EduCampus is a training organization that organizes annual conferences. This year's event was closed to being cancelled because of the corona measures. Organizing the event online with an interactive live stream offered a solution to allow the event to continue.
‘Effective Learning and Teaching’ is an offline event of EduCampus, which became an online live stream event for the first time this year. Exciting, because would the quality be guaranteed at an online live event?
Fortunately, the reactions from EduCampus and those present were positive. VIXY set up a live streaming platform and thus ensured a suitable design of the online event, programming with multiple ‘rooms’, and interaction options.
The challenge: A hybrid event, physical and online
When a considerable number of tickets had already been sold, the new corona measures threw a spanner in the works for EduCampus. Only 30 people were allowed to be physically present – much less than the number of tickets sold. As a result, the organization had to quickly look for an alternative to the offline event.
Soon, it was decided that the event did not have to be completely online, but both online and offline. A spacious location had to be found and a live stream had to be set up. EduCampus also wanted to follow the daily schedule as much as possible. That is why there had to be a live streaming platform that could provide the educational event online with online programming and 4 simultaneous live streams for the breakout sessions. It was also essential to properly test on location to ensure that the live registration and production were properly aligned with the online live streams. Finally, it was important that people could connect with each other, with an opportunity to ask questions. A challenge that we gladly accepted.
The solution: An educational online livestreaming event
The offline part took place at the NBC Congress Center in Nieuwegein. This airy and spacious location made it possible to keep a distance of more than 1.5 meters. Here, a professional camera team recorded the entire event. The event could also be live streamed by using online tools. The event was therefore not completely online, but the participants could choose whether they wanted to follow the conference at the conference location or online, from home.
And on the subject of live streaming, VIXY came into the picture. ‘Effective Learning and Teaching’ got its own conference environment on the VIXY platform, where participants could follow the online conference. The online live streaming event consisted of four rooms: a main room with introduction and 3 other rooms for the breakout sessions. All rooms had a separate event page. We set up a programme under the stream, so that people could easily navigate from room to room and possibly ‘stay seated’ in a room, just like with the offline event. People were given access to the online event by means of a password on the webpages of the rooms.
The result: Deployment of the right online tools
The event went very well, with enthusiastic response from all involved. During the day, our team was on standby. Beforehand, we had thoroughly tested the live streams with the AV production party on location, to ensure that the live stream would meet expectations. We have also been able to contribute to the technical helpdesk. EduCampus was able to set this up properly in consultation with us.
The win: Successful (online) live event with an 8.7 rated
The biggest gain is that the event could be held and did not have to be cancelled. The online event ‘Effective Learning and Teaching’ was one of the first conferences that could take place after the lockdown last summer. The participants and speakers responded very enthusiastically. The event was rewarded by the participants with an average of 8.7 (from 1 to 10).
EduCampus looks back on a successful day and wants to organize online events more often in the future. The tight deadline posed some challenges, but they had all overcome and formed a lesson for the next online and offline events. EduCampus therefore describes the online event as a nice addition to the online conferences, because it adds an extra option for the participants. This allows them to organize the training even more according to their own wishes and personal preferences. The only requirement? That the technical partners use the right online tools and deliver quality, so that the online events are also of high quality. In this case, VIXY’s Live Streaming Platform has certainly lived up to those expectations.
Go to Live Streaming PlatformEduCampus about VIXY
“The idea to organize an online event made us a bit nervous and uneasy, but it all went well and the positive reactions were heartwarming. The live streaming event part was handled perfectly by VIXY. We have been able to work very well with VIXY. Communication between VIXY and the technicians on location also went smoothly, which is very nice and comforting for us as an organizer on such a hectic day. We look forward to organizing online events more often.”
Cor Meurs | EduCampus