I attended Next.js Conf 2020 and was impressed by the high-quality content and virtual conference setup. It was streamed all around the world and provided an opportunity to share the best practices, end-user stories, and strategies for frontend developers and their organizations. All this required a certain conference platform AND instead of purchasing a solution, "success depended on collaboration".
Next.js and Vercel
Frontend development pioneer Vercel this week announced and introduced the Virtual Event Starter Kit used to run Next.js Conf 2020, with 80,000 registrants and 40,000 live attendees.
Virtual Event Starter Kit is a product of collaboration between marketers and developers using Next.js and Vercel.
Launch your event and scale to any size
You can clone, deploy, and fully customize as you like for your online event. Basically, it includes the following features:
-Multiple stages with an embedded YouTube stream
-Sponsor expo, including individual virtual booths
-Career Fair, allowing attendees to network and find job opportunities
-Ticket registration and generation
-Speaker pages and bios
-Schedule
Built With
Framework: Next.js
CSS Modules
TypeScript
CMS: DatoCMS
Videos: YouTube
Deployment: Vercel
Authentication: GitHub OAuth
Database: Redis
Run Locally
First, set local environment variables. A read-only DatoCMS access token is included and you can use in .env.local.example.
cp .env.local.example .env.local
The next step is to install packages and run the development server:
yarn install
yarn dev
Open http://localhost:3000 with your browser to see the result:
STEP 1: Clone and Deploy
Click here to clone and deploy this template on Vercel:
You’ll be asked to install the DatoCMS integration that lets you sign up or log in to DatoCMS and create a new DatoCMS project based on the data, for example, speakers, stages, etc.
DatoCMS is a cloud-based headless CMS designed to work with static websites, mobile apps, and server-side applications of any kind.
As simple as that first virtual conference or event has been deployed:
STEP 2: Customize for your needs
Use defaults or choose your own database, authentication, and headless CMS.
CMS
You can modify the code to use a different content management system, check here lib/cms-api.ts
for details.
Constants
lib/constants.ts
contains a list of variables you should customize.
Adding Discord Chat
If you'd like to add similar functionality to your event, you can use the API route to fetch messages after creating a Discord bot. More info and documentation can be found here
Authentication
Some features won’t work until you set up authentication and database. The demo (demo.vercel.events) uses GitHub OAuth for authentication and Redis for the database.
This is a very cool feature 😎: Generate a unique ticket image with your GitHub Profile, and ticket URL that can be shared on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Download.
Conclusion
Virtual events and platforms may be the norm post-pandemic. It’s evident that the coronavirus pandemic has changed what normal looks like for us all, and the events and conference industry is no different. To learn more about Virtual Event Starter Kit – Vercel and check the documentation click here.
📣This week Vercel announced an additional $40 million in series B funding to be used "to help everyone build the next web".
🚀Let's see what's next amazing thing coming!
To connect with me please check my Github, LinkedIn or Twitter.
Thank you so much for reading!
Top comments (5)
Nice article Ivana! Yes, this kit is available on Agility CMS for free too :) agilitycms.com/starters/virtual-co...
Thank you @agilitycms_76 ! Liked your presentation last week about the Path to Modern Web with JAMstack
So glad to hear it Ivana! Join us for some more webinars soon: agilitycms.com/resources/events we have some cool workshop about this Conference starter kit with Vercel's very own engineer Lee Robinson coming in March! You can register here: agilitycms.com/resources/events/vi... and please invite your friends :)
Hi Ivana,
I came accross your post early this week; and it really helped me alot.
Currently, I have deployed in instance of the Virtual Event Starter Kit – Vercel but I have issue with modifying the Authentication and Ticketing....
I could deploy it using using Github OAuth2 app but the audience/participants are not tech savy so they don't have github account.
I will appreciate it if you can assist on how to use socialmedia platform for the authentication instead of github
Thanks
Man..I really love vercel.