On-line Events

Organising a ‘Virtual’ Congress

This event took place totally on-line. It brought together high-level industry sponsors, an international faculty of multi-disciplinary medical specialists and researchers, as well as patients and carers. Alongside the programme of plenary presentations, delegates could visit ‘virtual’ Exhibitor and Poster Halls, submit questions to the experts and network with other participants.

The lead-in time for the conference was very short – from date of contracting in mid-February 2021 to event delivery in mid-May 2021.

The Background 

This ‘virtual’ international meeting took place in May 2021. It was the fourth annual conference run by a UK-based medical charity. The three previous meetings had been face-to-face events. Due to the pandemic, the May 2020 event had been cancelled so it had been two years since this specialist international group had been able to meet.

All the event’s plenary presentations were pre-recorded. Live Q&A or Meet-the-Expert discussions took place at the end of each session. The Welcome and Closing Remarks for each day were also streamed live.

The ‘virtual’ Exhibitor Hall was made up of 14 booths – 5 industry sponsors and 8 not-for-profit exhibitors.

Each poster presenter was allocated a dedicated space in the Poster Hall. Each area included the abstract, the poster in a downloadable format and a short, pre-recorded presentation of the data.

The charity prided itself on high-quality delivery and on strong, consistent branding across all its work. It was important that this first on-line event reached the same high standard.

The Role

Working alongside the charity’s CEO, Registration Manager and Sponsorship Manager, Kay was responsible for all logistics and for ensuring that all aspects of the event ran smoothly and to the expected standard.

She was the key point of contact with the platform supplier, the video production company and with the charity’s designer:

• To develop all briefing documents and templates

• To create the layouts for the virtual Exhibitor and Poster Halls

• To set up and manage the filming of all plenary and poster presentations

• To manage speaker technical rehearsals

• To co-ordinate all materials for upload to the platform

The event received excellent feedback for the quality of its content, professional delivery and platform design from industry, delegates, and speakers. Kay is in discussion with the charity regarding the organisation of the 2022 event which will be in a virtual or hybrid format, depending on what circumstances at the time will allow.

What They Said

“I really don’t have the words to express my gratitude to you for your tremendous hard work and support, in the months running up to the conference and over the last two days. I think you have been absolutely incredible. Thank you!!”

Client and charity CEO

“FA-BU-LOUS!!!!!! entire platform of the event looks extremely professional. THE coolest one I have seen during the pandemic - CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!”

Industry sponsor

“Congratulations for the excellent meeting that you put together! The organisation was perfect, and I really enjoyed the interaction with you and your team. I look forward to the next, in which, hopefully, we will be able to meet in person.”

Faculty member, Spain

“We’re all really pleased that the event went well and are proud to have been involved, so thank you very much for the titanic effort you put into organising the process and making our part in it so much easier to execute.”

Director, Video Production Company