As the old saying goes, a joy that’s shared is a joy made double. At their most recent major congress in Denmark’s Copenhagen, specialist medical association CIRSE (Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe) experienced just how true this really is.
CIRSE recorded an impressive increase of over 75 per cent in new livestream viewers compared with the previous year. That was an important key performance indicator and a big success for the Vienna-based association, as more livestream viewers always mean more awareness for the physical event.

So why the extraordinary increase?
What did they do differently?

First of all, their livestream service from up to 12 parallel rooms was given its own simple and self-explanatory URL, or link. Visitors were then referred to the online service during the congress via an eye-catching banner placed systematically at prominent points directly in the specialist medical association’s website.
Crucially however, it succeeded because the CIRSE, as a European umbrella organisation, also called on its national specialist associations to put the banner on their websites.
Live-Display – specially developed by meta-fusion for rapid networking and linking – was also integrated. The simple preview attracts lots of clicks ensuring that anybody interested quickly registers.

This demonstrates then that those who share information also get new contacts in return.

 

Even in the run-up it was clear that specialist medical association CIRSE (Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe) was carefully preparing the next step in digitising its congress and supporting it with a communications campaign. Much had been learned from the experience of recent years – especially last year – and for the first time it offered congress participants, as well as all registered online users, access to all its congress content as live webcasts and soon after also as fully searchable on-demand webcasts in a powerful media library.

For the first time in its history, CIRSE presented to its members and participants as an entirely hybrid event, i.e. both on site in Barcelona and also worldwide live and on-demand, accessible on any stationary or mobile device via the Internet.

The consistent and friendly experience offered the participants in the beautifully located Congress Centre Barcelona was also carried over into the design of the webcast media library and the presentation of the talks, and the positive atmosphere was entirely matched by the good service experienced by online users. All the scientific programme talks were available in the webcast media library within minutes and could be freely browsed. The live channels were sorted according to category rather than by room. All online users could access an overview of their favourite topics at any time and view specific talks either live via the Internet or find them again later in the webcast media library.

As technical service provider we found the collaborative partnership with the specialist association at this congress was just right, as were the good communication with contacts of neighbouring service providers and Congress Centre Barcelona’s extremely friendly staff.

The digital and hybrid CIRSE congress is also likely to have been worthwhile for the industrial partners: our efficient production methods enabled all symposia to be documented and presented in a media library. It could hardly be easier to reach your global target group.

We were able to present over 600 individual talks from 15 parallel rooms at the ECC as directly on-demand webcasts in the meta-fusion Extended Library immediately following the presentations, and also offer them as a live stream for press events.

As congress hosts, the medical companies ECCO and ESMO were especially able to offer participants attending the maximum service with access to all digital congress content. The participants' badges also carried codes that provided access authorization to the webcasts via the protected Media Library.
At a congress that defines itself through groundbreaking results in cancer research, the accompanying specialist press were given special status and were kept exclusively up to date via webcasts with their own access.

Our production format of centralized on-site webcast administration enabled us to demonstrate the advantage of a streamlined production to best effect: a team of just 6, including a slide exchange operator, was all we needed for live and directly on-demand webcasts from 16 rooms. This is of course reflected in cost efficiency. This does not in any way affect the multiple use of webcasts: as participant or press service, as e-learning content or simply in presenting the high level of scientific quality of such a major congress.

All the webcasts were subsequently available to full advantage in our Extended Library and could be filtered and browsed flexibly by the participants. The focus of attention was on the searchability of all slide content and speaker information that allowed accurate and rapid tracing of special content: a participant was able to jump straight to the point in a presentation where a particular term had been spoken.

Offering all these services has strengthened the professional reputation of this major European Cancer Congress giving participants a positive experience of internet and webcast media, including their direct use at the congress.

PS: As a special feature for a congress of this size we also carried out the entire production with manned and guided cameras.

What's so remarkable about the organiser's decision to make an entire congress live and freely available, making the recordings available a short time afterwards? Firstly, because it can be done; and secondly because it makes sense!

It makes sense for the organiser because congress participants simply expect it. Since mobile devices have become part of day-to-day life and people have become used to being able to get real-time information via the internet, expectations have changed, along with participants' demand for service; they see themselves now more as customers than as visitors. And ESR treats them as customers by meeting that demand and by offering them a high level of service.

This service means designing the congress so it is available to all those interested, and no longer differentiating between those actually present and those unable to be there in person. It means that attending congress participants can watch the live broadcast of a talk even if they are not sitting in the auditorium where the talk is being held. It also means that absent participants in other locations can do the same—wherever and whenever they want; after the congress, whilst travelling, or after they've arrived back home. In short, participation in the congress is greatly expanded and even visitors actually attending can be sure they won't miss anything of real interest to them.