, as long as it's framed as public education and not as therapy. Avoid clinical claims and client stories, and check your licensing board's advertising rules before you promote it. Many practitioners like summits because they can teach next to respected peers and build referral relationships at the same time.

## Your Next Step

Grab a notepad and write three things: a topic your ideal clients are worried about right now, ten people you'd love to interview, and the offer you'd invite attendees to at the end. If all three come easily, you're closer to a summit than you think. If you want a broader case first, read [why you should host a virtual summit](/why-you-should-host-a-virtual-summit).

When you're ready to test those notes against your business, [Book your Client Attraction Planning Call](/planning-call). We'll look at what you sell and how people find you now, then work out whether a summit, a smaller event or better follow-up makes sense as your next step.