From the feedback I have been receiving and the comments being posted so far the first Kolabora Live! event has been a definite breakthrough for many though our follow up and comments have all centered around issues that related to the format, style and technology utilized in the event while leaving completely out the topic we gathered together to cover:
"What Experts Need To Do To Prepare A Killer Web Event"

I guess the question remains open nonetheless the many points brought up during the event and I feel it is my duty to start aggregating here some of my own lessons learned on this front while inviting everyone else to contribute also hir (his+her) own solution. (You can indeed post your contributions as a comment to this article at the bottom of this page, or you can jump into the Forum where you have more options for formatting and adding references and notes to your ideas.)

Here is my recommended action list to prepare for a killer Web event:

Participants take stage at Kolabora Live! - in this image Dorothy Krause and David Williams contribute to the live discussion.

Technology:

1) Do not venture into unchartered grounds unless you know what you are doing and the risks involved. Meaning: if you like me, like to use cutting-edge technologies and to experiment with new solutions, avoid having the audience feel like a guinea pig and thoroughly inform them beforehand of the limitations, requirements and possible issues that may emerge with your technology. If you cannot make this an event for all, that is OK. Just make it clear upfront and state your reasons for doing that.

2) Test thoroughly your setup and the scenarios you are going to play with as many people as possible. Test out with people on different types of PCs, browsers, monitor sizes, screen resolutions, operating systems and Internet connection speeds. The more varied is your testing the more you can be sure that possible incompatibilities and issues have been weeded out.

3) Choose a technology that requires the least button-pushing and remembering of different functions as possible. Presenters during an event get very excited and tend to forger even the most elementary things you have showcased them the day before.

4) Provide accessible technical support. Meaning: can people find out immediately how to contact tech support? Are you giving out just an email? Tech support during these events should be directly accessible through a click on a browser page or through popular instant messengers. Email support is primitive, slow and inappropriate to handle the requirements needed in these type of exchanges.

Content

1) Content is key to getting both presenters and participants on track. Content means having a good focus and a well sketched out road that facilitates good content to emerge. Content should be a contribution, an emerging idea or reflection, a slide brought just-in-time to make a point, an object, a recording.

2) Each presenter and participant should equip hirself with quality content objects to contribute and interact within the event: questions, URLs, samples, images, artefacts and whichever other "content" which can "spark" and "ignite" conversation and analysis rather than attracting and monopolizing all of the attention on to itself.

3) Get it over with those PowerPoint slides. Show some real faces talking without reading their script and if you really need to deliver PowerPoint slides to make a point make sure you look at what "interesting" and engaging presentations really look like. Here is one you can use as a Good reference: Trends In Collaboration. (Note: Pay good attention to timing, visuals, and presenter style).

Presentation Style

1) Keep your interventions under 2 minutes at all times. Unless you can put some punch and true originality in your interventions people are not going to attentively listen to you for any longer. They are trained by television to tune in only on fast, focussed exchanges where critical issues are exposed.

2) Be spontaneous. Do not read a scripted text; use some notes and express yourself naturally with all of the emotions and little errors that pop-up in those situations. Unlike most television make sure that your contributions are spontaneous, emotionally rich and that you use all of your personal communication systems (tone, volume, body language, position, distance, lighting, etc.) to deliver your message in full.

3) Bring the audience in! Stop acting like God delivering the commandments on Mount Sinai. It's the audience who has got the interest, the questions and the true insight that can make or break any collaborative event. Don't keep the audience sitting passively, clicking Yes and No buttons or just voting in interactive polls.
Have them participate! Allow attendees to ask questions live, contribute content ideas and references that can be used during the event. Give the audience tools and information so that it can fully interact with the event not simply by allowing questions to be sent up to the participants, but by allowing content, comments, posts, and voice recordings to be uploaded by all participants in a public area accessible by all and complementing/augmenting the discussion, presentation being driven by the presenters on stage.

One short personal story.

Not long ago I participated in Global Learn Day, another very interesting and cutting-edge online event that brought together a great number of people from all parts of the world. The event lasted over 24 hours with presenters coming in from each one of the world time zones in sequence as to follow the actual roll-out of a full day with contextual contributions by all world regions.

Well, do you know what is the part of that event that I have enjoyed the most?
The rehearsal.
Yes.
For a good number of hours before the actual launch of the event anyone could access the actual conference center where technical people, organizers and key presenters were setting themselves up under pressure.

Believe me, the extended discussions, non-functioning try outs, comments by stand-biers and live troubleshooting of technical and editorial solutions were one of the best learning lessons I had had in a long time. What a jazz! Not only I learned a lot about the event and about some of the people that were working out there by simply sitting there, but I also suddenly became a valuable advisor to them as I felt prompted to suggest some solutions when I saw them out of water. The fact that the event was not yet started, that people were informally and spontaneously exchanging made that session so "rich" and textured with interaction and potential learning opportunities, that I ended up spending several hours in it between finishing an article and making a business call.

What does that tell us? Should we open all sessions during rehearsals for the audience to participate? Excessive formality and too-seriously run events are altogether evident obstacles to exchange, learning and good interaction?

How do you strike a balance between the need not to play the fool, the need to keep things under control and working, and this extraordinary drive to make such events as spontaneous and alive as our physical counterparts in many great roundtables, workshops, dinner tables and corner coffee bars (especially here in Italy)?

Let me hear your voice on this: