Technology Networks Hosts its First Virtual Event

The Science of Cannabis

About Technology Networks

Technology Networks Group is an internationally recognized publisher that provides access to the latest scientific news, products, research, videos, and posters. Our global community is made up of over 300,000 researchers and scientific professionals from the life science, drug discovery and analytical arenas. Their portfolio comprises of the online community of Technology Networks itself, LabTube which is the home of videos for the scientific community and ePosters which is an open-access library (ISSN 1754-1417) providing free access to over 2,900 scientific and medical posters presented at conferences from around the world.

The Situation

In their pursuit of informing the scientific community about the hottest topics in drug discovery and testing, the team at Technology Networks was looking to host an informative session on Cannabis testing that elaborated on the current cannabis testing landscape, the need for better drug testing tools and what solutions could potentially bridge the gap between the two. To entertain global audiences at the event and to offer convenience to the speakers presenting at the event, Technology Networks decided to take their event online. However, finding a flexible platform proved to be a bit of a challenge since team Technology Networks wanted a unique-looking event that highlighted their compelling content all through an easy-to-navigate virtual space.

“Our biggest challenge was finding a platform that allowed us the flexibility to host our virtual event. We had an idea of how we should run our virtual event but we weren’t sure how we would make this happen.” – Honor Grainger, Customer Service Manager, Technology Networks.

The Solution

The vFairs-powered Webinar Session was given an informative and functional landing page that allowed Technology Networks to capture detailed registrant information for subsequent follow-up. Since this was an informative session, the landing page displayed the detailed agenda for the day-long event complete with speaker profiles. The event was made free for attendees to maximize event reach and to allow the maximum number of people to benefit from the webinar sessions and thorough research literature.

On logging in, delegates were taken to a crisp lobby with a flat layout to ease navigation across different parts of the event. An informative excerpt was added to guide visitors through the event widgets and tabs and a logo list of event sponsors was displayed at the bottom of the lobby screen to provide space for branding. The event was broken down into four sections: The Webinar Hall, Literature Section, Networking Section and the Helpdesk to keep the experience enriching and minimalistic at the same time.

About the design, Honor said, “Vfairs created us a custom lobby page using a flat design our team put together, the working design was awesome. We were kept in the loop throughout which meant any changes that needed to be actioned were dealt with quickly.”

The Webinar vault hosted talks from prestigious researchers and doctors on an array of topics covering cannabis testing. Some of the topics that were discussed included:

• Deciphering the Cannabis Genome
• How do you turn a plant into a drug?
• Testing Cannabis: How and Why Voluntary Consensus Methods are Critical
• Cannabis Laboratory Testing

The live talks were spread across the entire day and were also made available on-demand for a month after the event was wrapped up.

Given that this was a content-based event, an entire Literature Section was devoted to displaying Infographics, Data Analysis Reports, Whitepapers, Videos and articles on testing solutions. To enable delegates to interact with other event participants, a group chat forum was incorporated where interactions spawned over an array of topics like breakthrough drug testing mechanisms and the Cannabinoid Purification techniques among many. Besides the common forum, there were other discussion rooms namely The Future Science Group, Illumina Group, Oncology Central and World Cancer Research Fund for delegates who wanted to participate in more field-specific discussions.

The Results

Technology Networks’ results from its first virtual event using the vFairs platform were highly encouraging, with attendance exceeding expectations. Speaker and delegate feedback revolved around vFairs’ ease-of-use and the brilliance of the content provided by Technology Networks. The massive popularity of the webinar platform coupled with the rich discussions that were made possible through the chat forum, Technology Networks noted many other positives:

• Time Efficiency: The event was set up and executed on a very tight schedule. According to Honor, “The time frame we were working with was very tight, they managed to do all of this so efficiently.”
• Event Attendance: The event saw 318 pre-event registrations and 464 unique event visits yielding an astounding 146% turnout.
• Event Support: A dedicated event manager remained in constant contact with Technology Networks to keep them updated with the event progress and performance. This aided in swift query resolution and boosted responsiveness during the live event. Honor goes onto explain, “Our dedicated account manager regularly set up calls to monitor our progress – it is great to have the option to chat about our progress from both sides. They were very hands-on and were an asset when it came to working with our speakers!”

About their overall experience, Honor Grainger, Customer Service Manager at technology Networks says, “We thought our virtual event was fantastic! This was our first virtual event but so far it has been well received, we achieved what we set out to do and more. We considered a number of providers but eventually opted with VFairs for a couple of reasons. They were very flexible and keen to listen exactly what we wanted to achieve as our event was a standard virtual event set up. vfairs enabled us to streamline the standard virtual event set up to create us a unique event!”

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.