How do you host a seamless virtual event for technology professionals for the first time? How do you create a user-friendly experience for multiple personas, based across multiple continents? Trend Micro’s CLOUDSEC conference can show you how.
What is Trend Micro?
Trend Micro is a software security company with over 30 years of experience in the IT and security space. With headquarters around the world and industry recognition from the likes of Gartner and Forrester, Trend Micro is truly a global leader in cloud and cyber security. Every year Trend Micro hosts their marquee event for tech leaders.
What is the CLOUDSEC Conference?
CLOUDSEC offers Enterprise Organizations a chance to learn about trends and topics on digital transformation and cyber security, right from the experts including Trend Micro’s own leaders. It targets multiple personas within the IT security industry, including CxOs, IT executives, and DevOps professionals focused on topics such as enterprise security, detection & response, cloud security and threat research. In 2020, the theme of CLOUDSEC was “Transformation Your Way”, and focused on how every business is at a different point in their own digital security journey. CLOUDSEC was always an in-person event, prior to 2020. It’s been hosted at various locations including in India and the UK.
The Challenge
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Trend Micro still wanted to keep CLOUDSEC going. They needed to shift to an online platform and needed to do it fast. It was difficult for Trend Micro to find a virtual events platform that had the bandwidth to help them with their virtual event. Additionally, they wanted to offer multiple event tracks and make them accessible to an audience across the Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Africa region spanning multiple time zones across 3 days.
Luckily, vFairs picked up the phone.
The Solution
vFairs offered a customizable platform that included many features that immersed the audience in the environment and added value beyond that of a simple webinar. Let’s dive into some of the features that helped Trend Micro host a successful event.
Customization Features
CLOUDSEC has always targeted multiple attendees from countries across continents. The virtual format accommodated attendees from unique cultures, languages, and time zones attendees were used to. They created custom avatars and placed them throughout the event to visually represent the diversity of the CLOUDSEC attendees.
Additionally, they offered multiple languages through the virtual environment. The presentations were accessible at any time to attendees across Australia, Asia, Africa, and Europe through semi-live and on-demand webinars and breakout auditoriums.
Scalable Platform
As planning progressed, interest in the event grew beyond what the team at Trend Micro had first projected. In response, the vFairs team was accommodating and able to scale the event to meet their requirements.
Stani Papallo, Senior Marketing Director, Trend Micro, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, “at the time, we did not know … how big it was going to get, and vFairs was able to scale with us”.
Multiple Event Tracks
CLOUDSEC has always targeted multiple audiences. Attendees spanned from C-level decision makers and executives to DevOps teams responsible for implementation. Additionally, the conference covered multiple topics around the topic of enterprise security. In order to make it more user-friendly, Trend Micro hosted live keynotes to kick off each day and asked vFairs to set up multiple auditoriums dedicated to various topics, featuring on-demand webinars.
This helped make navigation through the webinars much easier for attendees. Additionally, they hosted two different networking lounges — one for C-level attendees, and one for the general attendees. Each lounge had its own links to network with its peers.
Engagement Features
Trend Micro also hosted a #CLOUDSECChallenge that ran the length of the event. They included an overview document that linked to the challenge landing page right from the virtual lobby. The user-friendly design made it easy to access for any attendees who wanted to participate.
Additionally, Trend Micro invited notable partners such as AWS and Microsoft to exhibit in their virtual exhibition halls. They hosted interactive exhibit booths where attendees could host informational documents, videos, and links to landing pages so attendees could learn more about their security products and services.
The Result
Trend Micro had received approximately 5,000 registrations at past in-person events, and ended up receiving over 21,000 for their first virtual event! With an average attendance rate of approximately 3000 at past CLOUDSEC conferences, they almost tripled that number — clocking over 8200 unique logins at the virtual event. Additionally, what was supposed to be a 1-day online event turned into a 3-day event with over 255 content sessions.
Trend Micro hadn’t originally planned to host CLOUDSEC 2020 virtually. However, they were able to offer a seamless virtual event experience for their target audiences. Moreover, the vFairs project management team offered an excellent experience for first-time virtual conference hosts.
Stani noted that “it was flawless, and the event support we had as well over the three days with the crew, it was great and made that experience what it was for the delegates and sponsors … everyone.”
Trend Micro executes the CLOUDSEC conference on a long-term basis. Going forward, Trend Micro is interested in starting to host hybrid events. So, as countries roll out vaccinations, hybrid events offer a flexible and cost-effective option for any participants to join.
