CSAMM Annual Congress – A Hybrid Medical Conference

Academy of Medicine, Malaysia, and the College of Surgeons jointly hosted the 48^th Annual CSAMM Scientific Congress. Their annual networking and gathering for these congresses took a break at the beginning of 2020 because of COVID-19.  After hosting a virtual scientific meeting In 2021, this year the organizers decided to host the congress in the hybrid medium to extend the benefit to overseas attendees joining from other prestigious institutions such as the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, and the College of Surgeons of Indonesia. Participants had the option of joining in the physical venue or virtually on Samaaro. In this case study, we’ll take you through the event objectives, initial challenges, and the solutions we provided.

Project Info:

Organizers: College of Surgeons, Malaysia, and Academy of Medicine

Category: Hybrid Conference

Date: 26th-28th August

Challenges:

1. As they were expecting international participants, different payment gateway integrations were required for a smooth and hassle-free registration process.
2. Providing an interconnected event to on-site and remote attendees was a major concern for the organizers.
3. Lag-free and high-quality live streaming of the sessions was a must for ensuring a seamless event experience.
4. The organizers wanted to establish a two-way communication channel between speakers and attendees to make the sessions more interactive and collaborative.
5. Leading pharma companies such as Ethicon, Pfizer, and Roche were sponsors of the event. Enabling lead generation opportunities for sponsors was a priority for the organizers.
6. Lastly, similar to in-person events, they wanted to offer CPD points and e-certificates in the hybrid conference as well.

Solutions:

Custom Landing Page and Event Registrations

A dedicated event landing page was created with custom domain hosting to drive interest and hike up registrations. The landing page offered the most important details of the event such as an overview of the agenda, schedule, speakers, sponsors, location, time was made available on the page. For faster check-outs and ensuring successful transactions, various payment gateways were integrated into the registration page.

Virtual Lobby

A custom-themed virtual lobby was designed to welcome the attendees to the conference. All the relevant event-related information such as the program book, program souvenirs, and organizing committee members were made available in the lobby.

Dedicated spaces were available inside the lobby to showcase the sponsors involved in the event. Clickable banners enabled the organizers to drive more footfalls to exhibitor booths.

An info desk was also placed in the lobby. Attendees could get in touch with the organizing committee members from the info desk.

Exhibitor Wall & Exhibitor Booths

Leading pharma companies such as Ethicon, Pfizer, and Roche participated as exhibitors at the conference. Exhibitors had complete control over their booth’s design. DIY boothmaker enabled them to change the colors, add logos, and upload banners with a few clicks. Exhibitors could add multiple booth representatives for efficient management.

The product gallery was also incorporated inside the booths. Exhibitors could add product videos, demos, images, and necessary information for each product. Visitors were allowed to submit any queries to the team while checking out the products.

Each booth was equipped with a meeting scheduler. Participants could get in touch with the exhibitor’s team and book a meeting instantly.

The exhibitor dashboard offered them real-time data and insights to measure booth performance, keep a track on the leads generated and assign scores to leads.

Conference Halls

The three-day hybrid conference had multiple sessions on the agenda. The Auditoriums served as the main stages for the event. Three conference rooms were added to the platform for hosting parallel sessions. Proceedings from the on-site sessions were streamed live inside the auditoriums.

To make the session livelier and engaging for the virtual attendees, a Q&A box was added. The Q&A feature enabled virtual attendees to interact with speakers. They used this opportunity to ask questions, clear doubts, and discuss solutions. Closed captions were also available to make the sessions more inclusive and accessible to overseas attendees.

Moreover, the live reaction feature enabled attendees to express themselves via emoticons.

E-poster Presentations & E-certificates

At any academic conference, attendees look forward to the opportunity to share their latest research with peers and receive feedback from them. The organizers wanted to offer the same opportunity to remote attendees.

We designed a separate space for poster presentations. The look and feel of poster boards for in-person conferences were retained. Attendees were allowed view and save the posters in virtual swag bags for visiting later. They were also allowed to download the posters.

Attendees received an e-certificate and CPD points for participating in the conference. Researchers who presented papers and e-posters, received a certificate of appreciation from the organizers. The analytics dashboard helped the organizers calculate CPD points based on how much time each attendee has spent on the platform.

Results

• The event received 818 registrations with an attendee turnout rate of over 87%.
• 326 documents were downloaded from exhibitor booths with 85 videos watched.
• Around 150 connections were made during the three-day conference.
• Total 315 attendees filled up the feedback form. Attendee satisfaction rate  was over 95%.

Conclusion

We hope that the hybrid conference case study has offered you some actionable insights. For more in-depth discussion and suggestions, get in touch with us for an expert chat. Samaaro is an award-winning virtual events platform helping clients host successful virtual and hybrid events and reach their business goals. Book a free personalized demo tour today.