How London Business School’s Women in Business Club doubled their registration goal for their largest event yet

About London Business School’s, Women in Business Club & The Equall Conference

LBS’s Women in Business Club (WIB) is a community of students, alumni and academics that educate, inspire and support the next generation of business leaders to build an equal future. They facilitate thoughtful exchanges of information, ideas and experiences through forward-thinking, word class initiatives, events and workshops to promote the advancement of women’s leadership in business.

The Equall Conference is the leading forum in Europe for the next generation of leaders promoting gender equality in the workplace. The theme they chose for this year’s conference is “Flattening the (gender) curve,” where they discussed how the pandemic affected women’s careers, explored what leadership looked like in the “new normal” and inspired each other on how to navigate these times and emerge stronger. With 20+ sessions and 60+ speakers from across the world, this was their biggest event ever!

CHALLENGE

Like many, London Business School’s Women in Business Club needed to find a Covid-friendly solution that would provide strong branding abilities while still being budget friendly. Moreover, they wanted a platform that would bring the fun back to event planning so that it would encourage more organization members to take on the event planning role year after year.

When we chose a virtual events platform, we wanted a vendor that could support hybrid but switch rapidly to virtual should it come to that. Cadence was that platform; allowing us to have access to a comprehensive feature suite and customize it to how we wanted

Thomas Névoa Pereira

Equall Conference Co-Chair

They were looking for an event platform that would allow them to:

• ✅ Mix pre-recorded and live streams for their speakers
• ✅ Provide price flexibility
• ✅ Create and maintain engagement throughout the sessions
• ✅ Have on-hands support in building and executing their event
• ✅ Customize the platform to their wants and needs
• ✅ Have fun as a team in planning the event together!

Here are The WIB event planners’ best tips and tricks that they learned from the conference:

1. Be thoughtful in planning your schedule

Most attendees join an event for the keynote. What you want to avoid is having them only come for the keynote and then leave right after that’s done. A well planned out schedule where your main sessions aren’t too far apart ensures that attendees won’t drop off in the middle of the event and are engaged throughout. The WIB team went a different route than conventional event structures by stacking their line up with one keynote session after the other, drawing in their guests and keeping them there.

2. Ensure great quality video production for your sessions

One of the reasons The WIB Club chose Cadence was because of Symphony, our in-house meeting and presentation platform. Symphony allowed them to run high production broadcasts and maintain audience engagement with interactive features like GIFs in the chat and upvoting questions. They utilized our integration with Zoom to allow their speakers to work with a platform they’re already familiar with, while still taking advantage of the additional features that provide an elevated presentation experience on Symphony.

Based on the learnings from our last event, I knew we needed a platform that would not only create opportunities for engagement, but also sustain them throughout the event. Cadence allowed me to look super professional, and the look and feel of the platform definitely aided in keeping the audience engaged.

Thomas Névoa Pereira

Equall Conference Co-Chair

3. Get your team to start the conversations and your attendees will follow suit

Making the first move can be intimidating! By having some team members ignite the fire in those chats and live feeds, it encourages other participants to join in on the fun without any of the additional pressure of initiating a conversation themselves.

4. Appointments made their event flow seamless

Part of the event was executive coaching sessions and resume reviews during breaks. They used Appointments so that people could easily sign up for these sessions creating a convenient and efficient experience for both the WIB team and their attendees. Finding times that matched for both parties was hassle-free thanks to the ability to export the event calendar into your personal one – whether that be iCal, Outlook or Google.

5. House all your content under one roof

The WIB team used Collections to house important pre-event information, but also updated it with materials that they learned resonated with their audience during the event. For example, when a a speaker shared a book or podcast that they loved, they were able to quickly upload the link to a folder on Collections. This way, participants have access to all the event’s content in one place, anytime, anywhere.

Results

• ✅ Over 900 Registered Attendees
• ✅ All recorded sessions easily accessed in one location
• ✅ 168 interactions on the Live Feed
• ✅ Offered the same kind of engagement and connections to their community despite being 100% virtual
• ✅ Highlighted individual Sponsors on different sessions and on their own page on the platform
• ✅ 66 Speakers

Whether your event is big and elaborate, or small and simple, Cadence can support both and make you look good in any size. The assistance they provided on the production side was instrumental in achieving our goals

Thomas Névoa Pereira

Equall Conference Co-Chair

What attendees said:

• “It’s one of the most flexible platforms out there!”
• “I really appreciate how convenient the integration with Outlook, Google etc. made it to schedule an Appointment”
• “I was definitely jazzed up in that session and ready for the rest of the day 2 lineup!”

Interested to see how Cadence could work for your upcoming events? Schedule a free consultation. We’ll recommend the best solution based on your goals—even it’s not Cadence.