Organising Hybrid and Virtual Congresses: What to Consider?

Future congresses will have to be planned differently due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It is foreseeable that regular physical congresses will not generate the same number of participants as before the pandemic. Congresses will continue to be predominantly physical events, but more participants than before will participate virtually, be it from their offices, their institutes or clinics, or their homes. Many congresses will be hybrid events, with entirely virtual congresses being a possible alternative.
Congress sessions will be recorded more frequently than today, and it will be possible to access them on-demand on the scientific associations’ websites. Participants will be able to view lectures at their pleasure even after the congress is over.

The scheduled congress takes place in the form of a physical event. The congress programme as well as the exhibition take place in the predetermined venues.

CPO takes care of organising the pre-recordings and live broadcasts. Particular attention will be given to checking and, if necessary, improving the speakers’ technical possibilities. By means of CPO’s recommendations for the direction of the broadcasts, an optimal recording is warranted. CPO organises the technical realisation of the hybrid event and ensures a reliable broadcasting of the live stream. We also manage the setup and maintenance of the congress media library.

Individual speakers may not be able to attend the congress in person. We at CPO offer these speakers the possibility to have their lectures recorded beforehand.
At the time of the congress session, the speaker will be joining via live video conference in the session room. The pre-recorded lecture will be played back, and the speaker can answer questions from the public on site and from digital participants in real time. Alternatively, the speaker can hold the lecture in real time within the scheduled time of the session.

The entirety or a particular selection of the sessions are recorded. After post-production – if requested or necessary – the recordings will be added to the congress media library and can be accessed at any time at the discretion of all registered congress participants.

A virtual meeting is fundamentally different from a physical event. With the same programme, a virtual congress should be a few days longer, have longer breaks and fewer parallel sessions. Congress participants will dedicate less time to attending a virtual event compared to a physical congress.

• Coordinating and instructing speakers and chairs
• Pre-recording of the lectures
• Adapting the online programme on the congress website
• Setup of a congress lobby
• Setup a virtual industry exhibition

Online Programme

As usual, the entire congress programme will be represented in an online programme, sorted by days, topics, speakers etc. Additionally, there will be links to the virtual sessions.

The digital congress lobby displays the current programme in the virtual session rooms. This will give participants an overview of what there is to see in each session room. The lobby is the gateway for all users. They can start navigating from here.

In the virtual exhibition, booths can be shown, for example, on a map with the respective corporate logo. A virtual exhibition can be designed to be interesting enough for the participants to be intrigued and visit it. Exhibiting companies can have their virtual stands customised to their every need by us. By implementing live chat modules (text or video chat) as well as through dedicated online seminars and interactive video presentations, exhibitors have the possibility to get in touch with participants.