Basic Event Information
Date: 17-18 November 2020
Location: Krakow, Poland
Organizer: Foundation of Public Economy and Administration
Event Type: Socio-economic, international
EVENT CATEGORY: DIGITAL EVENTS | Hybrid Event
Event description and key objectives
The Open Eyes Economy Summit – International Congress of the Economy of Values is an event held annually in Krakow, Poland, since 2016. Not only it is a top opportunity to get to know the most important and the hottest trends in contemporary social and economic thought, but also it is a real chance to make the world better. For the first four years in ICE Cracow Congress Centre, we have been gathering over 3 000 participants: both business, academic, non-governmental, political, but also students and journalists. The main goal of the event is to spread awareness of the importance of the economy of values and to show a world based on social values and ecology, which puts people above economic profit. 2020’s edition, was special due to the global COVID-19 pandemic – we decided to organize a hybrid edition. With the invaluable contribution of our technology partner Content Music Art (CMA) and our PR partner ESKADRA, we have built a dedicated virtual platform functions which made OEES to be watched #wherever you want. Nevertheless, we always put our program and its content first. OEES agenda is not commercialized, we put great emphasis on unpopular, difficult but important topics.
The main theme paths of OEES 5 were:
•FIRM -IDEA:
-MAN IN THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ENVIRONMENT
-COMMONS AND COMMONING IN THE CONTEMPORARY ECONOMY
•CITY -IDEA:
-UNITED IN DEVELOPMENT
-ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE
•BRAND – CULTURE:
-EDUCATION
– NEW GENERATION
-ANTHROPOCENE
Key challenges
The biggest challenge of this special, hybrid edition of the Congress was the transfer of the whole event to the online world, because, in the opinion of the participants, our event has been always distinguished by the special atmosphere on the spot. We had to figure out how to keep the elements to which our participants and partners have already gotten used to so as not to disappoint them and lose the trust of the audience. The big challenge in organizing OEES online was also keeping the participant’s attention in front of the screen. The event industry has noticed a high jadedness with online conferences. Users, tired of their excess, have lost interest. The main thought accompanying us when designing the event and its communication was uniqueness – making an event that will stand out from others online and will delight and encourage the recipient. The security of the event’s production during the Covid-19 pandemic was also a demanding test. Through proper preparation of regulations and procedures, conducting trainings and cooperation with trusted partners, we managed to maintain a consistent approach of everyone present to work safety. Last but not least: a huge barrier for the organizers was the legislation in Poland in connection with the pandemic. In the last two months, the uncertainty and ambiguity of regulations forced us to prepare at least four different plans for the organization of the event, not knowing which one would be eventually possible to carry out.
Creativity
To meet our goals, we managed to implement some ideas that made the 5th edition of the OEES unique and attractive. The basic axis of the creative activity was to create the message of the fifth edition of the Congress, which was: imagination and community. That is why the main slogan of the campaign promoting OEES was: “LET’S IMAGINE … and start to act”. For the same reason, we decided to create a dedicated, unusual platform with functions adapted to the online form (e.g. shorter and more dynamic agenda than during the stationary event), in which the participant had a sense of participation and community. The sense of community and uniqueness of OEES participants was additionally strengthened by sending welcome packs to our participants’ homes. Thanks to establishing valuable partnerships, we have managed to provide everyone with a specific set that we called “set of world-fixing gadgets”.
We believe that the imagination and creativity are stimulated by culture, so we included in the congress program the story of the Polish performer and sculptor, Paweł Althamer, about golden costumes symbolizing equality and community. Since the space, where we have gathered thousands of people so far, was empty, this time we decided to fill the building with the People exhibition, symbolizing the OEES audience. The Congress was also accompanied by the Open Eyes Festival – a series of artistic events related to the theme of OEES (e.g. exhibition Anthropocene – the era of man).
Innovation
Especially for OEES 5, a dedicated online engaging platform was created. We worked on the implementation of the platform and its adaptation to the needs of OEES together with our technological partner Concept Music Art. The OEES platform, among other solutions of this type available on the market, was distinguished by the variety of functions and activities that we conducted during the two days of the Congress, trying to recreate the atmosphere of a real event.
Registered OEES participants had access to:
- foyer – a kind of OEES map with a continuous broadcast from the live studio, where we showed the Congress from the backstage
- 5 scenes with live broadcast of different thematic paths, where we remotely connected with 109 people from around the wor
- live chats to exchange opinions, with the possibility of creating a private conversation
- networking zones with 5 discussion tables
- individual Q&A with selected OEES speakers
- expo zone where visitors could visit the stands of 19 sponsors and partner institutions of the Congress
- live stands – live meetings with representatives of partners
- online bookshop where partners’ publications could be purchased
- conference materials, with the possibility of downloading publications.
- agenda and speakers profiles
We also approached the issue of publishing the recordings after the Congress in an unconventional way, which, thanks to cooperation with the City of Krakow, we placed on a special municipal VOD platform – PLAY KRAKOW
Execution
Since the Polish law forbade organizing events with audience, we decided to transfer the event online, but keep the hybrid formula of the program – over 50 speakers appeared on four stages at the ICE Congress Center in Krakow. 17% of all 160 were foreign speakers. The program was held in Polish and English, and each session was translated simultaneously. A user who wanted to register for the Congress could choose from two types of tickets: free (with limited access to the platform) and paid (with access to all platform functions and recordings)
Our goal was to create an event that would match TV production. Not only was the platform to help us in this, but also for this reason we used dynamic animation with a catchy jingle. We also wanted the OEES to be attractive in perception, and its visual side to be catchy and remembered, hence the variety of backgrounds and graphics. On site, we also arranged a live studios where the OEES host spoke live to the audience about the Congress during breaks, interviewed speakers and partners, and showed backstage work.
Over 200 people worked on the site to organize the OEES (vision and multimedia, translators, the team responsible for the program, communication, participant service, platform service), including nearly 70 volunteers, the work is an invaluable asset. OEES would not be successful if it were not for the commitment and cooperation with long-term and trusted partners – Concept Music Art and The ESKADRA Creative Agency.
Measurable results
We managed to organize the largest (which is confirmed in numbers) and the best (which is confirmed by the opinions of participants) hybrid event on a closed platform in Poland.
• 3,000 participants
• 27 countries
• 90 000 views of the platform
• 160 speakers (109 speakers connected remotely, 51 personally on stages at ICE Kraków; hosts of paths on stage)
• 3,457 hours spent by users on the platform
• 976 downloads of congress materials
• 759 sets of world-fixing gadgets
• 43 publications purchased from BOOKSHOP
• 4 live scenes and OEES studios
• 5 networking thematic tables with Q&A with selected speakers
• 89 sponsors and partner organizations
• 19 stands in the expo zone, including 16 live meetings with representatives of partners
• 36 hours of live program
• 63 program points currently available for playing on the platform
• Media: AVE – 1.5 million €, media reach- 25 million people
• 2 main OEESpublications: Report on the State of the State – 8 Deadly Sins of the Republic of Poland, Open Eyes Magazine
• 140 alerts and experts opinions, 7 reports published by the Open Eyes Economy think tank.
Online edition, on the one hand, reduced the production costs of the event on site, but on the other hand, it resulted in increased expenditure on technology. It is worth mentioning here that the event is not organized for profit, and the organizer is a Foundation, which allocates any surpluses for statutory purposes – including support for the university community in Krakow
Communication
The main goal of OEES communication is to have a real impact on the reality that surrounds us. Thanks to this, we are called the most progressive event regarding values and sustainable development, during which brands wishing to talk honestly about responsibility want to show themselves and be identified with the event.
During the OEES, companies implement its PR assumptions focused on values in business, and we, as organizers, help in this process by preparing a whole range of services and solutions. In addition, the most important media titles in Poland (ONET, RFM FM, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna) took media patronage over the fifth edition of the OEES. In 2020, the Open Eyes Economy activities generated media coverage with a reach of 25 million people, and the advertising equivalent was 1.5 million €. The Open Eyes Economy fan page on the FACEBOOK is followed by almost 10,000 aware people from all over the world, which places OEES in the first place in terms of the popularity of national congresses on socio-economic issues. It is also worth to emphasize that is not only our success but also the added value of PR generated at the same time for the partners of the event.
These results prove that we are treated seriously and our stakeholders place trust in us. We managed to gain this trust by credible building the Summit’s communication throughout the year. In 2020, we implemented over 30 smaller online events that were preparation – stops on the way to the November summit
The use of sustainable practices
Open Eyes Economy Summit is the largest event in Poland concerning the theory and practice of sustainable development. Business and its surrounding institutions are eager to join the conversation about the economy of values, supporting and actively participating in OEES. Due to such partnerships we also manage to implement the value economy theory in practice. OEES is also an agora for our partners to spread their responsible practices, because it is at OEES that they meet an interested group of recipients.
As a Congress, we also cooperate with other Polish events dealing with the subject of sustainable practices. Our partner events include, among others, Green Film Festival or CSR Fair.
We also try to implement sustainable practices within the OEES organization. For example, shipping welcome packs to our participants were carried out through cooperation with a courier company which, thanks to its network of parcel machines, significantly reduces the carbon footprint of the parcel. In those parcels, our participants received fair trade certified product samples, as we cooperate with Fairtrade Organization since 2016. This year‘s hybrid edition has greatly accelerated the process of reducing printed materials for the event. Most of the publications and congress materials (folder, magazine, and information materials) have been published online. What is more, part of the catering service of the event was provided by a social enterprise employing socially excluded people.
