Webinar Launch and Reminder Checklist

What

Use this SOP for every Tekton webinar, challenge, or live online event. It incorporates the launch controls and corrections established during the September 2026 Built to Last Contractor Challenge.

Who owns it

Primary owner: Operations

Approval owner: Nick approves the exact final test email before any bulk webinar email is sent.

Steps

Use this checklist for every Tekton webinar, challenge, or live online event.

1. Lock the event facts

Complete before building the page or emails.

• Event name confirmed
• Event dates confirmed
• Start and end times confirmed
• Time zone stated everywhere
• Event format confirmed: Zoom, Google Meet, in person, or hybrid
• Final Zoom or meeting link confirmed
• Meeting ID confirmed
• Passcode confirmed, if one is required
• Calendar start and end times confirmed in UTC and Eastern
• Registration deadline confirmed
• Event owner named
• One source-of-truth event brief created with all approved facts

2. Lock the speaker lineup

• Final speaker names confirmed
• Speaker companies and titles confirmed
• Final talk titles copied exactly from the speaker or event owner
• Talk descriptions confirmed
• Current bios confirmed
• Current headshots received
• Company logos received
• Written approval received for any speaker wording we created
• Old speakers and old topics marked as retired

3. Update the website

• Event dates and times updated
• Zoom or registration destination updated
• Speaker names updated
• Talk titles updated
• Talk descriptions updated
• Headshots updated
• Company names and logos updated
• Old event dates removed
• Old speaker names removed
• Old speaker images removed
• Old talk topics removed
• Registration confirmation page updated
• Registration confirmation email updated
• Calendar links updated
• Desktop page checked
• Mobile page checked at 390px
• Registration submitted with a test contact
• Test registration verified in the destination system
• Production page opened and checked after publishing

4. Build the audience

• Current-event registrants included
• Approved past-event registrants included
• Internal test contacts excluded from the live audience
• Invalid and blank email addresses removed
• Duplicate email addresses removed
• Suppression and unsubscribe requirements checked
• Final unique-recipient count recorded
• Late registrants will be included in future reminders

5. Build the reminder sequence

For each email, confirm:

• Send date and time
• Subject line
• Preheader
• Current event dates
• Current event time and time zone
• Current speaker lineup
• Current talk information
• Current headshots and artwork
• Current Zoom link
• Current meeting ID and passcode, if needed
• Current Google Calendar link
• Current Outlook calendar link
• Correct sender name and sender address
• Correct audience
• Personalization fallback works
• Mobile email layout works
• No past dates, speakers, topics, images, companies, links, meeting IDs, or passcodes remain

Recommended sequence:

• Registration confirmation immediately after signup
• 24-hour reminder
• Event-day morning reminder
• One-hour reminder
• Night 2 morning reminder for multi-day events
• Replay or follow-up email, if approved

6. Test before every bulk send

This is mandatory.

• Send the exact final email to Nick first
• Prefix the test subject with [TEST]
• Nick checks the subject, copy, dates, speakers, headshots, links, calendar buttons, and mobile rendering
• Nick explicitly approves the test
• Re-run the final preflight after approval
• Confirm no file or template changed after the approved test
• Send or schedule the bulk email only after approval

7. Schedule and verify

• The actual scheduler job is installed, enabled, and visible in its source system
• Record the scheduler type, job name or ID, command, run time, time zone, and owner
• Do not treat an approved schedule or planned send time as proof that a scheduler exists
• One-time date and year confirmed
• Send windows prevent early or late sends
• Duplicate protection enabled
• Campaign-specific delivery ledger enabled
• Audience is pulled fresh at send time
• All scheduled emails pass live-audience preflight
• A human owner is assigned to check each scheduled send
• Verify the scheduler again after any template, campaign, audience, or meeting-link change

8. Day-of checks

Run 30 to 60 minutes before each email and event session.

• Zoom link opens
• Host can access the room
• Meeting settings are correct
• Recording setting confirmed
• Speaker access confirmed
• Final reminder still contains the correct link
• Registrant count checked
• Late registrants included
• Email send verified in Sent or the delivery provider
• Delivery count matches the expected audience
• Failures or bounces reviewed
• Airtable campaign notes or other CRM send markers verified after delivery
• CRM write failures recorded separately from email delivery failures

9. Correction procedure

Use this when an incorrect email has already been delivered. A delivered email cannot be edited.

• Stop or pause later reminders until the source facts and templates are corrected
• Identify every incorrect item: dates, speakers, artwork, meeting details, calendar links, or other facts
• Correct the source-of-truth event brief before correcting downstream files
• Update every remaining template, calendar link, confirmation message, and schedule
• Add validation that blocks the retired information from future sends
• Create a separate correction campaign with its own campaign key and delivery ledger
• Use a direct correction subject and tell recipients to disregard the earlier email
• Include the complete corrected information, not only the item that first exposed the problem
• Send the exact correction email to Nick and receive approval
• Run full-audience preflight after approval
• Send the correction to the complete affected audience with duplicate protection enabled
• Verify Sent count, campaign ledger count, and delivery-provider results
• Verify Airtable or CRM send markers; record and repair any write failure without resending the email
• Re-run preflight on every remaining reminder after the correction

10. Final stale-information gate

Search every live page, email template, calendar link, confirmation message, image, and schedule for:

• Previous event dates
• Previous year
• Previous speakers
• Previous companies
• Previous talk titles
• Previous headshots
• Previous event artwork
• Previous Zoom link
• Previous meeting ID
• Previous passcode
• Previous calendar timestamps
• Placeholder copy or unresolved template fields

Do not publish or send if any retired information appears.

11. Closeout after the event

• Remove or stop one-time reminder jobs
• Confirm all sends in the delivery ledger
• Reconcile delivery ledgers against Airtable or CRM campaign notes
• Resolve or document every failed campaign-note write
• Remove stale event details from supporting documents, review pages, and sequence files
• Save final audience counts
• Save the final approved event brief
• Save recordings and transcripts
• Confirm replay access permissions
• Update the website for replay or closed registration, if approved
• Record mistakes and corrections for the next event

Final go-live rule

No webinar email goes to the full audience until Nick receives and approves the exact final test email. No webinar page or email is considered ready until the stale-information gate passes.

Definition of done

The event page, audience, meeting details, calendar links, reminder templates, scheduler jobs, delivery ledgers, and CRM markers have all passed the checklist. Nick approved the exact final test email, every send was verified, and retired event information is absent from live and supporting files.