Bryant University Women’s Summit recently celebrated its 25th anniversary with a hybrid event, Leadership Through A New Lens. The annual one-day summit aims to empower, support, and encourage women to excel professionally, personally, and financially. This year’s keynote speakers were Ginny Clarke, Executive Recruiter and Author; Karen Lynch, President and CEO of CVS; and Nikkia Reveillac, Director of Consumer Insights at Netflix.
After hosting their 2021 Summit exclusively in a virtual format with Accelevents, Bryant University Women’s Summit was excited to invite attendees back in person for a hybrid event this year.
Challenged with a shortened timeline to organize the 2022 Women’s Summit, the most important overall goal when choosing an event management platform was to find a solution that was easy to use. Additional event goals included:
Event organizers used several Accelevents features to ensure a successful event from start to finish. Some of the solutions that helped organizers exceed their event goals include:
Organizers wanted a simple and customizable registration process for both in-person and virtual attendees. Accelevents’ ticketing and registration solution allowed organizers to set up over 30 different ticket types for their hybrid event! The ability to create unlimited ticket types was beneficial when designating tickets for specific groups such as students, sponsors, and alumni.
In addition to Accelevents’ 24/7 live chat, Bryant University Women’s Summit took advantage of the day-of virtual event support option. With the purchase of this option, a Customer Success Manager was on call and communicated with organizers during the entire event. This allowed organizers to be confident in the ability to focus on other event details without worry.
Event organizers seamlessly sent pre-event and post-event emails to registrants using the Engage feature. “It was helpful to schedule emails from right within the platform,” said Julie Eckles, Event Coordinator. “We communicated with registrants one week out and one day before the event, and post-event, we reminded people that they could log in to view session recordings.”
The majority of the Women’s Summit audience attended in person. Since this event was hybrid, organizers needed a reliable way to stream their 20 in-person sessions to the virtual audience. For Main Stage and Regular Sessions, speaker sessions were live-streamed via RTMP. The event also included a pre-recorded speaker session which organizers easily uploaded to the platform using the direct upload feature.
The Women’s Summit is known for a variety of speaker sessions that attract attendees to the event, so it was critical to the event’s success that all sessions could be live-streamed at the same time. This year’s Women’s Summit offered a specialized student-focused track for the first time, which attracted large virtual attendance. Accelevents provides the ability to build an agenda with concurrent sessions, allowing attendees to pick and choose the sessions they’re most interested in attending within that session block
Organizers set up a virtual lounge so that attendees could network whenever it was convenient for them. Lounges mimic those impromptu interactions at in-person events and are an excellent place for casual conversation. Attendees could also participate in the live chat in the Lobby and during speaker sessions.
There are several ways to showcase sponsors and exhibitors on the Accelevents platform. Bryant University Women’s Summit had 31 sponsors and 11 exhibitors whose logos were highlighted in the Lobby and Expo areas and the Lobby and Sessions carousels. Each exhibitor had the option of creating a virtual booth where attendees could watch videos, download materials, and chat with representatives. Sponsors of the Women’s Summit appreciate the platform’s post-event data analysis feature.
The 25th Annual Bryant University Women’s Summit was a huge success. “We were looking to expand our event’s reach worldwide. We had attendees from several countries and across the United States and Canada. Our first-ever hybrid event provided the opportunity for hundreds of people to enjoy the event who otherwise could not attend in person,” said Julie.
The virtual component of the Women’s Summit allowed almost 400 people to join from their computers worldwide, which complimented the 700 people who attended the live event. Additionally, if people were unable to attend on the day of the event, they had the option to view sessions afterward up to 30 days post-event. With every session recorded and ready to download after the event, sponsors have the ability to share sessions with their community, using them in future marketing materials or as a professional development tool. “Sharing the downloaded sessions to our speakers is very easy, and the speakers love that they get the full presentation for their use,” said Julie.
Accelevents’ in-depth analytic reporting provided insight into different areas of the event, such as registration, exhibitors, and sessions. For example, event organizers could view metrics on highly attended sessions and how engaged attendees were throughout the event and post-event.
Event organizers were incredibly grateful for Accelevents’ customer support. “Whenever I had a question, even if I was working late at night, as most planners do, your support team was available,” said Julie. “Jeanette, our Dedicated Event Support member, was great and only a text away! As one who relies on tech support for peace of mind, I was very grateful for your entire team.”
Our powerful event technology helps event organizers create engaging events in any format. If you prefer the virtual event space we’ll host your next virtual trade show, summit or seminar.
If you’d like to set up a hybrid event we’ll streamline your check-in, help with badge printing and provide everyone with mobile apps. Contact us to discuss your upcoming event needs.
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