In 2020, the events industry quickly adapted to survive. Virtual interactions became the norm, from Zoom calls to full animated avatar driven worlds. Event and conference organisers mastered a new skillset by jumping on board with virtual technology.

The Sports Tech World Series Conference (STWS), held in November 2020, took a bold step by converting its in-person event to wholly virtual. STWS is the world’s leading sports technology community with over 6,000 attendees globally and over 2,000 sporting organisations. 

The team at Woohah Productions helped the STWS Australian conference transform its experience with many unexpected benefits. From monetisation of the event, accessibility to a global audience, customised experiences to give choice, and delivering quality broadcast. 

Monetising the event 

Most event and conference organisers earn their revenue from ticket sales. At STWS, the attendees chose from a Content Only or Interactive Full Access Ticket. With seamless e-commerce, each ticket holder used their registration email to enter their customised world.

The Woohah team built a tiered ticketing system in its Kaso Virtual Event Platform – a platform the company created throughout the pandemic to enable its customers to host interactive virtual events. This feature has been in high demand as the organisers structure benefits on content based on the ticket tier. 

Choose your own adventure

The team at STWS know their audience wants excitement and variety. STWS utilised the Kaso platform so attendees could drive their own experience. From the exhibitors in the exhibition hall, exclusive break-out rooms with capped numbers, to the main stage where attendees could hear from the leaders in the tech-world. Everything was at their fingertips. 

Part of the excitement of big events are the connections made. The same people attend the events each year and relationships build. The STWS Networking Hub gave attendees the opportunity to meet up with old and new faces. The attendees loved the group chat option.

 Sponsors amongst the action

STWS Sponsors are critical to the event viability. This is true for both the live and virtual events. Platinum, Gold and Silver sponsors were held prominent positions in the STWS lobby. Attendees couldn’t miss them. When building the STWS experience, the organisers knew attendees spent most of their time in the presentation rooms, STWS added banners flanking the LiveStream screen to ensure the repetitive presence.

Broadcast quality all the way to Germany, USA and Japan 

With a live event, event organisers meticulously design the main stage and all presenters come to the same place. This delivers uniformity and professionalism. With virtual interactions, it’s not uncommon to spy bedrooms and strange backgrounds. Many organisations have utilized  the Stage at Studio45 Live Broadcast studio. Equipped with the latest AV and lighting equipment, the feedback from attendees was the outstanding quality of the experience. 

STWS was broadcast all the way to Germany, USA, Canada, Singapore, India and Japan. That meant the Woohah technicians had to be sure of quality of presentation, bandwidth and that the platform would deliver a world class event experience.

Exhibition stands with surprising features

When converting from a live event to a virtual event, STWS knew their sponsors would want a place to exhibit. The STWS invited their community to join their event. This is the next generation of virtual events. STWS exhibitor stands featured demonstrations, videos on arrival, downloadable brochures, appointment booking and links directly to exhibitor websites. 

These are great features, although the STWS exhibitors reported that they mostly valued the data. The virtual nature means that every clickable item on the stand generates data. The number of visitors, how many people click on the brochure or clicked through to their website. This is an exciting benefit of virtual events.