Filed in: Virtual & Hybrid Event Case Studies Tag: Case Studies
When the IEEE Summit on Communications Futures (IEEE ComFutures), hosted by the IEEE Industry Engagement Committee, decided to go virtual, delivering an engaging experience was a top priority. The organizing committee, under the leadership of Conference Chair, Robert Fish, partnered with the MCE Digital Events Team (MCE DE) on the design and execution of their two-day virtual event held in January 2021.
IEEE ComFutures convened 120 participants from industry, academia, and government to exchange ideas on leading-edge communications topics like 6G, optical communications, and mixed and immersive reality. The event featured thought leadership from innovators at organizations like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and The Boeing Company. IEEE ComFutures was also co-hosted and held alongside Pacific Telecommunication Council’s Annual Meeting (PTC 20) based in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Co-location of the event made it necessary to ensure that time zone differences would not hinder virtual participation. To address this concern, the organizing committee opted to pre-record the majority of their content. This decision not only helped minimize the chance of technical glitches but improved access by enabling participants to consume more content around their busy schedules. Each session also included an “Ask Me Anything Q/A” feature where participants had the opportunity to email questions to speakers, with answers returned by email.
Fulfilling the event’s objective of exploring “the intersection of technologies with new business realities” meant that participant engagement would be key. IEEE ComFutures provided participants with opportunities to hear speakers across different sectors discuss timely communications topics with strong relevance to their community. The rich program featured a mix of 18 live and pre-recorded sessions including keynotes, technical talks, and a live panel on “Security and Privacy for Future Communications Networks.”
Chair, Rob Fish shares, “In the end, it was a great event. We doubled registrations over the previous year and attracted a heavily applied engineering audience, which is what we wanted. Going virtual allowed us to attract a better, more diverse set of speakers…I think delivering highly-qualified invited speakers to the desktop is the solution to attracting the industry-based, applied engineering participants that we have sought after for many years.”
Through strategic decision-making, powerful content, and the expertise of the MCE DE Team, the organizing committee was able to deliver a well-received virtual event. Connections made at IEEE ComFutures 2021 will serve as a springboard for continued collaboration and dialogues among their many industry, academic, and government partners in the future.