Having been awarded this contract in April 2021, we began work straight away with Ulster University and the team for this year’s Stroke Boot Camp. The aim of this project was to bring together leading Doctors, Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists from around the UK and other countries to discuss and learn more about rehabilitation after Stroke. With the current global pandemic, it was clear this was going to be more of a hybrid virtual event with speakers in our custom build studio, pre-recorded presentations and speakers coming live over video calls.
Pre-Production
Having never run an event of this size before, Dr Alison Porter and her team allowed us to take the lead in delivering their vision of the event. Working with them throughout the lead up to the event we produced a full production schedule detailing everything from presentation times to breaks etc. We also worked with all the speakers beforehand to pre-record some presentations due to time zones. Every speaker was kept well informed of the event and how it would all come together.
We also managed the registration and communication of over 400 delegates, this involved building and managing our ticket system for the event and regular correspondence with each delegate in the lead up to, during and after the event had finished.
Graphics and other content like video and even a custom-built website were all created by our team to ensure the event was a success and that everyone had the information they needed.
We also managed multiple smaller webinars throughout the week as break out sessions for groups of people. All of this detail was planned in advance and communicated to relevant delegates in the lead up to the event. Our team were also on standby throughout for technical support to those delegates who were having trouble accessing the stream.
Production
We custom built a studio space for the duration of this event which allowed local speakers to use it for their presentations. The studio space incorporated a stage backdrop, screens and a custom working space for speakers. We had a multi-cam set up for this event and multiple graphics, video call and stream machines, as well as backups, in case something happened. The event was streamed to a custom-built website using our own platform alongside a backup stream in case the main stream went down. A dedicated internet connection was used for the stream that was separate from all other traffic as well.
We wanted to ensure all delegates were involved as much as possible throughout the event and through all the different breakout rooms and webinars. We were able to do this through online software that allowed us to ask questions, create polls and surveys, make announcements and have Q&A sessions live with speakers. All of this was managed by ourselves and we even trained up one of our clients on the software so they could use it throughout the week easier.
Safety was always paramount throughout this event and we wanted to ensure social distancing measures were in place throughout the week-long event. All surfaces were cleaned regularly throughout the day and hand sanitiser and wipes were made available for everyone. Microphones were assigned to each speaker for the day and cleaned before and after use.
Post-Production
We gave the team a huge amount of data on the event, from how many people watched the stream and how long the average watch was to which delegate joined the most. With the event interaction software, we were able to give them documents showing all the questions that were asked and who answered them etc.
It is easy to finish an event and simply walk away until the next time, not for us. For us, it is important to understand what went well throughout the event and equally what didn’t, this allows us to build on the successes for all of our clients. Alison and the team were very complimentary of the work we did throughout this project and equally, they were a really great client to work with.
