ANZCA Conference 2021

Background

The Australian and New Zealand Communication Association 2021 Conference is a premier event bringing together the academic association, researchers, students, and teachers from the broad field of media and communications. The ANZCA 2021 Conference was a 4-day virtual Conference with 350+ speakers and over 70+ sessions, these sessions were a combination of panels, keynote speakers and concurrent individual presentations.

The Brief

ANZCA decided to pivot their physical conference usually held at Melbourne University to a virtual conference to cater for their geographically dispersed delegates and for Covid safety of their delegates and members.

ANZCA’s goals were to successfully conduct the conference online which was the first virtual conference ever conducted by ANZCA. To bring together their community of academics, university staff, students, and likeminded individuals to discuss the themes of Communication, Authority and Power. The virtual conference allowed an array of academics to come together to educate & encourage discussion on Media and Communications.

The Solution

We Are Phoenix worked closely with the ANZCA Conference committee to design a professional and engaging virtual experience for their delegates.

The virtual event platform that we selected for the ANZCA event was Cvent. Cvent was utilised due to its highly customisable modules and ability to cater to all requirements of the conference; abstract submission, abstract management, managing registrations & ticket sales, speaker management, event communications & event delivery.

The Cvent platform was fully customised to reflect ANZCA branding throughout the abstract management, registration, event communication and event delivery process. The event was accessed through Cvent’s virtual attendee hub which connected attendees to over 70+ live and concurrent virtual presentations. All sessions were housed on the platform which allowed attendees to join and interact with multiple sessions throughout the 4 days of the conference.

To allow attendees to have the option of a physical connection, We Are Phoenix arranged a conference dinner for those delegates who were in Melbourne, the conference dinner was held at University House and hosted 20 guests.

The We Are Phoenix team developed and implemented a detailed plan to ensure the success of the Virtual Conference.  This included:

• Testing and selecting the most appropriate virtual event platform to meet all client requirements.
• Sponsorship acquisition & management.
• Management of the Virtual Event Platform – Cvent – including site set up, registration landing page/ registration management, communication design & deployment, virtual event hub set up, ongoing updates and conference week production management.
• Developing technical runsheets for the virtual conference and for the onsite filming.
• Venue sourcing, and venue management for conference dinner.
• Regular WIP meetings with ANZCA conference committee.
• Multiple speaker briefings and technical rehearsals.
• Management of key keynote speakers & 350+ speakers.
• Collecting, collating, and managing all Presentation Assets such as presentation slides, video, audio.
• Development of Audience and Speaker Technical FAQ documents.
• Regular email marketing to registered attendees to maximise pre-event engagement.
• Risk analysis on all potential issues.
• On-the-day management by a dedicated team inc: staff management, live streaming, speaker management, virtual event hub engagement and client liaison.
• Recording each virtual presentation for post-event use.
• Management of Cvent platform post-event.

The Results

• 4-day virtual event
• 339 registrations
• Successful sponsor performance
• 350+ speakers & 3 keynote speakers
• 70+ sessions, these sessions were a combination of panels, keynote speakers and concurrently presentations

The ANZCA Conference was a success, with speakers and attendees participating in hundreds of engaging and insightful presentation and discussions. This event was logistical & technical challenge with COVID-19 restrictions ultimately pushing the Conference to pivot to a virtual format. This virtual Conference enabled the We Are Phoenix team to exercise all our innovation, organisation, vision, and desire for excellence.

The ANZCA Conference committee were delighted with the high quality of production, creativity and expert virtual event management and delivery of the ANZCA 2021 Conference.

Client or Attendee Quote/Testimonial:

“Phoenix helped us stage a fantastic conference that was a great experience for our delegates, which was amazing given the challenges and uncertainties created by the pandemic. They were great to work with, very professional and transparent in their approach, and helped us manage the budget and decision-making in a sensible and very supportive way.  Jane and Kiara were also very responsive to our particular needs and to find solutions to challenges, and in the weeks before and during the event worked incredibly hard to ensure it was a success.  Delegates really appreciated the level of technical support and swift communication they provided during our conference.  Most of all, it was really reassuring to work with conference organisers that were as committed to making the event a success as we were, and they pulled out all the stops to make sure it was a great experience for everyone.”

Associate Professor David Nolan
Conference Co-convenor