WORK
HP Navigator Virtual Summit
Going where no Navigator has gone before
The HP Navigator Summit is a three-day annual conference for industry partners to gather and discuss the ins-and-outs of today’s technology solutions and share their vision for the future. It's a great collaboration and networking opportunity to shake hands with some of tech's brightest people around. Or at least, it normally is.
Challenge
COVID-19 changed business-as-usual for everyone. Social distancing became paramount. Transportation options ground to halt. Facing a full-fledged lockdown, HP considered cancelling the Navigator event altogether, but Adcetera stepped up to say, “Hold on a minute. There’s still a way.”
Objective
Supporting virtual events has been part of our service expansion planning for more than a year. Little did we know we would need to quickly accelerate our time to launch.
For almost a decade, Adcetera has supported HP and other clients such as HPE and Halliburton with multi-day training events. But this time we were faced with translating a traditional event into a seamless virtual format. What normally takes 12 to 18 months of high-level content strategy, program design, and logistics planning was compressed into less than two months. For the first time in HP history, we took one of the company’s training initiatives completely online and turned a three-day event into a year-round conversation.
Execution
We set out to create a virtual event that had the feeling of a live conference, complete with videos, theme design, live chat, keynote speechwriting, gamification, and more.
In a matter of weeks, we activated a cross-departmental team that assembled all the deliverables and the necessary functionality. And when it came to showtime, we managed it all from our “Mission Control” conference room in The Woodlands.
Building on the best platform
A critical factor to this event’s success depended on an online platform that could not only mimic many of the qualities of a real-life event, but also support an engaging experience before, during, and after the event. That meant having simple setup and integration, quality HD video, a real-time forum for each session, and access to analytics to monitor viewer activity.
“I was 100% confident that no matter what project, issue, problem arises, the Adcetera team would come up with the best solution. The team not only goes above and beyond what is expected in the scope of work, but also thinks about all the small details that help create a top-notch experience for the planner, presenters, and attendees. Adcetera hires high-caliber individuals who are experts in what they do.”
Keeping the conversation going
But we also wanted to ensure that the ideas that started at HP Navigator didn’t stop after the event ended, so we made sure that post-event interaction could continue through message boards and an archived content library.
Results
On a broad scale, the HP Navigator Summit 2020 served as a proving exercise for successful collaboration between client and agency in the virtual event space — the likes of which are becoming the new standard for corporate-level meetings, conferences, and summits.
The event delivered a dynamic, content-rich experience that kept attendees informed, engaged, and inspired.
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