Highlights The 3-day virtual extension of the event was a whopping success, with some of top-ranking employers-of-choice being Aban Investment, Majid Al Futtaim, Nathan & Nathan HR, PwC, Flying Elephant, Qurum Business Group, Al Qabas Employment, Shifra, Dubai Sports City, Talabat, and Fischer. The dashboard also captured additional impressive insights including: 900+ Total Registrations 6,300+ Total Number of Booth Visits 5,300+ Total Unique Booth Visits 4,000+ Total Number of Job Applications “The great turnout of students and recruiters at the onsite fair is testimony to the viability of such a large-scale event. The innovative technological approach allows us to connect students and universities with leading organizations that will further fuel homegrown talent to fulfill Dubai’s economic ambitions and diversification efforts.” Mohammad Abdullah Managing Director of Dubai International Academic City and Dubai Knowledge Park (DIAC) The Challenges With a goal to connect 80+ employers and universities with over 10,000 graduate and postgraduate students, DIAC wanted to provide a platform that facilitated matching of candidates to employers without travel, logistics, and inclusivity related limitations. Solely relying on a traditional Career Fair setting was just not going to cut it anymore, there was a need to leverage innovation to overcome various obstacles that included: Exhibitors could only recruit from the local talent pool, they lacked access to an international audience. Hiring managers struggled with manual data entry and misplaced resumes; candidate shortlisting was an extremely tedious process. Organizations struggled to establish themselves as employer-of-choice; promoting their brand and company culture was an uphill battle. Job seekers wanted the flexibility to apply for jobs online without having to travel or reschedule their prior commitments. Rushed interactions between visitors and recruiters led to poor quality hiring decisions and lackluster attendee experience. There were no reporting tools to monitor event activity; simply tracking attendee footfall was not a reliable measurement of success. Event Gallery The Solution To help DIAC host an impactful Career Fair that utilized automation to support seamless recruitment, and unite students, graduates, and influential recruiters, the vFairs team put together a custom virtual career fair solution that was truly one-of-its-kind. With an onsite Career Fair scheduled for the 13th and 14th of May 2018, the event continued being hosted online for an additional 3 days to maximize exposure, job seeker attendance, and employer branding outcomes. Global Audience & ExposureUsing the vFairs platform as a digital extension of the Career Fair, the exhibitors achieved access to a global talent pool with no geographical limitations. The virtual Career Fair mimicked the physical event in a 3D setting allowing attendees to participate at any time from anywhere without the need for travel. Moreover, with the event being hosted round-the-clock, no time zone differences or scheduling conflicts hindered job seekers’ ability to submit their resumes online for vacancies of interest- the result being employers building exceptional talent databases without constraints.With pre-announced chat slots, guests could use audio, video, or textual chat functions to communicate with recruiters and have meaningful exchanges without having to wait in long queues. Also, the online event allowed employers to promote their brand with view-on-demand multimedia content and custom-designed virtual booths to ensure a fully immersive, informative, and exciting environment that met audience engagement objectives. Powerful Applicant TrackingAs a prerequisite, all visitors were required to register through Talentera’s custom recruitment platform to gain access to a dynamic job board with complete vacancy and employer listings. Job seekers were able to filter through job postings to find relevant matches for their skill sets and consequently submit their resumes to execute a focused job search strategy. Meanwhile, exhibitors could use the searchable platform to shortlist candidates according to their requirements and conduct targeted-follow ups even after the Career Fair had ended. This eliminated any chances of lost prospects and empowered them to search for talent that best met their selection criteria with utmost precision. Instant Resume Capture & SortingTo further enrich the onsite event, ScanShake’s mobile app was used to facilitate on-the-spot resume capturing of job seeker profiles. Instead of dealing with piles of paper-based resumes, recruiters captured profiles digitally with a quick scan of a QR code. They were able to capture profiles individually through the app which helped each exhibiting team to build a consolidated database of CVs without duplication with brilliant efficiency. Capturing CVs was just the starting point. Recruiters were able to go one step beyond by adding tags, writing notes, and shortlisting candidates through the app with a few taps; a welcomed relief that enabled them to annotate and organize candidate profiles on the fly, and record context behind each conversation. Detailed Reporting & AnalyticsThe virtual event platform measured event activity to gather real-time insights reflecting key performance indicators including total registrations, unique booth visits, job applications received, and more. This helped the host identify exhibitors that attracted most traffic, in addition to being able to track the vacancies most popular amongst visitors to obtain an overall understanding of the job market landscape. The Results Hitting an absolute home run, the DIAC Career Fair attracted 60+ employers, 25+ universities, and thousands of quality candidates ready to kick start their careers with the best names in the business. Share This Article: Sarah Shaukat Sarah est responsable de la stratégie de contenu chez vFairs. Forte de plus de 10 ans d'expérience, elle est spécialisée dans l'élaboration de campagnes marketing complètes, de la stratégie à la mise en œuvre, pour les secteurs du SaaS et des technologies événementielles. En dehors du travail, Sarah aime passer du temps avec sa famille, découvrir de nouvelles destinations de voyage et regarder des séries coréennes.