WHEN POSTPONEMENT
Annabel Eveson , project director at SWM Partners
IS NOT AN OPTION
Annabel Eveson , project director at SWM Partners , discusses strategies for events that cannot be cancelled and increasing engagement through virtual
s the pandemic became a reality , many organisations chose to postpone their events . However , what do you do when your product caters to an important and urgent need and you rely on meetings for their ongoing development and inevitable launch to market ?
This is the conundrum many global healthcare companies faced throughout the pandemic . Diseases didn ’ t disappear , and it was essential that the work of healthcare organisations went on .
One particular type of event this relates to is the investigator meeting . These are vital when it comes to clinical trials , testing a product ’ s viability and educating healthcare professionals .
Strategies for engaging through virtual Companies wove a number of strategies throughout their virtual investigator meetings to inform attendees , maintain engagement levels and bring them together .
Many of these proved very successful – some companies even increased their number of events during the pandemic as a result – and are now being incorporated into virtual , hybrid ( where it ’ s essential we create separate experiences for both audiences , while also creating opportunities for them to connect ) and in-person meetings .
These strategies include :
Maximising the pre-event phase By looking to surveys to gain unique insight into each attendee . Using artificial intelligence ( AI ), this information can be leveraged to personalise the experience and match people based on their shared interests , enabling more meaningful interactions .
Winning with wearables Namely augmented and virtual reality so that attendees can , for example , learn about a product ’ s composition in more detail , or explore how a clinical trial has positively impacted participants ’ physical conditions . These are either sent to people ’ s homes , or incorporated into physical events .
Injecting the fun We ’ ve found that gamification is a great way to foster interaction and connection within and across meeting formats . These include the use of digital avatars to express the personalities of each attendee , and scavenger hunts which are tied to information about a trial or product , to increase the uptake of information .
Exploring creative ways with presentations By looking to interactive elements such as live polling and Q & A functionalities , audience members can add notes to personalise their experience .
Creating compelling content Bite-sized animated video content is an effective way to maintain engagement and communicate complex information in highly visual ways . Now , as we return to in-person , we ’ re even seeing this content , as well as key sessions , being made available for download and viewing on demand . While the pandemic presented the healthcare industry with its fair share of challenges , organisations and their specialist agencies moved quickly and thoughtfully to ensure their meetings could continue . Now , many of the strategies we employed in virtual environments are being brought to life in hybrid and in-person settings too , with great success . CN www . conference-news . co . uk