In early April 2020, the event managers for The European Union’s One Health EJP Annual Scientific Meeting (and countless other organisations) were looking at a fairly limited set of options for holding their event – postpone the event, go virtual, or simply cancel it.
As a company we at Purple Patch could tell that, sooner than later, a level of Zoom / Teams fatigue was going to set in, and also that it’s a bit impractical and inconvenient to use such platforms for organising conferences, hybrid events or workshops that span over several days. This is why we were constantly planning, brainstorming and innovating to come up with exactly what was the need of the hour for so many organisations including EJP – and we did!
Developing Our Solution
Our team came together to develop a unique online event delivery platform for organisations and event managers who were serious about the saying that “the show must go on!”. Since almost all users would be connecting from a remote location, the solution was specifically designed keeping in mind the needs of users who have fairly limited internet connectivity or bandwidth to be able to access it, from all across the world.
The access is provided via a dedicated branded URL, and requires only a quick signup for the invited delegates to join the event stream. It’s so easy to join that if you can watch YouTube, you can watch our event stream!
And…Event Planning Began
When One Health EJP discovered what we had to offer, we were commissioned on 27th April 2020, to manage their Annual Scientific Meeting, scheduled for May 27th previously in Prague. The decision to go virtual was made merely four weeks from the first day of the conference!
Once the contracts were signed and the first set of planning meetings took place, we got our event design team to put their minds together and come up with an initial design that would pave the way for the successful execution of our overall event planning strategy. The goal was clear: One Health EJP should be able to achieve the same, if not better results, as they would have at a live event.
How We Helped EJP Get 36,000 Viewing Hours At Their Virtual Conference
750 delegates were invited to attend the event online, using our virtual event delivery platform. This same platform was also required to support the presentations delivered by 47 presenters across the EU, who were to self-shoot their presentations via our app. In addition to this, 5 keynote presenters were to be filmed by our teams remotely.
We recorded 54 presentations, final keynotes, several other films, which were then edited by our team of video editors, before attending the final planning meeting. Once all the presentations and films were signed off and the event website went live, we put all our focus towards ensuring seamless execution and delivery.
The One Health EJP representatives delivered their presentations just like they would have, if it were an actual live, in-person event. Purple Patch ensured that they were offered the same level of guidance, support, and dedication that we always provide to our clients when hired for event management of live events – including, but not limited to, a crew of producers, broadcast engineers, camera operators, sound engineers, and graphics operators.
So, with all of this effort, we were keen to uncover if we had achieved the result we were looking for.
Noteworthy Achievements From This Virtual Event
Even though we were expecting an audience of 300 to turn up, which was the 2019 attendance for the same annual event. Out of the 750 delegates who were invited to attend the virtual conference, more than 700 of them were able to join the event from 38 countries and stayed throughout the course of 3 days, during which the conference was delivered.
The biggest achievement, however, for the stakeholders and everyone who was responsible for the outstanding success of this event, was the massive amount of content delivered – over 36,000 hours worth of content was viewed – and things went on so smoothly, it was nothing short of amazing! This led to further buzz on social media and helped them further boost their online presence. This went above and beyond our client’s expectations and targets, in fact, much to everyone’s surprise.
Thanks to this, we’re proud to present this virtual event as one of the best examples of virtual conference event planning, strategy, and execution, in our portfolio.
Key Takeaways from this Virtual Conference for Event Managers
If you are serious about achieving company goals and not missing any opportunities amidst the lockdown, it’s time to look for suitable event solutions and leverage them, like our live streaming and hybrid event options.
On-time communication is key, even more so in uncertain times like these. Which is why we’re dedicated to helping companies stay in touch with stakeholders despite the lack of in-person events.
As event managers, our most important take away from this event was to keep it simple for our clients, while making it easy for their audience to access the virtual event, and not to mention, giving delegates some signposted breaks in between in order to get the best results from your work.
Final Thoughts
At times, it may seem as if simply cancelling all your upcoming events is the only option you have during the lockdown, especially considering that the coronavirus outbreak isn’t over yet. But it’s most certainly not.
Instead of making sacrifices, make some tiny compromises. Rather than calling off your events or postponing them to the next year, get them converted to virtual events. Keep your company communicating well throughout this uncertain phase.
If you’d like to know more about our live-streamed events, visit our virtual events and conferences page and have a go on our online event solution finder that helps you discover the ideal online event package for your conference, meeting, or training event!
