How to join a Heraldry Society Virtual Lecture

The Heraldry Society is now free delivering lectures over the World Wide Web using the widely-used virtual meeting system called Zoom.

Zoom provides the means to deliver virtual lectures over the web, to a live audience, with the option for two-way video, audio and messaging. Zoom is likely to remain the preferred method of lecture delivery for the Society even when face-to-face meetings are possible.

1 Booking your ticket to attend a virtual lecture (tickets are free)

To attend one of the Society’s virtual lectures you will need to book a free ticket using the Society’s chosen event booking tool on the web: Eventbrite.

Details of all future lectures may be found at the Society’s Eventbrite web page:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-heraldry-society-30517670724

Each virtual lecture has a dedicated event page which includes the lecture title, a brief description, the name of the lecturer and the lecture date and time (always based on UK time zone).

If you already have an account with Eventbrite you may login with your account credentials and book on the lectures of your choice.

If you do not yet have an account with Eventbrite you will need to register for a free account with Eventbrite first, thereafter your contact details are held by Eventbrite, speeding up the enrolment process and allowing you to identify the sorts of events you are interested being notified about.

NB If you don’t wish to be informed of future events by the Heraldry Society you may adjust your communication preferences in your Eventbrite profile.

Once you are registered with Eventbrite, you may book a ticket for each future lecture of your choice. Eventbrite will add your name and email address to the list of those enrolled to attend.

NB You should only book one ticket per household. A single ticket is good for one computer or tablet device. There’s no need to obtain multiple tickets if two or more people are going to view the lecture from the same computer or tablet.

2 Receiving your joining instructions

A few hours prior to the start of the lecture, you will receive an email from Eventbrite giving details of how to join the online lecture. This will include a Zoom web link and various other housekeeping instructions.

About 10 minutes before the time of the lecture, you should click on the Zoom web link provided in the aforementioned email.

NB If you can’t click on the link, you might need to copy it and then paste the address into your preferred web browser such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.

You will then get a page that says “If you have Zoom Client installed, launch meeting. Otherwise, download and run Zoom.” This page will detect whether you have the Zoom meeting client software installed, and ask to launch it if so. Say ‘Open’. The lecture meeting will then be launched.

If you have not used Zoom before and do not have the Zoom meeting client software installed on your computer, click ‘Download and run Zoom’. This will install the Zoom meeting client software on your computer (which takes a minute or two) and will then launch the lecture meeting.

NB If you don’t want to install Zoom meeting client software you can opt to join the meeting from within your web-browser.

3 Joining the lecture

When you arrive in the lecture meeting, please look to the bottom left of the Zoom window, where icons for your microphone and camera will be found. Both of these need to be clicked, to turn them off. When they are off, a diagonal line (bend sinister) appears through them.

NB There may be a delay in admittance to the meeting if there are large numbers of attendees. The lecture will commence promptly at the advertised time, so do arrive 10 minutes early (as you would for attending a physical meeting).

To ask a question or make a comment during the lecture, please click on the ‘Chat’ icon in the bottom centre of the Zoom window during the lecture. The speaker probably won’t be able to respond until after the lecture.

4 A note on lecture recording

Please note that while the Heraldry Society may record lectures for training and quality purposes, it does not put the lecture recording online for anyone else to view at a later date. The reasons for this are numerous and include:

• Intellectual property rights – The lecturers own their own intellectual property, many lecture on a commercial basis and the Society does not have a right to use their materials outside of the live lecture delivered by the lecturer. Images might be shown for which permission to record and make available has not been arranged.
• Data Privacy – Zoom and other virtual meeting tools will record the voice and video image of attendees. These are identifiable characteristics that are subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the UK and in the European Union.
• Audience participation – Most of our attendees prefer to attend a live event where they can post questions and interact through the chat system with other participants – perhaps sharing their own perspective and experiences on the lecture topic. It also allows the lecturer to respond to questions posed in real-time by the audience.
• Polling – The Heraldry Society may use the polling facility in Zoom to gather anonymised data about our audience, such as their level of familiarity with the subject matter. This helps us improve our educational offer and better understand our audience.
• Gifts and competitions – From time to time the Heraldry Society may offer a gift to an audience member selected at random, or conduct a live competition.
• Many of our audience share comments about the lectures in real-time over social media, further extending the Society’s ability to engage with a wider audience as the lecture is underway.

These and other factors have led the Society’s Council to a firm decision that lectures will always be delivered live and will not be published in a recorded form.