Governance New Zealand Inc. is an independent professional body dedicated to providing education, training and support for practicing company secretaries, governance advisers, risk and compliance managers and other governance professionals. The organisation holds an annual conference usually attended by approximately eighty people. This year the physical event was transformed into a successful live stream with the number of attendees virtually doubling to 150.
Cost-effective Solution
Following Auckland’s shift into Alert Level 3, Nicola Scot, Event Manager & Office Administrator, quickly contacted a number of audio-visual hire companies for a quote to support an online version of the event. “As a Not-for-Profit organisation we always go out to tender to find the most cost-effective solution. Edwards have consistently offered us the most for our money, and their response to our request for a streamed service was no different,” reports Nicola.
Smooth Pre-Production
Without an in-house technical team, Governance NZ relied solely on Edwards for advice on transforming the event from face-to-face to virtual, “As we were in Level 3, Flavia the Edwards Account Manager, Harry the Technical Manager, myself and our CEO met via zoom. Edwards let us know exactly what they needed from us and then we focused on the event, while they looked after everything else.”
The virtual solution that Edwards offered included the use of their centrally located Auckland studio for the MC, Nicola and Linda to use on the day, all the audio-visual equipment required, and technical support. “Our speakers were all presenting remotely from their homes or, like Dr Ashley Bloomfield, from their offices. Edwards performed a thorough technical run through with each of them prior, managed the live feed, and dealt with the minor issues that arose on the day.”
Interactive Presentations
The MC, used regularly by Governance NZ, is a high energy lady who usually never sits down and bounces off the audience. It was a change for her to be running the day virtually but it helped that she was in a studio with Nicola, Linda and the Edwards crew.
In the pre-production planning, the team had decided to encourage interactivity and the audience were able, via the livestream platform, to submit questions that were moderated and fed through to the MC. They also ran polls throughout the day, and turned on chat during the breaks.
Sponsors were catered for too with a slide rotation and video presentations in between presenters.
Next time?
Asked if there were things that Nicola would change next time, she responded that she was very comfortable with how the day went. They had between 100 and 150 viewers at any one time and also had significantly larger numbers from the South Island which they were pleased about.
As an experienced event organiser, Nicola found it no more stressful than a regular event, “It was just different. Edwards had everything covered. Flavia was very thorough, replied to every email quickly and just let me know what she needed from me. Flavia coordinated the technical team Shae and Vi, and they sorted all the pre-checks and slides from the sponsors. On the day, having the studio was wonderful. It looked professional, and was soundproofed. We would highly recommend Edwards as true professionals in the art of hosting events virtually. The transition from running a live face-to-face event to a virtual delivery was seamless.”
