Synesthesia has become principal member of MPAI (Moving Picture, Audio and Data Coding by Artificial Intelligence), the brand new international organization, dedicated to data compression standards, based on Artificial Intelligence. 

Recently founded in Geneva by Leonardo Chiariglione (known as the founder, together with Hiroshi Yasuda, of the MPEG, the international team of experts that has created the well-known audio-video standards MPEG-1, MPEG-2 MPEG-4 MPEG-7 and the audio component of MPEG-1, already known as MP3), MPAI is aimed to define new standards, with the help of industry, science and academic experts, in order to introduce new products and services and improve user experience in a lot of contexts of everyday life.

About all these themes and much more we have talked with Leonardo Chiariglione in the following video interview.

Your history and experience say a lot about technological innovation. We are proud that Synesthesia has become part of the MPAI organisation. So, we wanted to take the opportunity to discuss with you, how much, in terms of the legacy we have experienced over the years, of data compression in both audio and video data, has been a success factors for many companies. Let’s discuss the situation as it is today.

“Yes, I think you got it right. The compression of audio and video has enabled a significant amount of business and has also allowed existing businesses to continue to expand. However, the current situation is twofold: from a certain point of view, increasing the compression of audio and video is always a pleasure, but traditional technologies are slowing down their course. It has become important to move towards another technology that is still relatively immature, but which has great prospects for development. MPAI is applied to audio, to video, and lends itself well to a number of other business cases that allow you to reap the same benefits that the world of audio and video have had in the past thirty years”.

Our goal is also to understand exactly what MPAI intends to develop in terms of data encoding standards. We would like to understand, on a practical level, which areas use artificial intelligence through this type of coding.

“What does it mean to apply artificial intelligence to understanding data? To answer this question, we look at what we have done in the last thirty years to compress the data. We have essentially exploited the statistical properties of the signal in the sense that in an image it is not that I see white noise (white and black dots that move without any logic). Within an image there is a logic. For example, in the image of a face there is a person’s face, in the face something is moving, many things are still, etc.

So we took advantage of the statistical properties of the image. When I said that traditional techniques are slowing their course I am saying that we have basically scraped the bottom of the barrel. Artificial intelligence exploits the correlation of data statistics, but exploits it in a more profound way due to the fact that it is able to learn the true statistics of the signal that is presented to it.

Let’s take the case that comes from the Politecnico di Torino and from another company, which concerns the compression of financial data. A company produces a huge amount of data that is not static and that changes over time. Well, by digging into this data, you can discover things that not even the head of the company has yet discovered. This can be done by hand, but with artificial intelligence, you can dig much deeper and understand more. I think this example of the financial data illustrates very well the potential of artificial intelligence techniques in compression. In the end, all of the data compresses, but the most important thing is that the different data also understand each other”.

If we wanted to go further into the specifics. Is Context-based Audio Enhancement (MPAI-CAE) one of the projects that represents a response to the needs of the sector?

“Absolutely yes, because whoever proposed this case (a use case) was already doing these things. But what’s the point? What is the great value of standardisation? The value is given by defining a field where everyone can compete instead of confining many that do not intersect, which is useless. This way of competing generates innovation both to those who produce new objects and services and to those who use these services. There is no border between collaboration and competition. In fact, within this field there is a greater possibility (even for smaller companies) to associate and bring their own skills to each other”.

Synesthesia has become a principal member of MPAI. What categories do the other actors who are part of the organisation belong to and what kind of contribution do you expect from them?

“40% of MPAI’s members are from a university or a research centre. The field is in strong development. There is a huge amount of innovation. This is an extremely positive thing because we have the guarantee that for many years there will always be new technologies being proposed, that mature and that can be used to develop ever more powerful standards. This is the aspect related to research that is guaranteed by universities and various centres. On the other hand, in this phase there are mainly small and medium-sized enterprises. This is another important message that focuses especially on what I said earlier. If we go towards an open field it is easier for small companies to associate and arrive at products, while if we remain each in their own field, small and medium-sized companies will be overwhelmed by large ones. Then we still have telephone operators, broadcasters, builders. We naturally have many companies that have specialized in some branch of information technology. Synesthesia is an excellent potentially disruptive and positive example to solve a large problem. A problem for which AI technologies are essential and fundamental to improve the solution”.

It seems clear to me that this is a rather diverse field. But what is the expectation? What is the expected contribution from each member?

“If I take these use cases that are maturing, we have the case of audio that allows, for example, someone who travels by bicycle in the city and listens to music to eliminate the noises that ruin the user experience, but also to retain the sounds which are essential, such as the car horn in case of danger. Let us then take another case such as the compression of genomic data. Here too, artificial intelligence makes it possible to provide solutions. Let’s take the case of video compression again. Here, too, artificial intelligence will allow in a relatively short time to arrive at a much more powerful and easier to use solution thanks to the possibility of more easily obtaining licenses for use by patent holders”.

It seems to me that networking is fundamental in this game and, above all, the connection with the research centres operating in this sector is very strategic.

“Yes exactly. For years within MPEG, the companies that attended the meetings would then meet at dinner in the evening and discuss things that they claimed to be developing using the standards. The difference that Covid has made is that we no longer see each other for dinner. There is a virtual dinner. However, there is the possibility of interacting with people who work in similar or complementary fields. MPAI facilitates interaction and collaboration between companies”.

Therefore, it is essential to make the various skills available, on a systemic level, by all the actors participating within this organisation.

“Sure. When we define use cases, these use cases must be driven, must be, must be driven by business needs. Therefore, when these needs are identified, the functional requirements of the standard can also be defined. They must be functional to the needs of those who will use this standard. On the one hand we have the technology suppliers, represented by 40% of universities and research centres, and on the other hand we have the technology users, i.e. those who say that they need a technology for their business that performs a certain task. The standard does not say how the technology should be made, but it does establish how the casing of this technology should be made. The content will then be created, for example, during a negotiation between a company and the holder of the know-how to create something specific that allows freedom in choosing the partner who brings the technology. This is the great facilitation that the standard allows us to achieve”.

In conclusion of this useful comparison, given that MPEG has had an incredible impact on a technological level, what are your predictions about the extent that MPAI could have?

“MPAI has broader goals than MPEG, meaning we are not confined to audio or video. Earlier, for example, I talked about financial data, solutions to improve performance for usergaming. We have a much wider field of action and we have AI as our main thrust. The main driver is the AI. I believe, as I said before, that traditional technologies are somewhat losing the momentum they had for 30 years ago not because we have reached the end point of the development space of these technologies, but also because we have reached a situation that is of great concern to users of these standards, namely the practical impossibility of licensing all the patents required to implement a standard. This was one of the fundamental aspects for applying AI for MPAI to all types of data: we want future users to have clear terms of use for patents when developing a standard. This is the defining aspect of future success for MPAI standards. The scope is more ambitious and it is not a technical scope. I have spent several months confronting all my friendships that I have built over the years to get this legal judgment, a framework license. When we start making a standard we define a framework license, where the “framework” does not represent everything, but what the law allows us to insert. This framework license provides security from a certain point of view to those who put technology in the standard and will have royalties and on the other hand it provides security to those who will use the standard who know what the cash flow will be that will have to be allocated to pay those who have invested in technology and created patents, i.e. the “benefactor of humanity”. We want to solve this problem and the framework license is the tool to achieve this goal, the safety and uses of future earnings, this is the real challenge of MPAI”.

We wish all the MPAI team a great success in all they are planning and realizing. We would like to thank Leonardo Chiariglione for sharing with us the initiative and for his willingness.

We develop AI solutions for your business. Send us all your requests by our contact form.

We will answer you as soon as possible.

By Lucy James, Event Marketing Manager at Synesthesia

1) Engagement That Matters

One of the advantages of digital events is the ease with which the audience can register and participate (no more pesky planes!). The flip side of course is the ease with which they can log out, deactivate, disconnect or leave the event. In our article on Excellent Marketing Techniques for Digital Events / Part 1 we covered ways to hook the audience and keep them hooked for maximum engagement throughout your new digital event. Start the all-important engagement relationship with outstanding marketing.

2) Outstanding Branding

All of your branding choices provide an indication to the audience about what they can expect from your digital event. Take the time to really evaluate your branding choices: the words, colours and images that you’re using, to confirm that they effectively communicate the ‘story’ of the new digital event. 

3) Be a Pioneer

There is a lot about digital events that is still uncharted. Have fun with your planning and execution, do try new things, and be brave with your marketing too. Test, trial, track and continuously refine your approach to get to your version of best practice.

Hopefully these top “tricks” have been helpful.
If you have any questions or feedback, write to us. We will be happy to read your requests or your opinions.

By Lucy James, Event Marketing Manager at Synesthesia

As the event world explodes into digital, virtual and hybrid formats, it is more important than ever that your event marketing is on point: targeted, engaging, informative, and driving value for all stakeholders. At Synesthesia we’ve transformed some of our flagship events into digital versions (the droidcon Italy webinar series) and, we’ve been refocusing our marketing efforts. We’re still working on getting it really right but in the meantime here are our findings from research, experience and conversations with our partners on excellent marketing techniques for digital events.

1) Refining Your Approach and Strategy

The principles for organising virtual events are almost identical to running live events. We covered this in our article on running successful webinars. Similarly, the marketing strategy for your virtual event is very close to that for a live event. However, as the virtual events space is increasingly crowded – and who knows when that will change – it’s really important to pay close attention to the basics and to the details, so that your event doesn’t get clicked past. 

2) Selecting the Best Tools and Media 

There is no shortage of ways in which to reach your audience. Every channel, tool or platform should be evaluated for the value it brings to the whole marketing campaign. 

Hopefully these top “tricks” have been helpful. In the second part, which we will publish shortly, we will also list the other and draw some conclusions.

If you have any questions or feedback, write to us. We will be happy to read your requests or your opinions.

Bye.

By Lucy James (Event Marketing Manager at Synesthesia) and Marco Mazzaglia (Video Game Evangelist at Synesthesia).

In our previous article, “Gaming & Engagement Techniques for Virtual Events” we reviewed best practice approaches to improving engagement with your audience through your virtual event. Here we list 15 specific gamification ideas that could give your virtual event a boost. 

1) Interact to win points

In a virtual event, just as a live event, there is a difference in an attendee who just ‘checks in’ to an exhibition booth, and an attendee who stops, enquires and listens. For a virtual event this requires a digital platform or meeting space for the two parties to meet. You can encourage attendees to participate in these meetings by linking the action to a reward, i.e. ten points towards their overall game score. To ensure maximum sponsor/ exhibitor satisfaction, you could take this a step further and the sponsor shares a code (to collect the ten points / prize) only if they feel the participant genuinely engaged in the meeting. 

2) Punctuality means prizes

Late attendance creates less of a disturbance in virtual events but of course it’s still better to avoid it and kick off the session with a ‘full’ room. Encourage prompt attendance by displaying a code/ keyword/ next clue on scavenger hunt for 60 seconds prior to the session starting. Those who are there and paying attention are rewarded for their punctuality. 

3) Social rewards 

Sharing on social networks offers its own oxytocin benefits, but make sure your attendees are even further persuaded to share updates from the virtual event by linking social performance to rewards from the event. This could include ‘x’ number of points for every post with the correct hashtag, or a mega prize for the most re-shared post.

4) Feedback that counts

It’s always important to gather user feedback on speakers and content. In virtual events, with your audience already online, it’s slightly easier to present them with a simple survey, form or poll to complete at the end of the session. Push to gain the most feedback possible by sharing a code/ keyword/ next clue on scavenger hunt, with any participant that completes the survey.

5) Team power

You can encourage participants to work in teams on a game, particularly a quiz, trivia or ‘hunt’ of any kind. The advantage of designing a game for teams is that you achieve the cumulative effect of the whole team engaging, in whichever way you are encouraging them to do so. 

6) Personalised badges or trophies 

One of the fundamentals to creating an engaging game (as covered in our previous article) is to understand the behavioural habits and impulses of your target audience, and this is extremely important in relation to personalised badges. Generally speaking, people like to collect ‘sets’. Badge sets at a virtual event can be linked to different stimuli including: the topic, e.g. a different badge for every session attended; the event features, e.g. a different badge for participating in a workshop, meeting, attending a booth etc; the event attendees themselves, e.g. each participant is given their own badge as part of their registration and they can ‘swap’ badges with other attendees to achieve a set. 

7) Interact with enthusiasm

Avoid the deafening silence of no one asking questions at the end of the sessions by incentivising participants. Options could include: an outstanding prize for the ‘best’ question asked throughout the whole event; ‘x’ number of points awarded for every question posted on the event q&a board; questions could be randomly or specifically selected to be featured in a post event report – give your attendees a chance for their 5 minutes of fame! 

8) Check in to exhibitor booths

Some exhibitors participate in virtual events with one goal in mind: hard out lead generation. Just like the exhibition hall passport, a game element – always centred around attaining points, prizes or recognition – will encourage attendees to click, connect and share their contact details with the exhibitor.

9) Visual stimuli 

A leader board is a simple and classic way to engage participants in a game; they experience the social satisfaction of their name being seen as a winner by their peers and colleagues. You could also try to think of more creative visual stimuli, such as an image that is gradually revealed (e.g. one pixel for every tweet) or a graphic, like a tree, that gradually grows (e.g. one branch for every question posed in a session). This taps into the group psychology of working together; it takes everyone to contribute to achieve the benefit for all. 

10) Crowdsource your content 

Use polls, notifications, surveys or forms to gain feedback from the participants on future topic or speaker ideas. Very often people do not require additional incentive to contribute to something that they care about – their industry or profession, and an event that reflects their needs and wants is also in their interest! But don’t leave it to chance, provide a bonus for completing the feedback to max out your engagement.

11) Exhibitors can raise the game

Wherever possible, exhibitors should be encouraged to build gaming into their virtual exhibition space. Is there a way that users can test their product or solution as a game, perhaps as a competition between users? Can they ask a series of trivia questions or puzzles to each visitor to their ‘booth’? We’ve all seen the effects at a live event: a magician or pinball machine at a stand, a great prize giveaway, and participants are flocking. The impact is the same in the virtual event space and sponsors should be persuaded to think creatively about how to present themselves and their services.

12) Public shout out

Really tap into the desire for public recognition by giving public shout outs to those who complete a game stage, win a game. Recognition is a key motivator for most people and will drive participation and engagement.

13) Photo contests

There are two different types of photo contest: the first is a quiz that requires the participants to figure out what the picture is of, the second requires the participants to take and share photos to qualify for a prize of some sort. For the quiz, this could be random, or connected to the event topic, or the whole round could be photos of the speakers or images of the sponsor logos. The photo taking competition can also be tied specifically to activities during the event, e.g. take a photo of you completing one of the workshop tasks, or tied to social media, e.g. a selfie with the event hashtag, or as barrier-free as possible, e.g. take a photo of where you are in the world today. 

14) Digital scavenger and treasure hunts

In a scavenger hunt, participants have to ‘collect’ certain items to qualify for a prize. In a treasure hunt participants are led from one place to another by clues, finally arriving at the end to qualify for a prize. Both of these formats work for virtual events, with digital clues, ‘places’ and items to be collected. Both of these formats are excellent when organised for teams, which means that if, for example, your fourth clue is to attend the keynote speaker and take a screenshot of the opening slide, you drive attendance from the whole team. 

15) Classic icebreakers 

Icebreaking can be just as valuable online as in real life, and it can be as simple as participants sharing their location, current project, favourite hobby/ book/ food, in a chat bar on the event platform. As ever, tie the action to a reward and ensure that the action is driving towards your event goals. If it’s critical that your virtual event provides participants with opportunities to connect and build their network, then icebreaking is important. If your goals are aligned to learning, sponsor satisfaction or brand building, then an icebreaker won’t help meet your event success criteria. 

Games are a great way to build engagement throughout your virtual event, helping you achieve your end goals and delivering a high quality attendee experience. Have fun creating, brainstorming and building a game that works for your attendees. 

If you have any questions or feedback, write to us. We will be happy to read your requests or your opinions.

By Lucy James (Event Marketing Manager at Synesthesia) and Marco Mazzaglia (Video Game Evangelist at Synesthesia).

As event organisers wrestle with bringing their traditional models online, one of the most common challenges is achieving audience engagement throughout the whole virtual event. To be clear, engagement is a challenge in the live event space, but the tactics to positively impact engagement are tried, tested and well known. As we all move quickly into the virtual event space the pressure is on to build engagement with all of the event stakeholders, to ensure that everyone is getting as much value as possible from the new event format.

Outstanding speakers and content 

When planning the virtual event agenda, the quality of the content and the speakers can be even more important than for a live event. In the digital space, if the content isn’t on point, attendees can ‘leave’ at the touch of a button. Participant engagement begins with the very core of the event: the content and speakers, so it’s important to ensure that is timely, relevant, and where possible, exclusive. For your particular event there may be other criteria that are also important: that the speaker is extremely senior, extremely well rehearsed, has original research, puts on a ‘performance’. Whatever the criteria for success in the live event, those criteria are even more relevant for the virtual event – the content and speakers are the framework for building meaningful engagement with your audience. 

Varied timing and format

We’re all aware that attention spans are much shorter online that in real life, so it makes sense to reflect that in the event format. Plan talks or sessions to be shorter, brief speakers to arrive at ‘the point’ more immediately, and ensure that the content definitely matches the talk title. Talks or sessions could also be divided into sections, interspersed with polls or q&a, to keep the attendees involved with the topic. 

Most conference speakers do a great job of trying to keep their presentation lively and visually appealing, while also delivering their message, and this is even more important for virtual events. Diverse presentation formats (not just Powerpoint), inclusion of videos and infographics, live coding or other live elements relevant to your industry and audience, can all help to keep the participants’ attention.

Gamification Techniques for Digital Events

Gamification is the process of adding game-like elements to a non-game environment or experience in order to increase the overall value for participants. Game mechanics can include competitions, point systems, rewards & prizes, and problem solving or quizzes. An ideal outcome is that participants experience a reward, feel engaged, and consequently return, or continue, to participate in the game. This is an engagement loop – the most desired outcome.

Gamification essentials

There are a couple of fundamental principles that make a difference to a successful, engaging game. For event organisers these principles are not new, they are the same principles that are applied for all major decisions from the choice of keynote speaker to the content of the post event email. The first is linked to knowing your event audience, and the second is linked to the event goals. 

Defining the target audience

In order to engage your online audience at a virtual event it’s essential to know exactly who that audience is. There is the basic demographic information that can include industry, responsibility, geography, age, but the more interesting and valuable insights are around behaviour. As an event organiser, what do you know about your participants: Do they book early or late? Do they pay for themselves or invoice to the company? Do they attend lots of events or very few? And in the online space, what are their habits, are they familiar with lots of digital tools or are they technology resistant? Do they engage on social media, which networks, how frequently? Answers to all of these questions will be approximations, but the behavioural insights that you have will help you to create a game experience that really resonates with your audience and ensures that all important engagement.

“There are so many different types of games and gaming techniques that it’s really important to choose the right approach for your specific audience.” (Marco Mazzaglia Video Game Evangelist at Synesthesia)

Understanding the specific event goals 

The purpose of gamification and games as part of your virtual event is to add value, add to the experience, give the ‘wow’ factor to the attendees. The purpose is not for the game to take away from, or distract from the actual event activities. As such it’s highly recommended to revisit the event goals as you develop your gamification strategy to be sure that the game outcomes are tied to the overall desired event outcomes. If you want to create an optimum learning environment, the game needs to drive to that behaviour. If it’s important that you achieve high numbers of check-ins with the virtual sponsor spaces, the game needs to reward that behaviour.

Stay focused on the event goals; the game should always be oriented to serve the event.. 

Three Key Tips For Successful Implementation

With the strategy clear: tied tightly to the behavioural characteristics of your specific audience and driving directly towards the event goals, you are ready to press ‘go’ on the gamification feature of your virtual event. Here are Three Tips to keep in mind at this stage to achieve maximum engagement with your participants:

1) Launch and communicate about your game in all pre-event communication and marketing.

Your game is an important feature of your digital event so ensure that you are weaving the message throughout all of your pre-event comms. It’s possible that you could even launch your game pre-event to build hype, awareness and early engagement. The important thing is not to leave the game as an ‘add-on’ or after thought. 

2) Keep the game rules and prize giveaways clear and simple.

You’re trying to build engagement, so don’t fall at the first hurdle! Make sure that the audience know what, where and how to participate in the game, and what, where and how to claim their prizes. This first, basic information will gain their interest and involvement. 

3) Use the tools and technology that meet your needs. 

It’s easy to get caught up in fancy features and functionality, there are lots of tools and solutions that offer exciting and interesting game ideas. Of course your game will need a technology element, just be sure that the tech doesn’t distract from the game mechanism; the technology should be powering the game to achieve maximum engagement with the participants.

In our next article, read about “15 Game and Gamification Ideas to Boost Engagement at Your Virtual Event”

Here we are at the second appointment dedicated to digital events.
After the first five, today our Lucy James (Synesthesia event marketing manager) will reveal the latest tips for creating a successful webinar. Enjoy the reading!

6) Webinars are fantastic for test-driving new speakers and topics

In our situation, we decided that due to the high volume of webinars we have scheduled, and due to the wide range of participants that are joining our webinars (range of geographies, professions, levels of experience), it makes sense to use the opportunity to showcase some new speakers and topics. We’ve balanced this with established speakers & topics, and sponsored content as well. 

The result is that we’ve ‘discovered’ some speakers we didn’t previously know so well and can now envisage how we would work together on a live event. 

Naturally, it’s really important to try to gather feedback from the participants to also get a ‘feeling’ from the market. Our post event feedback forms are simple and brief, aimed to get a snapshot of how well the speaker and topic were received. 

7) Speakers need persuasion to participate in webinars

Truth time: we thought it would be really easy to confirm speakers for our webinar schedule but it was more complicated that we had anticipated. What we’ve learned is that even though we’re asking less from the speakers in terms of time and travel commitment, they still need a really clear understanding of the value of speaking at the webinar, in short – what’s in it for them. The value of speaking at a webinar isn’t always clear, and even if there isn’t travel involved, the speakers are still required to prepare a presentation, share their expertise and commit their time.

We’ve worked to create a seamless onboarding for the speakers, meaning it’s easier for them to say “yes”. One thing that has also been really appreciated by our speakers is that we post the recording of their webinar on YouTube, in a relatively quick time frame. That’s something that’s important to our speakers, so, by proxy, it’s important that we execute that effectively.  

8) Digital audiences like it when you communicate with them

Our webinars are focused on the tech space, so our participants are very tech savvy. However, even accounting for that, we’ve had some (good) surprises on how well our audiences respond when we communicate with them. Example:

Despite all being well in rehearsals, in one of our webinars the audio simply wasn’t working for the speaker. The webinar eventually began almost 30 minutes late. In that time we communicated with the waiting audience vocally and in the message bar, explaining about the technical hitch and how we were trying to resolve it. The response was honestly heart warming, participants wrote with suggestions on how to resolve the issue, links for trouble-shooting, and lots of “no problem” and jokes about this being “typical”. We didn’t lose any participants in that half hour wait, not one. 

In the virtual event space there is a lot of guidance on creating engagement for the participants. Our experience is that the most simple communication, even about an issue being resolved, became a point for engagement with the participants. 

9) Participant engagement doesn’t have to be complicated

We’ve touched on this a bit in the previous point, but to expand:

For virtual events that comprise multiple speakers & presentations, a digital exhibition, and networking elements, the expectations for audience engagement are quite high. Webinars are usually single presentations meaning that the expectations for audience engagement are quite low. 

As previously mentioned we adapted to use a new tool for the Q&A part of the webinar to improve the usability and interaction for the speakers and the participants. Another really simple engagement piece that we have used (not always, but sometimes), is the message bar on the webinar platform. We found that posting a simple “hello, where is everyone from” resulted in an explosion of messages and interaction. Is that critical to the webinar? Of course not. Is it a nice extra that creates a personalised experience for the participants? Absolutely. 

10) Our core philosophy is just as important for our webinars as it is for our live events

The quality of event experience has always been fundamental for us: always looking for incremental changes and improvements that impact our speakers, sponsors, partners and participants. The same is true with our webinars. We’ve worked to ‘tweak’ all parts of the process: planning, communications, graphics, content, and more, to continuously improve the webinars that we’re putting in the market. The results? Our registrations are consistent (in a crowded market this is an achievement!). The percentage of registrants attending the webinar is still increasing with every webinar that we run. And we’ve received some incredible testimonials: 

Webinar sponsor: “The Droidcon Italy webinars gave the Bluetooth SIG the very welcome chance to share recent, exciting advancements in Bluetooth technology with Android developers at a time when it wasn’t possible to get together in person. Our webinar audiences have been really engaged and the whole experience has been excellent!” 

Webinar participant: “This webinar – available to us across the globe – gave me the chance to improve myself and learn from Android experts. Everything was great!” 

Webinar participant: “Great presentation with 100% user engagement.”

Conclusion

In our experience webinars offer a great way to stay connected with a community, and to showcase new speakers and content. Naturally there are differences in the organisation process, but there are also parallels between the venue/ the platform, the rehearsal/ the green room, the networking break/ the chat bar. We have found that being open minded to testing new tools and platforms has helped to improve our webinars, and that continuing to be focused on the details has led to a high quality experience for all involved. 

By Lucy James, Event Marketing Manager at Synesthesia

Every year Synesthesia organise droidcon Italy: a two day conference for 1000+ Android developers, to take place in April. This year droidcon Italy was, of course, postponed due to Covid-19. However, with the support of excellent sponsors, speakers and partners, Synesthesia were able to quickly mobilise a series of webinars focused on the Android space. Having now executed seven webinars, and with 18 more webinars in the pipeline, we’re very happy to share our main takeaways here with you.

Fundamentally, we have found that staying focused on our core philosophy: to provide an outstanding event experience for all participants, is equally relevant in the digital, as the live event space.

1) It’s beneficial to try different platforms and tools to see what works best for you

When we organise live events, we research, visit and evaluate a number of different venues. Similarly, for our webinars we have tested different platforms to figure out what works best for us. We have run webinars using both Google Meet and Cisco WebEx, and we have run in-house tests using Go To Meeting and Crowd Cast.

It’s important to determine what your decision making criteria are so that you can properly evaluate the platform. Your criteria could include: ease of access – how easy is it for participants to join the webinar; organiser controls – what functionality is available to the organiser and the participants, e.g. mute, end call; speed/latency factors – the quality of the connection; display – what view do the participants have, and what view do you want them to have.

After a couple of webinars we chose to also start using Sli.do for the questions and answers part of the webinar. Sli.do keeps the answers in a ‘packet’ together with the question, whereas, for example, using just the chat bar on the webinar platforms, it can be difficult to follow the thread of responses. 

2) Rehearsals are fundamental to on-the-day success

This cannot be emphasised enough: every single rehearsal that we have done has highlighted a different ‘problem’ we would otherwise have not discovered until we went live. Rehearsals are so important to bring any idiosyncrasies to the surface. Here are some of the different issues we’ve addressed in rehearsal: audio connection not working, different quality of connection depending on the chosen browser, misunderstanding of time difference (so human!), incorrect holding slide for the start of the presentation, the keys on a keyboard were too noisy for the live coding part of the webinar (techies take note!!). 

To provide a professional experience for the speaker and the participants it’s obviously advantageous to refine these type of issues prior to the webinar. 

On a softer note, rehearsals are also a chance to engage with the speakers. All of our rehearsals have been a good chance to get to know our speakers, filling the gap of not having a speaker’s dinner, green room or on site meeting. 

3) The scheduled time for the webinar impacts the quantity and profile of participants 

Since digital events are open to all geographies it’s also important to make them accessible to all geographies, and the chosen time for the event makes a huge difference here. We chose to alternate our webinars between two different times, 11:00 CET (Central European time) and 15:00 CET. The 11:00 slot sits across afternoon/ late afternoon in Asia, and the 15:00 slot sits across morning in the States. We also considered that there is an advantage to having two different times to accommodate participants with different working days, schedules and commitments.

4) Crystal clear joining instructions are really important

Our pre event communication continues to evolve as we seek to provide the clearest joining instructions humanly possible. Of course we’re aware that our participants are joining through a variety of devices and browsers, that English is predominantly not their first language, that they may not have saved any previous information, links or calendar requests, and in fact that they may have completely forgotten that they registered for the webinar…. 

So, with all that in mind we try to make our pre event emails and social posts as ‘one click’ as possible. 

One surprise for us has also been how early some people do arrive for a webinar. So with that in mind we now open the platform up to an hour before the start.

5) Calendar appointments do drive webinar attendance 

This is something we introduced on our fourth webinar. To begin with we were concerned about overburdening our participants with links, notifications and messages, and then we decided to give the calendar requests a try on the basis that individuals can choose to accept/ decline. The results, for us, were really good. Obviously once a participant accepts a calendar request they have the time blocked in their diary, and they also receive the notifications of the upcoming appointment. As with all marketing it’s hard to link this action to exact results, but at the time we started calendar appointments we had a spike in percentage of registrants attending the webinar.

Hopefully these top 5 “tricks” have been helpful.
In the second part, which we will publish shortly, we will also list the other five and draw some conclusions.
Bye.

The Covid19 emergency accelerated companies, retail, educators, organisations in the Arts and sports fields, and of course consumers and individuals, to reconsider their digital transformation, in most cases accelerating their adoption of digital. The world of events is a significant part of this whole change cycle, the increased shift to digital in the events space brings with it infinite opportunities for growth, engagement and innovation.

Synesthesia has always worked in the field of innovation and is positioned on the digital front, for technological development and for the ideation of new communication and training formats. Even pre-Covid19 Synesthesia was already creating all-digital or hybrid events, combining in-place experience with agile and performing technologies to create complete, professional events with large audiences.

In an increasingly digital world, also with increased activity due to health emergencies, it is possible to organize online events, characterised by a unique and engaging experience. In some cases, due to the very nature of the digital media, events can be richer and even easier to organise than traditional ones.

Using existing, but customisable platforms, it is possible to integrate different technologies including virtual and augmented reality, 3D, IoT and gaming, to create ad hoc formats that meet the customers’ needs. At Synesthesia we have perfected existing solutions and launched new applications.
One of these is called Advento.live, a platform for building “all digital” events in a simple, effective and highly professional way.

How to create a unique digital event?

Synesthesia works closely with clients to design and produce and form of event, be it traditional, digital or hybrid events – always using the best technologies to achieve the objectives of the project. The international events experience in Synesthesia spans the sports field, training and distant learning, and advanced platforms for events with a high technological vocation (such as droidcon Italy and Swift Heroes).

To shape a unique digital event it is necessary to identify the most correct platform and the most appropriate technologies to create the event. To achieve the best user experience we can…

In conclusion…

We should of course expect new challenges and new goals in the future. The events industry will be able to respond to these new challenges and continue to create exceptional user experiences, only if it can adapt to this global process of change.

New formats, new technologies, new ways of managing “live” content.