We recently had the pleasure of working with a large FMCG company on one of their flagship events. Over 3,000 staff attended from all over Europe, India and Africa. Bringing people together from across the globe and can be a costly exercise.  However, at this event no-one had to travel too far. Attendees gathered in one of 13 locations and each location was connected via a webcast.

The objective was to inform, align and engage the staff from the various product groups around the company’s objectives for the year.

Without technology it would not be possible to connect people in so many different locations.

The CrowdComms event app was an important part of the connection solution.   It helped overcome the fact that there were disparate locations and was instrumental in all attendees feeling part of the same event. The following are three key ways the event app made the event a success:

Discuss and Connect

First up is the use of Discussion Groups. Think of Discussion Groups as private Twitter style hashtags. Attendees post comments with the most recent appearing at the top of the feed.

The clever thing our client did was to have one of the directors add comments live on stage and encourage attendees to participate.

Once that happened a flurry of comments and suggestions followed. The organisers also displayed the discussion board streams live on screen. This was beamed out to all 13 locations further encouraging uptake and the sense of a shared experience.

Vote-Up!

The second way this event improved the sense of community was to leverage the Q&A and vote-up feature. The impact of questions and suggestions coming from so many different locations in real time was a powerful way to make the attendees feel really connected.

Despite the fact they were so many physical miles apart on three different continents, the event app enable them to participate as part of a unified audience.

Strike a Pose

The third way was a very simple, but incredibly effective, use of the event app. Attendees in various locations took photos and shared them via the app. From selfies on stage to strategy planning drawings and notes, hundreds of images were submitted, verified and published.

Conclusion

Thanks to event technology, hybrid or multi-location events are more sustainable and cost effective.  Even if attendees are in different locations around the world, they can still be brought together to enjoy a connected and immersive event experience.