Just how do global conference organisers manage to raise the bar each and every year?
Is it just luck of the draw or is there an industry secret that needs to be revealed... and revered? Maybe it's easier to understand this phenomenon with a tangible scenario and what happened when the 25th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2015).
The 25th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2015) opened its doors to nearly 11,000 participants, over 200 sessions and 165 exhibitors for a record-breaking annual meeting in Copenhagen.
Since its founding in 1983, the managing society, the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) has evolved to become Europe’s leading society in clinical microbiology and infectious diseases with members from all European countries and all continents. The 4-day conference, the largest of its kind in the world, included keynote lectures, symposia, educational workshops and meet-the-expert sessions on parallel tracks covering the entire field of infectious diseases and clinical microbiology.
Boosting those Numbers
“The steady growth in importance of ECCMID has made it our mission to maintain or even increase the excellence of this congress,” commented Prof. Murat Akova, ECCMID President. “We wanted the 2015 conference to exceed not only last year’s numbers in terms of delegates, but we also wanted to widen our global reach and promote the event to prospective members, especially those located outside major European city centres. This meant a change in our thinking, in our approach, and more importantly, in how we marketed the conference.”
Actual & Virtual
Conference promotion, marketing and awareness on a global scale was the job of the Kenes Marketing team. To promote ECCMID 2015 meet the client’s needs, Kenes concentrated its efforts on social media channels, namely Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and produced and posted a host of video clips on YouTube – all on a dedicated ECCMID channel. With all social media channels up and running the entire year leading up to the conference, Facebook and Twitter were filled with active, informative postings and really heating up for real-time tweets onsite.
This year realised unmatched online and social media successes as well, with more than 8 million impressions on Twitter, an increase of 290% over last year’s congress, and over 5,000 downloads of the congress mobile app, which helped participants plan schedules, map the event and book and attend sessions of their choice. Even more impressive was the conference Hybrid session that was streamed live to China, the innovative ECCMID TV, a dedicated TV station inside the conference venue that hosted ECCMID committee members, guest speakers and VIP lecturers.
Click HERE to view comprehensive footage and interviews from ECCMID 2015.
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