The British Oncology Pharmacy Association (BOPA) holds an annual conference in October each year. Historically this has always been as a face-to-face conference held in a UK venue. Average attendance has been around 400 delegates with sponsorship from the pharmaceutical industry.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions in place, Media1 were asked to explore how they could bring everyone together virtually and create an engaging, interactive conference whilst maintaining the highest level in standards and professionalism.
Media1 facilitated a successful virtual conference with live presentations, interactive panel discussions, breakout rooms and app-based activities, bringing the digital event to life so that it flowed just like a live conference.
We spread the conference out over 3 dates to allow for work commitments and to encourage maximum levels of engagement and interaction.
We worked closely with BOPA to include all the usual, familiar elements of the conference to replicate as far as possible the levels of participation and interaction of a face to face event. By using the full functionality of the interactive platform, such as Q&A, chat, polling, breakout rooms, posters and an exhibition hall, the delegates were fully engaged at all times.
The platform also featured a virtual exhibition hall with 3D booths where delegates had the opportunity to set-up meetings and have a 1:1 discussion with company reps.
By the end of day 1, delegates were moving around the platform in pretty much the same way as they would dip in and out of live plenary and breakout sessions.
It was very reassuring to have the team’s voices in my ear letting me know how we were going for time and for ensuring smooth switches. Thank you all for your support.
Session Chair
I thought the virtual conference was a huge success, there were so many ways to interact with each other and the live streams all worked really well. So THANK YOU to you and Phil and the whole team at Media1.
Speaker
I've done a lot of virtual meetings over the last few months and this was the best in terms of technical flow and in keeping an audience engaged throughout. No mean feat.
Speaker
I've done a lot of virtual meetings over the last few months and this was the best in terms of technical flow and in keeping an audience engaged throughout. No mean feat.
Speaker
