Case study: Leeds Apprenticeship Festival 2021
Overview
| Use case: | Virtual fair |
| Event title: | Leeds Apprenticeship Festival 2021 |
| Organisations involved: | Leeds City Councils Employment & Skills hub |
| Objectives: | To put young adults aged 16-25 in contact with apprenticeship exhibitors |
Executive summary
Live@ODILeeds designed and hosted a 4-day virtual apprenticeship fair. We built a bespoke virtual 'festival' website with an exhibitor arena, ticket hall, video vault, and a help desk. To make it feel as much as possible like a real fair we used a virtual software platform called Airmeet for live ‘Meet & Greet’ sessions - tables staffed by real employers were displayed and attendees could take a seat and have a chat.
Leeds City Council were only able to afford this because of their relationship with us, as a typical off the shelf careers fair package would normally cost £35K+, we did it for half of this.
What we did for Leeds Apprenticeship Festival 2021
- Consultation - We outlined the aims and objectives of Leeds Apprenticeship Festival 2021 - which was to put young adults in contact with apprenticeship providers.
- Branding followed - Our design team created the Leeds Apprenticeship Festival 2021 logo, imagery and a bespoke hub page.
- Ticketing - An event needs an audience - We specifically work to make our event as open, free & easy to access for all.
- Speaker & attendee management - We engaged with speakers and made sure they were fully briefed & comfortable with the format - Rehearsal & Guidance.
- Recording and video editing - We asked apprentice providers to record a short video to appear in the exhibitor arena so attendees could learn about each organisation before entering the event. We made the necessary edits and amendments to sound/image offering a professional smooth quality programme.
- Promotion - Our extensive & engaged network & community are responsive to our events. Social media promotion of your event to our network is included as standard.
- The technology - Every virtual event needs a platform - in this instance we used multiple tools - in house web design, implementing and managing Airmeet.
- Asset Creation - Unlike many virtual events we can record, edit and create an asset of your event. With Leeds Apprenticeship Festival 2021, all of the apprenticeship provider videos and information was uploaded to the bespoke event site, this was then used as a resource for attendees to use and contact providers for up to 30 days after the virtual fair.
The results
The target was to beat the attendance at the First Direct Arena last year. The 2021 online only festival succeeded in meeting these targets and building a website with a legacy. Over 1,000 unique visitors interacted directly via Airmeet, and there were over 53,000 views of the bespoke event website.
| Registration and attendance figures | |
| Total Attendance (via Airmeet) | 1062 |
| Total Website Views Festival Period (over the 4 days) All Time | 17,743 53,398 |
The traffic for the bespoke site was incredible with over 53K views and over 1,000 people attending the live events and receiving 1 to 1 guidance in many cases. The event was a great success, the platform performed and was well received with positive feedback.
If you are interested in organising an event like Leeds Apprenticeship Festival 2021, please get in touch at hello@odileeds.org. We are a friendly lot and happy to discuss what you want to achieve with your event.
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