The launch of a virtual networking event
The Coronavirus outbreak has led to many businesses across the UK and internationally having to adapt the way they work in order to ensure their operations fall in line with the current government advice on social distancing.
As a result of the recent pandemic, group events that were scheduled to take place over the beginning half of this year, such as conferences, expos, concerts, sports games, festivals and theatre performances, have all either been postponed or cancelled for the safety and protection of attendees and organisers.
Getting virtual
Back in January, we launched the UC Summit – a virtual conference and expo for those in the unified communications industry, spearheaded by the founder of UC Today, Rob Scott. UC Summit was a three-month online event which functioned as a selling tool for vendors and an engaging educational resource for users, with true-to-life event spaces including a Keynote Theatre, a Conference Room and an Expo Hall, all of which were navigated by users in an effort to reach the summit.
Whilst there were plans in place for future Summit events later in the year, the outbreak of the Coronavirus saw our team working on another virtual event sooner than we initially imagined. In an effort to provide vendors with an exclusive online platform to share their resources with other professionals in the industry, and to help with mitigating the losses expected to come as a result of cancelled events throughout the year, UC Today founder Rob had the idea to adapt his online event in order to create a virtual networking platform which could play host to other expos and events for UC Today vendors.
As one of UC Today’s main vendors, and a headline sponsor of UC Summit, RingCentral had been due to attend and exhibit at a conference at the end of March, which was cancelled on short notice due to the outbreak. As a result, Rob suggested moving the exhibition online and enlisted his dedicated team at Root Fifty Two (Kayleigh in Graphic Design and Paul and Sam in Development) to help with turning his vision into a reality.
Going live
In order to create this new online exhibition space for RingCentral’s five-day event, a bespoke booth was designed to the client’s specifications and built with increased functionality and features. With downloadable content, video streams of keynote speeches and various online resources for users, the focus was placed not only on creating a functional virtual conference with a professional finish, but also on ensuring all content was easily accessible and available to anyone, anywhere.
In the run-up to launch, the R52 team also provided assistance with promoting the event and attracting new users in the unified communications industry, assisting with the launch of an email marketing campaign and creating campaigns for social media and paid search advertisements.
“This was a really exciting project for us to work on,” says Kayleigh, the designer on the project. “In light of the recent pandemic, I do think a lot of people might start to think a bit differently about the way that they work. Conferences can be so expensive for people to attend, having to make travel arrangements and take time out of work. We have the ability now to make everything accessible online, so I think we could see more virtual conferences happening across all industries, and possibly even a move to remote working for many.”
For more information and advice about how our team can help you with your latest project, contact us today on 01282 685430 or click here.
