Basic Event Information

Date: 5 – 6 October 2020
Location: Novi Sad, Serbia
Organizer: M2Communications in partnership with Creative Media Art
Event Type: Online Conference

EVENT CATEGORY: DIGITAL EVENTS | Online Event – ONLINE CONFERENCE

Event description and key objectives

Webiz 8.0 2020 is a live virtual conference on new technologies, innovation and IT entrepreneurship, held this year for the eighth consecutive time.

Four key segments of the conference agenda – Fintech, E-commerce, Gaming and Martech – were presented over the course of two days of this unique virtual conference, featuring 36 speakers from the region, Western Europe and Singapore, who introduced to the audience the latest trends in the above fields during more than 15 presentations and panel discussions. We set ourselves a task to maintain the Webiz continuity and even upgrade the event in these highly challenging times for the event industry. Webiz Upgrade was our goal. Our strategic decision was to organize the entire Webiz 2020 conference in an online format, whose concept was based on a tailor-made virtual solution to bring a brand new digital experience to the audience. With creative use of technology, we were able to set new standards in organizing online conferences in the region.

Key challenges

In these times of uncertainty, pandemic and unprecedented challenges that the event industry is facing, the times when no mass gatherings are organized, it was a highly challenging task to create a completely different virtual event and move boundaries when it comes to gathering relevant professionals and sharing knowledge and experience.

We had to motivate people who are used to attending live events and prompt them to take part in a virtual conference and pass the same or even greater excitement on to them through extraordinary digital experience and offer them interesting content by careful selection of speakers, topics and formats.

Creativity

Webiz has become a synonym of a conference that has been educating and inspiring people for the past 8 years now, through dissemination of knowledge, ideas, new trends and motivation. This time, we were able to move this boundary and provide to the participants a genuine virtual experience and bring about a new dimension of online events in the region. For this occasion, the main conference stage was designed in a genuine, animated 3D environment, wherein we ‘placed’ all the participants, both those addressing the audience from the live studio and those featuring online from remote locations. The entire virtual set-up was live streamed in real time. 

The Webiz virtual 3D environment consisted of:

–           Four different 3D studios for each conference segment;
–           More than 20 animations that complemented the atmosphere of conference space;
–           Animated sliding LED screens displaying sponsored content;
–           Animated sliding LED screens displaying the appearance of online panellists;
–           A plethora of animated backgrounds that additionally enriched the visual experience of the conference;

In addition to the set-up and accompanying solutions through interactive applications, we enabled all the participants to actively participate in content creation and conference experience.  The live streaming platform was upgraded with Q&A and live polls applications to allow the audience to ask questions and give opinions on specific topics.

Innovation

According to many, Webiz 8.0 is the first truly virtual conference in the region. Linking the live program created in the green screen studio with a custom-made 3D environment is the first step forward towards enhancing virtual conference production. By carefully testing camera angles, mapping camera positions and light design we achieved a high degree of realistic visual experience of the conference.

Registration and payment of the conference fees were only made online. The Webiz website is linked to one of the biggest ticketing platforms to simplify the process of registration and payment of conference fees. Access codes for the conference were generated automatically and emailed to the participants.

Highly dedicated production team, one month of preparations and immaculate logistics and organization contributed to the smooth and seamless organization and a stress-free event atmosphere, even though it was the first time we organized it in this format.

Execution

The event was challenging in terms of adjusting the studio to a 3D environment, and complex in terms of technical implementation:

•           Full 3D environment adjusted to live streaming in real time;
•           Custom-made 3D animated studio;
•           Realistic camera angles;
•           Studio with a green screen covering over 60 square metres;
•           More than 25 people involved in executive implementation of the event;
•           Live support team available to conference viewers.

Our virtual studio was equipped with six full HD cameras for precise mapping of positions to achieve a realistic viewing angle in a 3D environment. Live streaming was facilitated by technical tools for real-time appearance of speakers from distant locations live on the 3D studio screen, and audience interaction solutions, like Q&A and live polls software. The event was directed from an off-site production control room wherefrom the production team was running each and every segment of the event organization and live stream via 30 control monitors.

Measurable results

The conference served as a forum for exchanging ideas, innovation, methods and practices, and also enabled the linking of professionals and companies at the international level.

The conference was viewed online by more than 4,273 people. On day one, with 1,851 viewers, the overall view rate was 160,577 minutes, and on day two, with 2,422 viewers, the overall view rate was 215,742 minutes. The average view rate was more than 400 unique viewers per hour. Program-wise, Webiz 8.0 surpassed all its previous editions in live format. The conference was extended to four segments, and the most current topics in the fields of IT, innovation, marketing and gaming, was discussed by 36 speakers. The total of 12 panel discussions and 4 interviews were held.

Speakers included representatives of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, USAID, Gaming and e-Commerce Association, leading gaming companies, such as Playrix RS and Nordeus, eSport association, successful companies from e-Commerce, Fintech and Martech sectors, such as OTP bank, VIP mobile, Direct Media, Intelisale, Donesi, etc.

Communication

An intensive promo campaign was conducted for one month on social media, with primary focus on Facebook and Instagram, and with secondary focus on LinkedIn. This included daily posting of content in the form of videos, animations, announcements, brief statements by participants, and creative IG Stories. Digital banners were posted on two biggest web portals. Four TV appearances of program managers and conference PRs were also organized. Numerous affiliate partners from the ICT and marketing sectors advertized and followed the conference. Webiz was also announced via web portals and newsletters of two most influential business networks – the AmCham and the Serbian Association of Managers. Following the conference, our press release was published by 12 digital media, including all most influential ones, as well as by two TV stations.

As for social media, the event was predominantly followed on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook, and then Twitter. More than 600 participants shared their experiences on social media, with the overall social media reach of over 120,000.

The use of sustainable practices

During the conference preparations and implementation, we took maximum care of health and safety of all the participants and the production team. To that effect, strict COVID-19 sanitary measures were applied. All the rooms and equipment were disinfected prior to the arrival of the production team. Temperature was taken at the entrance to the studio, use of face masks was mandatory for everyone except the hosts and speakers during their presentations or panel discussions. Hand sanitizers were available on all tables, control room and studio. The maximum number of persons allowed in each room was strictly set, and a minimum 2-metre distance was kept. The distance between the speakers on stage was 1.5 metres. Food was only served from closed cardboard boxes, while coffee and drinks were served in disposable paper cups.

Basic Event Information

Date: 30 November 2020
Location: ONLINE
Organizer: Slovenian Convention Bureau
Event Type: Online Award Ceremony

EVENT CATEGORY: DIGITAL EVENTS | Online Event – LIVESTREAM

Event description and key objectives

The Slovenian Convention Bureau in close cooperation with six destination clubs started the development of a national congress ambassador program at the beginning of 2019. Already in its first year, the project proved to be successful for all stakeholders. The nomination of annual congress ambassadors is the most important activity within the program. Due to the pandemic, we were forced to change the format – first from a live award ceremony to a hybrid one, and later from hybrid to an online event. Therefore the Slovenian Convention Bureau organised its first online award ceremony with the nomination of 25 Slovenian Congress Ambassadors for 2020. The event was organised with the support of the Slovenian Tourist Board and the cooperation of Ljubljana Tourism as well as 15 partners.

The event took place on the 30th November at the newly set up online studio GR Studio 20.20 at Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre.

The main goal of the event was to acknowledge and honour the 25 exceptional individuals, who have successfully hosted several international congresses or other business and sports events and have been largely contributing to the promotion and development of Slovenia as a congress and event destination. Due to the epidemiological conditions, this year’s ceremony could not take place live. For this reason, we created an event in a digital environment with the aim to honour the recipients of the esteemed accolades.

The majority of ambassadors were nominated in the field of scientific events, that took place between 2017 and 2019. This year, we also awarded four individuals coming from the sports field for the first time.

Key challenges

1. The major challenge was how to transform the live award ceremony into an online award ceremony with the aim to achieve the same level of recognition and respect to this year’s awarded ambassadors. 
2. As the national ambassador program started only one year ago it was crucial for the success to provide the continuity of the program.
3. Due to the epidemic of COVID-19 in Slovenia, we had to follow strict health and safety instructions from the National Institute of Public Health. This caused many obstacles with the organisation of the online event.
4. Due to covid-19 limitations, we were not allowed to award this year’s ambassadors with a physical plaque.
5. How to welcome 2020 ambassadors on the stage, congratulate them for their achievement and present them to the targeted audiences was also a challenge
6. Due to the epidemiological conditions, we were limited in enabling crucial networking between ambassadors, partners and representatives of different institutions from Slovenia.
7. Most of the stakeholders did not know each other personally throughout this project, so we had to find a way to present this year’s ambassadors to selected audiences and stakeholders.
8. Due to the pandemic, the budget for the award ceremony was hugely decreased in comparison to last year’s event (70 %). Several services and activities had to be removed.
9. The audience is oversaturated with online events, so smart and careful content and time planning were crucial.

Creativity

Congress Ambassadors of Slovenia are individual doctors, scientists, professors, sportspersons and other experts from their respectable fields. They are crucial for attracting international events to Slovenia.  Their voice matters as they can raise the reputation and competitiveness of our destination on an international level. 

Having that in mind, we pre-recorded interviews by professional journalist and cameramen with these year’s ambassadors. Ambassador received similar questions, all with the aim to get their feedback of becoming congress ambassador 2020 and presenting their event. 

As we could not enable live meetings we decided to record live interviews with all this year’s ambassadors prior to the event. A challenging activity due to quarantine of some of the ambassadors (three were infected by Covid-19), many were extremely busy due to their work obligations (doctors involved in health institutions saving lives due to Covid-19) but also limitations with restriction of movement between municipalities.  

During the online award ceremony, short statements of each this year’s ambassador were presented. Complete interviews were published on the official web page of the Slovenian Ambassadors Program and CVB Youtube channel. Interviews will also be translated into English.

In addition, two last year’s congress ambassadors were invited to the studio GR 20.20 live in order to take part at the award ceremony. They shared their views on the future of scientific and business events. In addition one of the interviews with last year’s ambassador was filmed beforehand and played during the online event. Participating guests also explained how event organisation has changed and how they adapted to the new reality. They shared their experiences with events they organised this year (online, live and hybrid). We were very honoured that this year’s honorary congress ambassador was awarded to Prof. Igor Papič, chancellor of the University of Ljubljana who also participated live in the studio at an online event. Online participants at the award ceremony could listen to respected individuals about their views and experiences in these times. With this format of participation of last year’s and this year’s ambassadors, we also enabled continuity of the program.

As national ambassador program started only one year ago it was crucial for the success to provide the continuity of the program. Due to covid-19 limitations, we could not award live this year’s ambassadors with a plaque. It was decided to hand the plaque to each ambassador personally after the online event. This will enable to show respect to each individual but also to intensify to the relationship with each ambassador and talk about future events.

Innovation

The Congress Ambassador Programme is a well-established activity in the meetings industry all over the world. It has been successfully organised for many years and even decades. Innovation within this event is focused on the necessary change from live to hybrid and then to online event within just one month. The online award ceremony was never organised in past.

1. The event was organised at the newly set-up GR Studio 20.20 at the Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre in Ljubljana (GR). Slovenian Convention Bureau has in cooperation with the event and marketing agency Toleranca Marketing and GR’s Technical Team organised this format of the event for the first time.
2. For the live interviews, professional cameraman and journalist with the knowledge about the meetings industry and importance of congress ambassadors program were hired.
3. The online event was streamed live on the Slovenian Ambassador Program official web page. This enabled online participants to be better acquainted with the ambassador program and its services. In addition, the event was recorded and it can be watched anytime with no limitations.
4. The online event started with last year’s video presentation of the live award ceremony with the explanation of why we are not in the position to organise the live event. 
5. All of this year’s congress ambassadors were presented online including their short interviews and long interviews published on the official web page of the Slovenian ambassador program.
6. All this year’s congress ambassadors are and will be personally visited with the aim to hand them the plaque but to also discuss the cooperation. So far six meetings have been organised and it proved as a very great opportunity to intensify the cooperation.

Execution

1. The organiser of the online event was the Slovenian Convention Bureau supported by Slovenian Tourist Board in cooperation with Ljubljana Convention Bureau and 15 partners from all over Slovenia representing six destination clubs. The technical organiser was Toleranca Marketing – PCO and event agency. The host venue with technical equipment and technicians was GR- Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre that built a state of the art studio for live online broadcasting. 
2. The Slovenian Convention Bureau has been cooperating with Toleranca Marketing agency for more than a decade. This was the first online event, where the Slovenian Convention Bureau appointed Toleranca Marketing as a technical organiser. The whole execution of the online award ceremony including preparation of live audio/video recording of the interviews with this year’s ambassadors were excellent.
3. It was planned that the live event will be organised at Ljubljana Castle, the same location as in 2019. Due to the change from live to hybrid including all requested safety and health limitations, it was necessary to find an alternative venue. GR-Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre built an online event studio called GR Studio 20.20. In addition, it educated existing technicians with necessary new knowledge for live online broadcasting. Despite it being their first official live broadcasting event, it was superbly executed.
4. Most of last year’s congress ambassadors (25), all of this year’s congress ambassadors (25), all 17 partners of the project and invited guests, accepted the invitation to participate at the online award ceremony. This was crucial for the success of the event and the continuation of the program.

Measurable results

1. Despite 70 % of the budget cut for the award ceremony enforced by the Government due to Covid-19, the event was successfully executed. The reason for its success was a strategic understanding of the national ambassador program by major partners, excellent relationship with suppliers and partners and honest relationship with all stakeholders. Despite huge budgets cuts, this year’s ambassadors received the same quality of the plaque and attention.
2. Already during the interview recordings with this year’s ambassadors, it was seen that the objectives were met. From all the information received during the online event, after the event via e-mails and phone calls, as well as during personal meetings when handing out the plaques, ambassadors were very honoured to receive this title and were pleased of the online event execution. 
3. An important role was also played by our partners – representing six destination clubs. All 17 partners including major partner Ljubljana Convention Bureau were very much satisfied with the online event and applauded the excellent execution especially in these difficult times where almost the whole country is in lockdown.
4. The online event digitally connected last year’s 25 ambassadors with this year’s 25 congress ambassadors and 17 partners of the project and other important invited guests representing major institutions in Slovenia. The event was seen by more than 300 participants including representatives of different scientific institutions, universities, public institutions and companies from Slovenia.
5. Slovenian Convention Bureau established a platform of 50 Slovenian Congress ambassadors covering various scientific, research, professional, business, sports and other important fields from all over Slovenia.
6. Slovenian Convention Bureau in cooperation with six destinations clubs located in major intellectual capitals in Slovenia has developed a successful program that will enable potential congress and event initiators and organisers to decide to bid for an international event. It is only through creative and strategic cooperation between suppliers and clients that can contribute to the success in a very competitive international market.

Communication

1. It was crucial to secure the continuity of the national congress ambassador programme that was launched in March 2019. The year 2020 was only the second year of the programme. It is understandable that the national congress ambassador programme takes several years to develop and to bring long term results.
2. Despite communicating that the award ceremony will be live in November 2020, all stakeholders accepted the change from live to hybrid and later to the online event. Clear and honest communication of the situation and our goal with all stakeholders of the national ambassador program played an important role. 
3. As the event could not take place live, digital communication was very important. Therefore the official web page of Slovenian Ambassador Program became crucial. Live streaming of the online event was broadcasted on this web page. In addition, all pre-recorded interviews with this year’s ambassadors were uploaded on this web page.
4. Social media promotion was done by @SloMeetings, @tourism_slo, @meetLjubljana in order to promote the event via LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. 
5. Dedicated newsletters were distributed to selected Slovenian and international client databases in December: https://bit.ly/38vRnGA and https://bit.ly/37T3eQe.
6. A press release was published and distributed also by all major partners of the project and on the web pages of distinguished institutions where our ambassadors work.
7. All interviews will be translated into English language and published on the web page. Dedicated e-newsletter will be produced in the beginning of 2021 with the aim to reach the audience for global promotion of the national ambassador program.
8. We continue the communication with last year’s and this year’s ambassadors as they represent the largest value of meetings industry in Slovenia in these uncertain times. Through online and live communication they are optimistic and believe in the importance of life events in their professional fields.

The use of sustainable practices

The award ceremony could not be organised live in 2020. The format was changed to an online event. This has hugely contributed to a more sustainable event than in the previous year, where 100 participants were served at a gala dinner in the beautifully decorated Stanovska hall at Ljubljana castle. 

GR – Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre pays a lot of attention to environmental aspects of their activities, bearing in mind sustainable development and responsibility for the environment. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, GR obtained certificate for healthy and safe events as a venue and as an organiser.

Basic Event Information

Date: 24 – 25 November 2020
Location: ONLINE
Organizer: MPG Plus d.o.o.
Client: Microsoft
Event Type: Online Event

EVENT CATEGORY: DIGITAL EVENTS | Online Event – ONLINE CONFERENCE

Event description and key objectives

NT Remote May*
In May 2020 we were planning the 25th NT Conference. Because of the world’s pandemic situation, we had to postpone live event on November 2020 and transform May event into a virtual one – NT Remote held on 20th of May. With 6.643 unique views, it became the biggest and most complex technological-business virtual event ever in Slovenia and the region.

NT REMOTE – A SMART INTERACTIVE VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE
As the pandemic situation didn’t get any better, we made another important decision in summer – to organize another virtual event instead of a live one, this time upgraded with an interactive smart virtual platform. This year’s NT Conference, therefore, consisted of two virtual events, both very well accepted and rated.

Through the interactive smart platform, we found new ways to share knowledge, engage and connect – to bring the event closer to the participants. We offered useful knowledge through a multitrack concept, enabling the attendees to actively participate, also through interactive workshops and 1:1 consultation with the speakers. The interactive platform also offered different possibilities for interaction among the attendees and many opportunities for our partners to gain quality sales leads.

• Parallel tracks: 8   
• Hours of the program: 92
• Business and technological sessions and workshops in total: 76
• Speakers in total: 119
• Registered users: 946
• 1:1 meetings: 521
• 1:1 individual consultation slots with the speakers: 750

*NT Remote May 2020 already submitted in July – https://www.crossover.si/2020/08/04/nt-remote-2020/

Key challenges

NT Remote May*
With NT Remote in May, we transformed live event to virtual in less than two months. We had to ensure a successful financial structure. As the NT Conference is financed only through sponsorships and attendee fees, which there were none, in this case, we had to attract as many partners as possible. We adjusted live event sponsorship packages to virtual and offered cooperation through event content, visibility, digital goodie bag, questionnaires and other tools for leads collection.

NT Remote November
At NT Conference we don’t really have a client. Microsoft is our partner, therefore our role as agency and client is actually intertwined and many times challenging. After the event in May, we realised, that we will not be able to organize another free event. In times of hyperproduction of free virtual events, the perception of paid virtual events is still on a very low level, and with the fact that the event was not funded but powered by Microsoft, we were challenged with the question of how to add extra value to the event, so that the attendees will be willing to pay the participation fee, as well as how to enable the sponsors to reach their business goals through the event. 

When we recognized those challenges and accepted them, we decided to go ‘all-in’ and to offer something more – a special experience on a smart virtual platform, that will drive the engagement and give the participants a little bit more of a live-event feeling.

Creativity

NT Remote May*
With NT Remote in May, our creative approach based on the target group was to offer a virtual event with relevant content for our diverse audiences (technology professionals and business professionals) in one afternoon. We went with a multitrack concept with 9 parallel tracks, which means that the attendees could choose between 9 different sessions at the same time, and easily switch between them.

NT Remote November
In November, when we offered also the possibility for the participants to interact, we wanted to prolong and upgrade their interaction/communication processes, as well as the possibility for our partners to gain as many leads as possible. Therefore, we created a “Road to NT Remote” week, where we opened the platform with all its possibilities a week before the event. With several different contents and sessions available at the platform we enabled the participant to gain knowledge through the entire week. Besides, we encouraged them to network, to meet, to chat – and through all those actions to create several opportunities for interaction, making business, meet new people, as well as to connect jobseekers with successful Slovenian IT companies and to promote their interaction.

Innovation

NT Remote May*
When preparing the event concept in May, we had in mind, that we need to give added value to all stakeholders (attendees, partner, sponsors, speakers). All those activities needed to be coordinated and carefully connected between each other to bring final success of the event.

NT Remote November
In November the cooperation with partners was also very important from the financial part of the project, which was, just like the NT Conference, self-fundable. Therefore, we designed the event as an effective marketing and sales funnel. Through different possibilities at the platform we engaged them in the process before the event –we implemented customized e-booths with real-time analytics, videos, documents, contacts. We enabled them targeted interaction with prospects through 1:1 meetings, chat and pitches before, during and after the event, and therefore empowered them to carry out their sales activities and to gain as many sales leads as possible, also through exact analytics of their activities.

In order to guarantee the leads for our sponsors we prepared interesting content to attract enough attendees. Besides the classic sessions we offered some interactive hands-on workshops and enabled them to interact at the sessions. One of the biggest added value for the participants were 1:1 consultation slots with the speakers, that were intended for them only. It is only innovative approach that can bring you some added value in the world of free virtual contents.

Execution

NT Remote May*
When organizing the NT Conference in March, we were faced with a complete lockdown. We decided to transform and adjust everything we were planning, in order to give people useful knowledge to provide flexibility and business continuity. We created a virtual event NT Remote in less than two months – the execution of NT Remote was therefore very quick and full of daily adjustments and compromises.

NT Remote November
When we started to plan the NT Conference in November, we had in mind that it could happen that we won’t be able to perform a live event. Therefore, we prepared two scenarios and decided for the second one in summer.

As the event is self-fundable, we had to be extra careful and we had to rethink our priorities – do we invest in a studio again and offer less content and a simple platform, or do we search for more added value and invest in a smart interactive platform, which enables more networking, offer more content and perform the entire event without a studio. We decided for the second option and performed the entire event ‘remote’, which means that not even two people were sitting together in one room – 9 members of organizers team and 15 technicians, all of us were working remote, with all the 8 parallel sessions per day performing on live stream. NT Remote blurred the boundaries between real and virtual and with this event we proved that we are able to perform a high-level virtual event also in most difficult pandemic circumstances.

Measurable results

NT Remote May*
In May it was our first time to be working on a project like this, besides, not many similar events happened in our region, so we had more questions than answers. Through the use of Power BI we received many relevant and useful information, that gave us an insight in the perception of NT Remote.

NT Remote November
When organizing the second event, we had more information, that we could work on, except for the part with the participation fee. But we were convinced that the participants and sponsors will recognize the added value of the event and attend. And they did. Besides that, they all also recognised the platform as an effective tool for networking and engagement.

Registered users: 946
(CXOs; Microsoft partners and customers; business decision-makers; IT experts, specialists and developers; HR managers, marketing managers)

1:1 meetings: 521
1:1 individual consultation slots with the speakers: 750
1:1 sales meetings: 343

General satisfaction: 4,8 out of 5
Content satisfaction: 4,7 out of 5
Satisfaction with event organization: 4,7 out of 5

87 % of participants would recommend NT Remote to their co-workers and friends
83 % of participants would attend the event in the virtual form again (if the pandemic situation wouldn’t allow live event)

One of our biggest challenges was to ensure the successful financial structure of the project also through cooperation with partners – the event was well accepted and supported by 30 NT Remote partners and sponsors.

Communication

NT Remote May*
NT Conference is a brand with 25 years of tradition, so cancellation of it in May was not an option. Even though we postponed it, we found a new way to keep the event alive and to offer relevant content, related to the specific time we live in. Besides that, virtual events like NT Remote can reach not only companies and professionals that are visiting a live event in certain time and place but also others individuals, that are not able to join it.

NT Remote November
When thinking about the event in November and how to bring it closer to a live experience, there was only one answer – to increase the interaction between all the stakeholder. We need to realise the fact that virtual events mostly don’t offer many interaction possibilities, but with some extra features, we created a much more ‘live-event’ feeling.

• Numerous possibilities of interaction between participants, speakers and sponsors 
• Categorization and positioning participants and companies based on their interests
• Smart networking and matchmaking
• Suggestions and recommendations of content and like-minded people
• 1:1 meetings, video calls, chat rooms
• 1:1 individual consultation slots with the speakers

Through NT Remote we didn’t just create new connections, business deals and sales leads, but connected the entire Slovenian IT and business community in one place.

The use of sustainable practices

Sustainability is much easier to achieve with the virtual event in comparison to live. We could say that the word ‘virtual’ is sustainable for itself and very similar to our conference’s concept of digital transformation in general – to keep all the information in the cloud, available and accessible to everyone anytime anywhere.

NT Remote November
Our partner Microsoft has very specific values and we believe that with this event we moved closer to them more than ever before. Some of those sustainable values were also presented by Microsoft President Brad Smith, who held a speech at NT Remote. In his special speech he stressed out that sustainability is very high on the list of Microsoft’s priorities: He presented concrete company actions towards a sustainable and healthy environment and appealed the Slovenian economy to follow their lead.

Besides that, through virtual events, we are empowering people with knowledge – not only ones who are able to visit NT Conference, but everyone, who would like to educate and develop new skills or follow the latest IT and business trends. And just like stated once before – by organizing a virtual event we kept everybody home and safe in order to protect their health and health of people, close to them.

Basic Event Information

Date: 30 April, 28 May, 2 September 2020
Location: ICE Krakow Congress Centre (Krakow, Poland)
Organizer: KBF in cooperation with the City of Krakow and technology partner  CMA – Concept Music Art.
Event Type: Series of webinars

EVENT CATEGORY: DIGITAL EVENTS | Online Event – WEBINAR

Full webinars:

• Krakow Network I: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=247367016338784&ref=watch_permalink
• Krakow Network II: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=285785965805099&ref=watch_permalink
• Vademecum of hybrid events: https://www.playkrakow.com/vods/vod.164

Event description and key objectives

Krakow Network Webinars – organized by KBF, operator of the ICE Krakow Congress Centre, in cooperation with the City of Krakow and technology partner, member of the Krakow Network project, CMA – Concept Music Art, was held on 30/04, 28/05, 2/09/2020 in a hybrid formula – at the ICE Krakow Congress Centre and on Facebook, Zoom and on the online platform at the same time.

The aim of organizing a series of free webinars for the MICE industry was, above all, to stay in touch with all its members, ensure an efficient flow of current information allowing for effective cooperation and mutual support in a difficult situation, as well as taking care of good PR of the event industry in the public opinion.

Key challenges

As a leader of the Krakow Network project bringing together over 500 professionals from the meetings industry from the Małopolska region, we naturally took responsibility for developing a coherent voice in the face of unexpected changes.
So far, we have met every quarter in a group of over 100 representatives of all branches of the MICE sector, and we have been in constant contact with all members of our initiative, offering high educational and networking values.

We wanted to not lose continuity in the exchange of thoughts with the most experienced professionals in the meetings industry in the country and to offer help in the form of various tips to those in need. In response to the distant vision of live meetings, we have created conditions for discussing the safety of events as the key to returning to full professional activity as soon as possible.

We generate strong impact on Krakow as an unrivaled city host, prepared to further stimulate business tourism in the region, ensuring full security and generating the greatest possible range.

Creativity

We saw the crisis caused by the pandemic as an opportunity to work on the further development of the MICE industry, which had to adapt to the new reality, as well as to tighten cooperation between its representatives under new conditions. By organizing the Krakow Network Webinars, during which we shared with the world both the rules developed to ensure the safety of participants and organizers of events after the pandemic, and our know-how in the field of organizing hybrid events, we acted innovative and showed creativity at the level of the entire country because our webinars were the first educational activities on such a scale among entities from the MICE industry in Poland.

We are sure that in order to organize professional hybrid events, the industry must undergo metamorphosis and evolution, which is why we focused on educating professionals in the 1st place, and then convincing clients to organize such events together, instead of postponing them.

Innovation

The Krakow Network project has been aimed at the development of a coherent group of entities belonging to the MICE industry from Małopolska for over 5 years, which, thanks to systematic meetings and tight business relations, aims to increase the number of business and scientific events organized in the Krakow region. In the current situation, which made it impossible for most of the entities responsible for the implementation of events, we intensified efforts to effectively share know-how and communication between the members of the initiative to support each other in functioning in the new reality and develop uniform paths of action to reduce errors and take care of the intact trust of customers and event participants.

We shared the content developed nationally as well as abroad, like in the case of the document ‘Safety of events after the pandemic’, presented at the first webinar, constituting the organizer’s checklist ensuring the safety of all participants of the event as well as all people involved in its preparation and implementation.

Due to the sudden destabilization of the situation in the MICE industry, growing anxiety among professionals in the event industry and the introduced restrictions on the possibility of conducting live meetings, we quickly prepared a series of free webinars on the most current issues, such as: security of events after a pandemic and vademecum of hybrid events to establish mutual forms of possible cooperation in our industry.

Execution

Thanks to long-time caring for building strong relationships as part of the Krakow Network initiative, we had a huge reach just through internal communication with project members with whom we are in constant contact. We also unified communication with all partners and industry media involved.

The webinars were attended mainly by representatives of event venues and agencies, gastronomy, hotels, PRs, PCOs, DMCs, transport, translations, medical emergency and many other subcontractors, as well as participants of the events. The specialists invited to the interview first presented the point of view of the area of the meetings industry they represent, in order to answer the audience’s questions and start a discussion leading to the commencement of joint activities, which is why they all co-created this unique webinar.

Measurable results

Nearly 50 people were involved in the organization of the webinars, i.e. the substantive preparation of the meetings, as well as their production. The broadcast was publicly available via the Facebook and Zoom, carried out from the ICE Kraków Congress Centre, where the event hosts connected remotely with individual speakers and recipients. Both portals also launched live-chats moderated by ICE Krakow employees.

Currently, the content is still available, also on the brand new PLAY KRAKOW platform. Additionally, a unique mailing to the representatives of the corporation was generated in order to present the advantages of the hybrid event formula, as well as to share knowledge on how to involve participants during the event, and above all how to get sponsors and exhibitors and not canceld the events.

Communication

According to Facebook: organic reach of materials – 30,100, minutes displayed – 35,000, total number of views – 10,100, total user activity during the broadcast – 4,300.

The statistics show that our webinars have reached a large audience. The first webinar took place in April, less than a month after the outbreak of the pandemic in Poland. Quick reaction to the difficult situation of the meetings industry and the willingness to share valuable know-how met with a positive response from representatives of the meetings industry. We have managed to tighten relations between the members of our initiative and develop practical, useful tools in the time of a pandemic. A joint attempt to analyze the new situation and taking steps to unite the industry in difficult times allowed us to start a dialogue, thanks to which we observed many examples of the implementation of the coopetition rules. Our webinars also had a positive impact on the public opinion, as they were generally available and illustrated the importance of the meetings industry and the effort it puts in to guarantee safety to event participants and employees.

If you would like to see our webinars, we attached link to them:

•           Krakow Network I -> www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=247367016338784&ref=watch_permalink

•           Krakow Network II ->  www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=285785965805099&ref=watch_permalink

•           Vademecum of hybrid events -> www.playkrakow.com/vods/vod.164

The use of sustainable practices

Due to the pandemic and the resulting limitations, as well as the need to ensure safety, Kraków Network webinars were held online. For their implementation, we used previously prepared materials and scenery, which was also a pro-ecological action, because we did not prepare anything that would adversely affect the environment. Thanks to the hybrid formula, our event did not increase the carbon footprint, thanks to the lack of the need to travel or provide catering.

As an institution, we are pioneers in environmental campaigns in the industry. We have always focused on the quality of what we do, but care for the natural environment and sustainable development are on the list of our priorities and are reflected in our strategy. An example of our activities for the environment is Aleja Kongresowa, which has been created since 2017, which consists in planting trees to commemorate the most important congresses taking place in the city. The impressive and very durable London plane trees not only decorate the space along Monte Cassino Street and the ICE Krakow Congress Centre in an original way, but also help in the fight against environmental pollution.

The KBF – organizator of the webinars is taking further pro-ecological activities, including connecting ICE Krakow Congress Centre to the MPEC district heating system, installing automatic switches, using energy-saving light bulbs, aerators in bathrooms, sorting rubbish.

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.

Basic Event Information

Date: 26 November 2020
Location: Budapest, Hungary & ONLINE
Organizer: Turizmus.com, Visual Europe Group
Client: Business Traveller Hungary
Event Type: Virtual Trade Show

EVENT CATEGORY: DIGITAL EVENTS | Virtual Event – Virtual Trade Show

Event description and key objectives

MICE Business Day is a boutique show with a personal and friendly atmosphere. Suppliers come mainly from Hungary and the Central European region. MICE Business Day Budapest was organized 6th time but this year virtually. Virtual MICE Business Day Budapest was a unique event, a virtual MICE conference combined with an online B2B 1-2-1 workshop. An event that came directly to your screen /home/office!

These were the parts of the event:

• Virtual welcome party
• Virtual conference + exhibition
• Virtual 1-2-1 workshop

A virtual event which helped to restore and developing business connections, growing network, and showing the way for the restart of the travel industry. During the online workshop hotels with meeting facilities, venues and program providers could present their offers to the representatives of event organizers, associations and corporate travel agencies.

Key challenges

The pandemic situation crossed over every plan we made about the event. This new situation was brand new for everyone in the tourism and event sector but we plenty of useful information on this project and positive energy from the professionals.
During the summer there were ups and downs. There were mitigations and tightening. We wanted to organize it in a hybrid way but in the end, we decided to organize it on a virtual platform.

Key challenges:
•           to turn the originally live event into a virtual conference and workshop
•           finding the best platforms for such a  complex event (welcome party , conference, 1-2-1 workshop)
•           convincing the exhibitors that a virtual event can also be successful for them
•           as a for-profit company the budgeting of the virtual event was a huge challenge
•           Instead of the originally planned fam trip we had to find other ways to attract hosted buyers – the number of registered “hosted buyers” reached the last year’s participant number.
•           convincing the decision-makers that the MICE Business Day as a virtual event can also be  successful and effective
•           learning new methods of virtual events organizing that is totally different from live events

Creativity

The audience, without exception, consisted of MICE market professionals. All important Hungarian players of the sector were represented among the audience. DMCs, PCOs, agencies, hotels, event venues, service providers. Since the event had a strong industrial focus, it was an important goal to showcase as many technologies and approaches as possible on how our industry can operate in these difficult times. In the technical implementation, we used resorted to the use of virtual reality, a web-based online solution and a physical broadcast studio. We considered it important that the event also serves a strong educational purpose. The topics of the conference, the presentations and the communication were fixed in all respects ro the positive, motivating message according to which the crisis is over, that we have settled our ranks, here are plenty of solutions and impact studies on how we can hold events in the times ahead.

Innovation

Adapting to the situation, that’s what we’ve always been the best at. We have proven that it is not necessary to look for a single perfect platform for an event, because by breaking down the event into its constitutive elements, it can be held perfectly well by coordinating several platforms. Moreover, in our case, we can proudly say that we achieved not only similar but better results, as if we had imposed a single platform onto the users.

Virtual reality: we hosted a welcome party for hosted buyers and partners in the event venue. We have demonstrated that if a platform that requires extreme digitization is used for the right purposes, it may be easily used by a much less digitized audience. During the welcome party, there was no pressure, dates or tasks on the participants. They have apparently perceived this as a game so they learned comfortably on the platform and we had a resounding success.

Broadcast studio: Professional studio with the same technical equipment as television programs (including a 30 m2 LED screen, professional cameras, media servers, etc.)

Online platform for one-to-one meetings: with a transparent and easy-to-use web interface that stylizes the floor plans and stands of traditional exhibitions, video communication with one click.

Execution

Virtual reality: We created our own private event space. Users have created custom avatars to suit their tastes, making their virtual characters diverse. Following a brief greeting, we allowed users to freely explore the platform at their own pace. 13 of the guests were 65 years old and all of them gave extremely positive feedback on this.

Broadcast studio: 30 m2 LED screen, professional sound, light and video technology, 20 technical staff worked on the performance. Between each performance, we disinfected the stage and equipment. The toilet was disinfected after each use. Only people with face masks were allowed in the entire studio area. Body temperature was measured at the entrance. Food and drink have only been consumed in a prepackaged form on the designated place.

Online platform: tor one-to-one meetings, we considered it important to provide an easily transparent platform, so we developed a unique user interface that resembled the map and stands of a real exhibition. The essence of the “digital primitive” approach is to put functionality above all else. On the map of the exhibition, they click on a booth that looks like in reality. In addition, exhibitors and buyers could had opportunity to contact each other directly at any time to collect leads in addition to existing appointments

Measurable results

The event consisted of 3 parts:
•           Virtual Welcome Party
•           Virtual Conference
•           Virtual 1-2-1 workshop.

General results:
•           100 registered Hungarian and international buyers
•           31 exhibitors
•           250 registered professionals (buyers and visitors)

Conference: 14 presentations – round table discussions, online interviews. Altogether 20 Hungarian and international speakers. Around 250 professionals followed the online conference.

Workshop: 31 Hungarian and international exhibitors. 372 online appointments.

Communication

MICE Business Day Virtual got an extremely big media coverage on the Hungarian market, bigger than ever before, regarding the fact that this was the very first virtual event in MICE tourism sector in Hungary.

Although there were less international participants than earlier, we received many positive feedback from the surrounding countries. The news of MICE Business Day appeared at all kind of platforms available: print magazine, online magazine, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc. The number of publications appeared about the event was beyond 100 articles mainly on the Hungarian market.

The use of sustainable practices

• Only naturally degradable and non-polluting substances were used for cleaning and disinfection.
• We only served fair-trade coffee to customers in 100% recyclable packaging
• Raw materials for catering meals were sourced from local producers, thereby reducing the ecological footprint and supporting local small businesses
• We minimized personal contact throughout the organization and implementation process, thus minimising the ecological footprint of the Event by traveling as little as possible
• When selecting the lecturers, we tried to keep an even gender ratio, so that both women and men were represented 50-50% amongst the lecturers and presenters.
• Only low-consumption LED lamps were used in the lighting equipment
• We completely eliminated disposable plastic tools and packaging from the event.
• Selective waste collection
• To minimize hazardous waste (eg used rechargeable batteries instead of simple batteries in microphones)

Basic Event Information

Date: October 1, 2020
Location: Gornja Radgona Slovenia and ONLINE
Organizer: Bruketa&Zinic&Grey
Client: Radgonske Gorice
Event Type: Press event

EVENT CATEGORY: DIGITAL EVENTS | Hybrid event – MULTI HUB EVENT

Event description and key objectives

Research shows the wine’s exposure to light decreases the quality of its aromas. Untouched by Light (UBL) is the world’s first sparkling wine made, sold and tasted in complete darkness. Night vision goggles are used during night harvest, bottle rotation and packaging. The bottle is 99% black and wrapped in black foil to additionally protect the wine from light and air contact. To launch this unique product by Radgonske gorice (RG) on the global market we needed wine writers all over the world, as well as RG’s international distributors, to taste the wine in order to spread the word and boost sales. But due to the pandemic, we were not able to gather them all in Gornja Radgona or anywhere else for that matter. So we decided to go online and bring the wine as well as the Untouched by Light experience to their homes. But we also invited several local journalists and partners to Radgona, as many as it was allowed due to the pandemic. So we had ourselves not one, but two simultaneous events, one in Radgona and the other online. Not only that, we decided to turn to the dark side again and make the central part of the event in complete darkness

Key challenges

The big lunch event was initially planned to happen in April 2020 during the Glass of Bubbly – London’s biggest annual trade & press tasting. To create a memorable experience, we planned to build a darkroom where a blind sommelier would serve the wine. But then COVID-19 happened so our first challenge was to monitor the pandemic daily and think of a new and flexible launch plan which could be implemented quickly. The pre-launch campaign in 2019 has already created a hype around the product, so our new plan had to also live up to those expectations. End of August we decided to organize the event on October 1 and to invite 100 wine writers and RG’s international distributors to participate online, as well as 30 local ones (maximum allowed) to physically come to Radgona. We needed their RSVP-s ASAP so that the sample packages could get to them on time for the event, weather they lived in California or Hong Kong, and especially because of the air traffic reductions due to COVID. Another challenge was to provide a high-quality sound and vision online signal from the Radgona cave, where the central part of the event happened. But the biggest challenge was to create the Untouched by Light experience as well as a smooth event flow both on the spot and online at the same time and in 10 different time zones.

Creativity

The life of each Untouched by Light sparkling wine is spent entirely in the dark, all the way from the night harvest, to bottle rotation, packaging, transport, sales and up until the tasting. This is why we decided to also do the tasting part of the event in complete darkness of a natural cave, where the wine ages. To transfer the same experience online, our online guests received instructions on how to prepare for the tasting at home. They needed to dim the lights, decrease screen brightness and invite someone they like to share the experience

Innovation

We used thermal cameras during the tasting in the cave for guests to be able to follow the event online. The thermal cameras showed the sommelier who was explaining how to open, serve and taste the wine in complete darkness. The sommelier and the hostesses wore military night vision goggles to be able to see, open, taste and serve the sparkling wine to guests on the spot.

Execution

The program kicked-off with the moderator of the event greeting the guests on the spot and online from the Dom Penine’s (The House of Sparkling Wine) garden in Gornja Radgona, a small town on the Mura river, the border of Slovenia and Austria, where the product is made. Then we screened a film about the town so the international guests could get a sense of where we are. After the welcoming speech of RG’s and UBL’s winemaker, there was a live musical performance followed by a film about the creation of the product, all of which was screened to online guests. During the performance and the film screening, the guests who were on the spot moved from the garden inside the cave, the place where the wine ages and the premiere tasting was about to happen. The sommelier had the honour of being the first one in the world to taste and comment on the wine and he invited all guests to do the same. Each online participant received a product sample for tasting prior to the event, and the guests in Radgona were served in complete darkness by the hostesses with night vision goggles. In the final part of the event we organized a Q&A session back in the garden, with the winemaker, RG’s sales representative and the sommelier. The moderator was reading out the questions and comments the online participants have been writing down via Zoom chat and some of them even joined us live via camera.

Measurable results

In 2 months after the event the client reached 25% of total stock sales, including distributor’s orders from China, Switzerland, Czech Republic and Liechtenstein, as well as a new distributor deal in Austria and currently negotiating distribution to Japan, Canada and Belgium.

Communication

The event was attended by 60 major international wine writers (NYT, Washington Post, Independent, Forbes, Bloomberg, Decanter…) followed by over 100 media mentions internationally since the launch in October.

Basic Event Information

Date: 20.3.2020 – 29.5.2020
Location: ONLINE
Organizer: CREATIVE PRO (KE) s.r.o.
Client: T-Systems Slovakia
Event Type: Online campaign

EVENT CATEGORY: DIGITAL EVENTS | Online event – LIVE STREAM

Event description and key objectives

Only in 6 days after lockdown, over few nights we have proved flexibility by creating and starting a long-term and complex online internal/external communication program called #TFROMHOME to support the corporate culture as well as the human aspect that crises brought up: the importance of togetherness. In March 2020 in Slovakia, people end up locked down in their homes. Companies were suddenly facing a new reality with all their employees working remotely from home. How to communicate and stay positive appeared to be the biggest challenge for everybody. With a limited budget and immediate action, we have designed a properly structured long-term program full of content that inspired people on how to live in a new normal, motivated them being more productive, supported stability, and brought people together digitally.

T-Systems Slovakia is a company with a strong brand positioning and a positive image. It is also one of the biggest employers in Kosice. Fast reaction and flexibility to the lockdown crises was naturally coming from their DNA.

Objectives:

1. Inspire on how to live in a new normal and to keep the positivity
2. Motivate for better productivity
3. Maintain work-life balance
4. Support corporate culture and evoke a feeling of stability – company cares, people matter

Key challenges

• Fast reaction to restriction and creation of proper substitution to the cancelation of the physical event.
• Limited budget.
• Work during strict hygienic restrictions and find the right solutions for producing our program

Creativity

Creativity and innovation were brought by several perspectives.
We put together a community that created, communicated, engaged towards keep connected and socialized digitally.
The program was live-streamed directly via various social media channels of T-Systems Slovakia to households both internal and external audience.

From a dramaturgical perspective:
We wanted this new concept of internal/external communication to be sincerely crafted with a human touch. We co-created content pretty intuitively and spontaneously where inspirations came from both us as agency, management and employees. This flexibility, proactivity and reactivity to the community led to a well-balanced and unique content for our audience.

Playful challenges were bringing us to the homes of employees who let us get closer and more personal. The authentic custom-made fairy tale was designed based on the everyday life of the T-Systems employees.

Innovation

From a production perspective, we designed a greenfield, straight forward solution in a lockdown environment.  Only in 6 days we were able to transform from live events to online events communication company, which deliver outstanding and customized content for both internal and external audience. With a limited budget and limited time for realization, we offered 35 performers for live concerts, 10 local speakers for talks, 10 management leaders for live cooking,5 coaches for healthy mornings and 10 celebrities for early learnings.

We put together a community that created, communicated, engaged towards keep connected and socialized digitally.

Execution

#TFROMHOME was an online internal/external communication campaign run for 10 weeks on social media platforms of T-Systems Slovakia. It offered various program structured in several blocks. Each program had a unique concept and dramaturgy. From entertainment, healthy lifestyle to the educational program.

• Monday Early Learning – an educational program for children.
• Employee Challenge – to share homes and be open with their private lifestyle
• Tuesdays LIVE cooking – performance by management of the company
• Thursdays LIVE talk show – with interesting guests on current topics 
• Fridays LIVE Concerts – with famous Slovak bands and singers

From a communication perspective, we created an original design for each block of the program, to keep program clearly and smartly organized and communicated, that people can differentiate which program is coming, and get used its regularity and incorporate it to their schedules.

Measurable results

The biggest success is the community spirit that was created around T-Systems Slovakia. We pulled together a community of employees, family members and friends of T-Systems Slovakia who spent 10 weeks together digitally and created a bond in several layers. Thanks to that, the employee branding image grew massively. We measured a visible increase of interest in the T-Systems Slovakia Brand in region / Slovakia and abroad. On top of that, we noticed visible results in HR where employee fluctuation decreased by 36 percent.

From the communication perspective growth of FB Likes +35%, growth of FB followers: + 50% and posts reached over 470.000 unique users on Facebook who has created 95.200 interactions with our posts. Also, we’ve recorded over 240.000 views on videos assumption of campaign reach during the campaign 1 mil unique users on social media platforms. On top of that noticed more than 684.800 minutes of views of our content which means 1 year and 110 days of constant watching.

Communication

Communication was divided into several phases.

1.         Teasing campaign (duration one week ahead of) about the upcoming program
2.         Streaming of LIVE events/program – engagement from employees via shares, comments, and likes
3.         Recap (1day afterwards) we celebrated results, shared pictures and comments
4.         Several PR articles were shared both in marketing media and local media

The media campaign was running on T-systems social media channels Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Organizers and performers shared their unique stories and their individual approaches to the program, inviting people to participate and engage while employees, family members and friends reshared via their own posts.

The use of sustainable practices

Everything was online, 0 waste attitude was included in the communication too.

Basic Event Information

Date: 20 March – 1 May 2020, once per week
Location: ONLINE
Organizer: Black Pony d.o.o. and FM agency d.o.o.
Client: Kurzschluss
Event Type: Online music event // online concert

EVENT CATEGORY: DIGITAL EVENTS | Online Event – LIVE STREAM

WATCH THE EVENT VIDEO – https://vimeo.com/491751771/6d9f26b146

Event description and key objectives

Slovenia, like the rest of the world, had to implement preventative measures to limit the spread of the Covid 19 amongst its population and protect the most vulnerable of its community. Self-isolation was one of the key preventative measures to limit the spread of the virus, but was more likely not to be taken as seriously by active population, especially younger people who oftentimes felt the virus didn’t pose as big of a threat to them.*As one of the biggest entertainment brands in Slovenia, Kurzschluss had direct access to more than 35.000 people aged between 18 to 45 through social media channels and emails. We decided to start an initiative to encourage active population and young(er) people to stay home through hosting free weekly live stream music experiences every Friday when the temptation for socializing was at it’s highest. Our key objectives were to convince as many people to attend our online parties from their home as we did to visit our live events in the past (approx 4000/event) and to raise awareness about the importance of social-distancing by reaching at least 50% of people aged 18 to 45 through earned media. On 20th of March, when quarantine was officially declared in Slovenia, we launched #ŽURAMDOMA, a series of 7 online events, hosting Slovenia’s most renowned DJs.

• *Source: Ninamedia, independent research agency, published: https://bit.ly/3mkJdWq
• Statement of general director University Medical Centre Ljubljana: https://bit.ly/3njWHTQ
• Sarcasm: https://bit.ly/3mie5qE

Key challenges

Although Kurzschluss hosted over 230 internationally awarded DJ’s, acts and musicians and counted over 250.000 visitors, organized over 60 events in different experimental venues (from warehouses to rooftops), this was the first time Kurzschluss organized a series of online music events. The key challenges were:

1. Time to market
We had to act fast to use our influence as a party brand and encourage young people to help limit the spread of the virus. We had to secure all of the DJ bookings, production teams and equipment needed to implement a live broadcast from artist’s homes that were not originally intended for such events.

2. Keep our brand promise
We wanted to stay true to our commitment of providing best-in-class clubbing and music entertainment even without a venue and no option of a full-service experience with an extensive venue and production infrastructure (technical support, amplification, hostesses, catering, bartending, etc.)

3. Influence young people
Convincing young people to attend and stay at home wasn’t an easy task. Government and medical experts had a hard time getting their attention, so we needed to find a way to get them to listen. Literally.

4. Safe production
How to organize and coordinate the whole team (DJ, cameras, photographer) in one room, but still respect all precaution measures?

Creativity

1. #ŽURAMDOMA
We named the project #ŽURAMDOMA (eng. #PARTYATHOME); an intentional spin-off of a slogan #STAYHOME to encourage safe partying while promoting social distancing.

2. Creative Communication approach with 200 euros budget
#ŽURAMDOMA was free to attend since it was designed as a social responsibility project. Since we didn’t generate any revenue, we were limited expenses wise and only had 200 euros to invest in advertising. We had to be creative to reach a broader audience, so we made custom video invitations with DJs, where every artist invited fans to participate in the movement and used these videos to generate publications. To increase media coverage we generated multiple press releases with custom articles and approached media one by one. We encouraged the use of a hashtag #ŽURAMDOMA that helped spread the word of a safe online party every Friday night without a financial investment.

3. Creating a space for connection
We designed a virtual dancefloor, where attendees could join in a live broadcast, show their dance moves, and encouraged attendants to participate in a live debate, that allowed people to interact and be a part of a community even though they were home alone.

4. Branding the virtual stage
We upgraded the experience from first shows with the use of new front layer, that reflected the overall graphic image and stage at offline Kurzschluss events. It was used to communicate the values of Kurzschluss to the followers through custom made messages.

Innovation

We launched the campaign on the day lockdown was set in Slovenia and were the first promotor in Slovenia that launched free and safe parties with electronic music via live stream with renowned Slovenian DJ’s. We designed a branded virtual dancefloor, where the attendees could join in a live broadcast and show their dance moves and gave the attendees a chance to share their opinion and codesign our lineup for upcoming online events.

Execution

#ŽURAMDOMA launched on March 20, on the day that lockdown was officially declared in Slovenia. Live streaming was held up every Friday at 8.00 p.m. for 7 consecutive weeks of lockdown on our official Facebook page. The first one hosted legendary DJ Umek, whose 2-hour live stream generated more than 5000 users, 8000 comments and reached more than 400.000 Facebook users in the following days. Next in line were Ian Sound, Damir Hoffman, DJ Shark, DJ Psiho, Tim Urbanya and Brina Knauss. The realization of the initiative was a great challenge from the technical, production and logistical point of view during the lockdown. For high-quality live stream production, which in most cases took place with three cameras, it was necessary to ensure a sufficiently high data transfer rate in locations and spaces that were not originally intended for such events. As we wanted to give our fans more than just an ordinary live stream experience, we came up with an idea and implemented a technical solution to communicate the vision and values of Kurzschluss and to engage fans with the help of Zoom in a live stream. During the broadcast, the moderator took care of the communication with the fans in the chat room and at a remote location, a small team took care of the production.

Measurable results

From March 8 until May 1 #ŽURAMDOMA online events cumulatively reached 683.442 Facebook users*, 635.175 (92 %) of the people reached were aged between 18 and 45. Seven online events #ŽURAMDOMA generated 380.500 views, 12.196 comments and 1.232 shares. Keeping in mind that Slovenia has a population of 2.1 million people and 700.569**people aged betweed 18 – 45, we reached 90% of Slovenians in the target group. With 8 press releases in 7 weeks we reached a value of 34.461 € media coverage (AVE). Our Return on investment**** was a staggering 2774 %. Most importantly: Thanks to #ŽURAMDOMA Kurzschluss saved the party!

*Total sum of People reached through all 7 online videos; keep in mind that 1 person could attend more than 1 event.

**Source: https://www.stat.si/StatWeb/

***Total sum of People reached in a time period (March 19-May 10); keep in mind that 1 person could be reached through multiple media channels.

**** Method ROI was calculated = ((Final Value of Investment− Initial Value of Investment) / Cost of Investment ) × 100%. Final Value of Investment consists of sum AVE, reach and views value, comments value and shares value. Initial Value of Investment and Cost of Investment consists of sum costs of media buying, costs of purchasing and renting equipment, costs of clipping.

Communication

We registered 83 press publications (75 in digital, 5 in print and 3 in TV media) and cumulatively reached 5.048.140* people. Press releases were not only promotion/product-oriented but focused mainly on the social aspect of Covid 19, spreading awareness about prevention and taking a responsible precaution on limiting the spread of the virus by staying home, even on a Friday night. With a 200 euro investment in media buy and a key objective of spreading awareness about the importance of safe and responsible social-distancing gatherings during the quarantine we surpassed our primary goal of reaching at least 50 % of people aged 18 to 45 through earned media. That was a big challenge primarily among our target group, whereas the younger generation was more likely to take government and experts advice less seriously**. Using popular DJ’s as their role models in a campaign that involved their point of interest (parties), we got their attention and could convey a more serious and important message.

*Total sum of People reached in a time period (March 19-May 10); keep in mind that 1 person could be reached through multiple media channels and multiple times.

**Source: https://www.rtvslo.si/zdravje/logarjeva-okuzbe-med-mladimi-ker-bolezni-covid-19-ne-jemljejo-resno/533199

The use of sustainable practices

When hosting original offline Kurzschluss events, with approx 4000 visitors per night, we have to consider not only the logistics of getting international artists to the event venue but also the logistics of visitors within the city of Ljubljana and from other parts of Slovenia, the amount of plastic waste like straws, cups and plastic bags for rubbish waste, created every day of the event and venue energy. With online events #ŽURAMDOMA we still have achieved the engagement and results we wanted but without the environmental impact, measured by carbon footprint.