Founded in 1989, the EAIE is the European center for expertise, networking and resources in the internationalization of higher education. EAIE members are academics and administrators in colleges and universities who want to network, learn, advance their careers, and ultimately foster greater connections between students and universities around the world.
The EAIE is known for its Annual Conference & Exhibition. In 2019, the event brought together 6,400 attendees from 95 countries. This conference lets attendees:
- Receive high quality sector updates
- Gain new knowledge, tools and critical insights
- Meet new & existing partners
Challenge
In 2020 and 2021, the EAIE, like most organizations, decided to take their event virtual. Here was their challenge. The Community Exchange is known for being inspirational and uplifting, facilitating connections, and fostering solidarity between attendees. The event is also known to be gezellig.
Gezellig is a Dutch word that means a feeling of warmth, comfort, and relaxation; a friendly ambiance and cozy atmosphere; pleasant togetherness.
So how do you create a feeling of gezellig in a virtual environment?
Solution
Matrix Group was introduced to EAIE by DelCor consultant Gretchen Steenstra. “I’ve worked with EAIE a long time,” said Gretchen. “I knew that EAIE needed a virtual event partner that would take the time to help EAIE create a vision for their virtual community exchange, be willing to customize the platform in maybe extreme ways, and be willing to bend the technology to meet EAIE’s needs. EAIE needed something that would create the type of connections that attendees are used to getting in person.”
The EAIE and the BeSpeake team had just 11 weeks to plan and execute the 2020 Community Exchange. We had more time to plan and execute the 2021 Community Exchange. For the 2021 event, we built on the success of the 2020 events and made large and small tweaks to the format, sessions, exhibit hall, attendee search, and more.
2020 and 2021 Community Exchange Features
The EAIE virtual Community Exchange was held in the BeSpeake platform in 2020 and 2021. Both years, the conference featured:
- Live sessions, each featuring two or more speakers and panels
- Pre-recorded sessions, many of which were paired with live sessions that attendees were encouraged to watch in advance so that the speakers could engage with the audience at a much higher level
- Attendee networking in video rooms
- Attendee search with a message center
- Small group discussions after content presentations to help attendees deepen their learning
- Appointment scheduling between attendees, and between attendees and exhibitors
- An online poster gallery that included video rooms for each group of poster presenters, and the ability to comment on the poster, message the poster authors, and schedule appointments.
Enhancements in 2021
Unlike perhaps other conferences, EAIE exhibitors are regular members, that is, they represent universities looking to connect with other universities. In 2021, EAIE wanted to increase exhibitor benefits so BeSpeake developed a new tradeshow template that highlights exhibitor sessions. The country pavilions were also allowed to do country updates that appeared on the main schedule.
EAIE also wanted to enhance attendee networking in 2021, so BeSpeake implemented their new networking lounges and came up with new templates for the Community Exchange. In the networking lounges, attendees could choose between a variety of networking rooms, and move around easily between them.
EAIE’s Community Exchange hosted an impressive:
participants
registered users who actually logged in
private video meetings
exhibitors
Result
While the 2020 and 2021 events did not attract the same number of attendees as their in person conferences, the conference still attracted over 2,000 attendees and 370 exhibitors. Survey results post-conference showed that attendees satisfaction was very high. In 2020, 87% expressed satisfaction with the event, and 94% expressed satisfaction with the event platform
EAIE had outstanding attendee engagement during the conference:
- In 2020, 54% of attendees participated in a campfire, breakout or private appointment. In other words, over 50% of attendees attended a session where they were in a video room, as opposed to watching a livestream.
- In 2021, 79% of attendees participated in a session in a video room, a large increase from the previous year.
- In 2021, 45% of attendees visited an exhibitor page
- 1,299 private appointments took place in private video rooms
- 41% visited poster pages
