Katie Hill, Head of Marketing
Introduction:
Fitwise were the Professional Conference Organiser for FIS/HIS International 2020 online which took place in November 2020 and was run on our affordable and flexible in-house platform (‘Fitwise e-conference’), which is fully supported by AV technicians.
Background:
The Federation of Infection Societies (FIS) International conference is a unique event – a collaboration between societies across the UK with interests in different aspects of infectious diseases, clinical microbiology, biomedical science and infection control.
FIS/HIS 2020 was originally planned as a physical event and was due to take place in Edinburgh in Autumn 2020. The conference launched, as planned in November 2019, however, by early 2020 it became very apparent that the plans for the conference would need to alter!
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic it was now impossible to hold a physical meeting of the scale and complexity planned, and the decision was made to transition the meeting online using the Fitwise e-Conference platform.
As you may imagine, adapting a physical event into an e-Conference is no mean feat! And is something that we discussed in detail on a previous blog.
The Event:
FIS/HIS International 2020 Online launched mid-July with the planning and delivery for an annual conference, which usually happens over the course of 12-18 months condensed into a 5-month period.
The team worked tirelessly to produce a fantastic event, which comprised:
- 3-day, 4 steam programme
- 35+ sessions
- Over 90 international speakers
- 200+ posters
- Comprehensive sponsors forum
- Over 1,000 online delegates from 53 different countries.
The event was a combination of pre-recorded sessions which were delivered as live, along with live speaker Q&A and interactive sessions. The content has been made available for all delegates for a full year, with registration remaining open until February 2021. Find out more.
The event was hugely successful and surpassed all targets. Delegates have been able to access many more hours of education than they would have at a physical event.
What the delegates thought:
- Over 95% rated the overall event organisation as good / very good
- Over 96% of people rated their overall conference experience as good / very good
- Over 93% rated the online registration process as good / very good
- Over 95% rated the scientific content good / very good
“Brilliant 3 days thanks so much!! So informative and well organised. Amazing!!”
“I was impressed by how engaging it was and I thoroughly enjoyed it”
“Really enjoyed it, well organised”
“IT worked fantastically well – well done!”
“Really convenient to be able to access from home/work and catch up online.”
“Extremely good value”
“Sign me up for the next one!”
What the client thought:
“Following the decision to move our FIS/HIS international conference online in mid-2020, the Fitwise team worked tirelessly with the conference organising committee to adapt the 3-day face-to-face event into a fully virtual event in under 5 months. The Fitwise e-conference platform enabled us to deliver a mix of 90 pre-recorded and live presentations, 200+ virtual posters and a forum for delegates to engage with our sponsors. Registration numbers of over 1000 far exceeded our expectations and delegate feedback on the event has been extremely positive. The online event format was new to us all and our speakers and session chairs were thankful for the excellent behind the scenes technical support they received. We are so grateful to the Fitwise team – we couldn’t have delivered such a successful event without them.”
Helen Davies, Membership Education and Events Manager, Healthcare Infection Society