Unique circumstances created the opportunity for Kenes Group to co-locate two hybrid events at the Austria Centre Vienna, organized by one single team. The 3rd International Conference on Fatty Liver (ICFL 2022) had to be postponed from February 2022, due to the peak of the Omicron wave. The team wanted to do everything in their power to stage this event and decided to co-locate it with the 3rd World of Microbiome International Conference (WoM 2022), which was set to take place at the end of April. Both events were planned as hybrid meetings, which added an additional element of logistics and planning.
The venue, Austria Centre Vienna, was just reopening after the pandemic, and the renovation that they had initiated during the lockdowns, was still ongoing in parts of the building. This added one more hurdle for the team – how to ensure a smooth and safe experience for two simultaneous audiences, while also streaming all the content to the virtual participants.
The solution came down to a few simple steps:
- Communication and then some more – no matter if something was a part of one person’s responsibility or not, everything was so intertwined that it required the attention of the whole team so that each person would understand their role and that of everyone else in this unique setting
- Emotional intelligence – the situation was unprecedented, and it took a toll on many stakeholders, so empathy was vital to build a strong support system, a community sense, so that each function receives the support needed, no matter on which side of the equation they stood
- Making sure that the expectations of all parties are aligned – the difficulties and uncertainty around the organization of the co-located events were extreme, so everyone – from the team to the clients, all the way to the last participant needed to know what to expect, so consistent and open communication was key
The two events were a success – two meetings appreciated by an audience thirsty for face-to-face contact, while giving the possibility to meet online to anyone that could not travel to Vienna, Austria.
The co-location of the events worked for a few different reasons:
- Both event brands are Kenes Group Original Events, thus allowing all decision-making to be done quickly in-house
- The events are in close scientific areas, which allowed for shared exhibition space
- The team is very knowledgeable in organizing hybrid events
- The virtual element of both conferences was created on the Kenes Group-owned platform, VirtuOz
- The team was versatile and flexible, allowing them to be creative and to find quick solutions at the moment, all acting as one, no matter their clear roles and responsibilities
- Belief and understanding that it was all possible!
