Acing Inclusion & Outreach: Community Business Indian Conference 2017

About Community Business

Community Business is a reputed non-profit organization driving forward responsible and inclusive business practices across Asia since 2003. Headquartered in Hong Kong, they also have presence in India and United Kingdom to deliver social change across various industries through responsible leadership, investment in local communities, workplace equality, workforce well-being and social inclusion using a comprehensive range of networking, research, events, campaigns, programmes, training and consultancy solutions.

Challenges

Community Business wanted an avenue to promote their vision of enabling local companies to revamp business practices across India. Hosting a physical event shared this message amongst a very limited geographical audience, and did not facilitate ease of peer-to-peer networking without interfering with their day-to-day routines. Moreover, they wanted to lead-by-example and spearhead event accessibility by catering to differently abled individuals and all genders alike. The goal of delivering this experience however remained obstructed with several key pain points:

• Poor Audience Engagement & Short-lived Impact
  Limiting the conference to one location delivered disappointing message outreach and audience engagement. Moreover, the impact of the event would dwindle immediately once it ended.
• Expensive Accessibility Arrangements
  To host a truly inclusive event, accommodating visual, hearing and other physical special needs required pricey venue redesign alongside hiring of additional staff for onsite support.
• Impersonal Event Experience
  Executing a conference that was non-reflective of the Indian community came with the risk of the target audience feeling no sense of connection towards the message or event’s objective.
• Guest Speaker Pitfalls
  With busy schedules, geographical limitations and time consuming coordination efforts, hosting speakers and bringing them together at one venue was a huge burden on the host’s budget. There were also risks of unforeseen delays and no shows to add to the list of existing concerns.
• No Measurable Results
  Having no system to track real-time KPIs such as visitor attendance, engagement rates, or traffic at individual exhibitor booths made it difficult to evaluate event effectiveness.

Focus Areas & Solutions

Determined to cater to each of these needs, the team at vFairs delivered a comprehensive solution via a Virtual Conference that helped Business Community flawlessly balance their time and financial resources, and in turn see real results to strengthen their influence across the Indian target market:

Extended Event Impact
The Virtual Conference was open to all without geographical barriers; this generated high levels of visitor traffic who did not have to travel or juggle their work demands to participate. Visitors only needed internet access to connect; there were no registration costs, and all conference materials remained accessible until 30 days after the live event had ended. This “evergreen” online presence allowed extended dialogue and helped build a large pipeline of potential clients.

Amplified Representation, Inclusion and Accessibility
Elevating all event guests with the same access to opportunities was a non-negotiable success factor for vFairs; the Virtual Conference was customized in accordance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to welcome individuals with varying special needs. There were special color change features for the visually impacted, an option for all the page text to be narrated to the visitors, font sizes could be changed, and all webinars and presentations were delivered with transcriptions to make the content easily understandable.

The attention to detail did not end here; the team took digital inclusion a step further with clearly marked signs in the lobby representing gender neutral and differently abled bathrooms as part of strategy to promote respect for diversity and inclusivity with no exceptions.

Instant Communication
With audio, text and video chat capabilities, visitors had access to robust communication tools to connect with event exhibitors. This instant exchange facilitated meaningful interactions without need for attendees to wait in long queues, and also eliminated chances of compromised efficiency and customer service standards due to overwhelmed booth staff during peak periods.

Thought Leadership Webinars
Providing engaging content by collaborating with keynote speakers no longer required physical attendance.; vFairs provided an exclusive “Keynote Sessions” area for Community Business to host webinars with industry leaders supporting the conference theme. This was low cost, allowed content repurposing, sharing, multiple viewing, and nurtured trusted amongst the audience- all with zero distractions, risk of cancellations and other collaboration and logistical hassles.

Event Customization
Prioritizing an outstanding user-experience; the vFairs team customized features to reflect target audience characteristics through careful visual design elements. The visitor avatars in the event lobby were given local attire to assimilate the feeling of a traditional physical event in India. The sponsors hall also reflected a backdrop of the Taj Mahal to adjust the interface to reflect the event attendee profiles.

Detailed Analytics
The real-time reporting dashboard captured precise data for the host to monitor the volume of attendees, booth traffic, information downloaded, chats exchanged, unique and repeat visitors, webinar and seminar traffic- all powerful indicators of visitor preferences and areas of interest to help fine-tune future initiatives and gauge conference impact.

Results

The collaboration between Community Business and vFairs was an undeniable game changer; with no event planning distractions and risks of exceeding budgets, the host was able to divert all their efforts towards responsibly bringing together an all-in-one virtually powered conference that was a high performance hit as proved by the statistics from our robust vFairs reporting dashboard:   

• Improved Attendance and Outreach: With 646 visitor registrations, and maximum exhibitor booth visits exceeding 100 hits, the target audience unanimously welcomed the Virtual Conference and was eager to take part in this technology shift.
• Revolutionary Inclusivity: A platform that welcomed all, the specially designed features compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) streamlined access for guests regardless of social, economic or physical differences to unify the audience, and deliver incredible value as a benchmark for future events to follow.
• Increased Engagement: The webinars received upto 105 views- all with no expenses linked to equipment rental or venue bookings, or guest speaker coordination woes. Visitors could view the content at their own convenience which added extreme flexibility to their overall experience.
• Dynamic Communication: With almost 900 private chat messages exchanged, the efficiency of initiating prompt conversations was well utilized by the attendees to share their queries and for the host to build valuable business connections.
• Dedicated Project Manager: Not only was the event affordable and fast to put together, but also the Project Manager from vFairs worked tirelessly to provide customized solutions to all key challenges that Community Business shared to not only match but exceed the host’s expectations.

About vFairs

At vFairs.com, we strive to build a top-class online event platform that will help event organizers make memorable connections with their target audience. We’re obsessed with taking out the hassle normally associated with physical events and leaving organizers and exhibitors to focus on what’s most important: engagement with the audience.

Get in touch with an expert to learn more about vFairs here.