Connecting online & remote audience
International Hybrid Conference
The Client
The client was a non profit organisation in the healthcare sector, based in Italy with over 1400 members. The two-day scientific conference was held in Rome in January 2022, Due to the international nature of the event, both the pre-cBack to Projects >>onference communication and the conference itself were conducted in English and Italian. Seven hundred people attended on-site and five hundred people remotely. The program included six sessions, two-roundtables, two workshops, and one networking session.
Fully hybrid event
The organisation wanted to reach much wider international audience with a fully hybrid event. Anyone remotely should have been able to speak into the room with the local audience and presenters. It was decided to implement a social media campaign with live streaming events taking place on a regular basis on Facebook and Youtube.
To manage the broadcasting of the hybrid conference and ancillary live-streaming events, we used Cvent, a full-service platform. Additionally, we designed a WordPress event website to promote the conference and the post-event on-demand video.
Digital production
The team was divided in 3 groups.
Technical team: Responsible for building the set according to the design and taking care of the technical set-up. This group also included two camera operators, a sound recordist and post-event production for on-demand videos.
Video switcher hardware was used to cut and fade between multiple video sources and everything in-out the workflow.
Implementation team: Responsible for connecting with keynote speakers, releasing video and content in the hall, and online, video mixing, coordination of the workshop and generally speaking the streaming.
Script producers: Finally, there was a script production team, who made sure that everything happened according to the agenda and script. The conference entailed cooperation with several international speakers at once. The team created a detailed schedule of work, as well as the script, and the set design.
Connecting on-site and remote attendees
The 2-day conference featured 20 speakers onsite, 5 remotely with simultaneous translations . It led to the creation of over 51 posters and 75 contributions published on the event website.
To connect the online and onsite attendees we focused on a UX-friendly event app provided by Cvent. Attendees could pose questions to speakers, while an on-site moderator would monitor comments, and work as an ambassador for the online audience and speakers.
We used pre-recorded ‘simul-live’ content, which is sometimes better because it can be made very dynamic, through editing, and graphic animations.
Presenters are simultaneously available to comment and reply to the audience in the text chat, directly answering questions, which would not be possible if they were focused on making the presentation.
The planning
A hybrid event is not just live streaming a conference. It is a more complex event to organise. Success lies in an engagement strategy.
Some of the key elements include:
A Program delivering great content in a variety of format, such panel discussion, videos, white papers.
Networking sessions around specific topics engaging both remote and on-site audiences in a co-creative way.
Workshops delivering bite-size education courses, both onsite and online.
Engaging graphic animations.
Experienced moderator responsible for guiding both, onsite and online attendees throughout the event.
Simultaneous translations to overcome language and cultural barriers
Finally, an experience digital event strategist and a live streaming producer.
Technical Key Elements
To avoid technical glitches, such as poor connectivity or inadequate bandwidth, we ensured to have all internet connections onsite wired, rather than WiFi. We also advised our remote attendees and speakers on how to successfully connect their computers and mobiles to avoid disruptions or negative experiences.
Speakers and presenters adjusted their presentations to fit the virtual format and we also ensured that the speakers had the copyright to broadcast the content online.
Virtual conferences may attract hackers and cyber criminals looking to disrupt or steal sensitive information from the event. In order to protect sensitive data exchanged before and during the live streaming session we ensured that encryption made unreadable data to unauthorised users and followed GDPR rules to protect data.
We also monitored the live-streaming sessions for any unusual activities and kept logs of all actions taken during the sessions.
Services
Project Planning: Outlined timelines, objectives, and resource allocations.
Team Leadership: Directed cross-functional teams.
Technology Management: Oversaw implementation of streaming and interaction platforms.
Vendor Coordination: Managed relationships with platform hosts and digital providers.
Content Development: Oversaw the production of content for diverse audiences and the setup of the virtual platform,
Website design: Designed the event website and related content.
Marketing Execution: Implemented digital event promotion on social media.
Budget Management: Oversaw technical budget to maximise resource use and maintain cost-efficiency.
Analytics: Analysed participation and feedback for continuous improvement.
