Case Study: Royal Statistical Society

Reimagining an international conference online

What we did

The RSS International Conference regularly attracts more than 600 attendees from over 40 countries, providing one of the best opportunities for anyone interested in statistics and data science to come together to share knowledge and network.

What we delivered

The RSS chose Virt-Us Live, our virtual event platform developed specifically to replicate a content and participant-led conference's unique features and functionality, with networking and interaction for attendees as key design features.

Using Virt-Us Live, we brought together live video conferencing, pre-recorded content, live streaming, and content sharing into a single, fully customisable platform. Our in-house production, video, logistics, and digital teams supported event delivery.

One session organiser said, “The virtual platform worked particularly well for RSS compared with several other virtual conferences have attended lately, and the technical people made it easy." 

Results

Despite the challenging combination of a short lead time, pandemic uncertainty, and a new way for the audience to experience the event, the conference was a complete success. Over 150 speakers contributed to three days of knowledge sharing, and many who would not ordinarily have the opportunity to join the conference physically were first-time attendees. While breaking new ground, the temporary move online meant that the RSS could bring their membership community together to share specific learning, including additional COVID-19 specific content.