Case study: #Northernlands3
Overview
| Use case: | Virtual conference |
| Event title: | Northernlands 3 |
| Organisations involved: | The Kingdom of The Netherlands, ODILeeds & West Yorkshire Combined Authority |
| Objectives: | To help businesses from The Netherlands – especially start-ups and scale-ups to see the North of England as a place to set themselves up in the UK and vice versa. |
Executive summary
A Data, Digital & Start-Up Innovation virtual conference. Across 2 days with morning and afternoon sessions consisting of pre-recorded lightning talks and live Q&As under 5 themes; Innovation with Health Data, Economy & Future of Work, Climate Emergency - #PlanetData, Data Rights, Data Security & Safety and Mobility & Urban Living.
We designed, built, convened, managed and delivered all of the elements of this online conference.
What we did for Northernlands 3
- Consultation - we outlined the aims and objectives of Northernlands 3 - which was to bring people together virtually to showcase start-ups and scale-ups from the Netherlands and the North of England.
- Branding followed - our design team created our Northernlands 3 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 management - we engaged with potential speakers and made sure they were fully briefed & comfortable with the format - Rehearsal & Guidance.
- Recording and video editing - due to the pandemic we assisted speakers to pre-record their talks then our broadcast 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 & hosting, live streaming, zoom and YouTube.
- Asset Creation - Unlike many virtual events we can record, edit and create an asset of your event. With Northernlands 3, all of the lightning talks and Q&As have been uploaded to our Youtube channel and our bespoke hubpage which will now live forever and used as a resource open to all on the web.
The results
We had held two previous Northernlands events - one in 2019 (in person), and one in 2020 (entirely digital). To measure the success of our third Northernlands, we look at the data to compare against the previous conferences. At our first Northernlands event we had over 120 people in the ODILeeds space. For our third, we had over 500 people watching on the day showing that virtual can reach further.
Event Reach
| No. speakers | 30 |
| No. countries involved | 4 (UK, Netherlands, Canada & USA) |
| Live page views | 1,572 |
| Live page plays | 413 |
| YouTube Plays | 133 |
| West Yorkshire Innovation Festival attendance | 1150* |
*All events not just Northernlands3
If you are interested in organising a virtual conference like Northernlands 3, please get in touch at hello@odileeds.org. We would be more than happy to have a chat and find out how we can help you take your events online.
Case studies
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#Northernlands3
A virtual conference
A 2-day multi platform online conference. Northernlands 3 is the third in this series of conferences which seeks to bring together the Netherlands and the North of England with the aim to support and improve connections – commercially, culturally and personally.
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Scope's Carousel
Virtual networking
Scope UK commissioned ODILeeds to design and build a virtual Networking Carousel of curated exhibitors as an opportunity to meet, share and learn from one another.
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Leeds Apprenticeship Festival 2021
A Virtual Fair
Leeds City Councils Employment & Skills hub throw their annual Leeds Apprenticeship Festival every year at the Leeds First Direct Arena. With the COVID-19 pandemic, LAF21 was to be hosted virtually.