Jake Intel

This past year has seen industry and professional events such as seminars, meetings, and conferences go virtual. And many of those are expected to continue that way. While sharing a Zoom link might suffice for a small group, it takes incredible effort to pull off a special event such as a popular annual conference in the virtual landscape. Enter Jake Group!

Challenge: Bring together 350+ veterinary professionals, educators, and thought leaders from across the globe to take part in AAVMC’s Annual Conference, presented VIRTUALLY for the first time ever. Ensure the user experience creates a feeling of being there, information is organized, and site branding has synergy with the main AAVMC site.  

Solution: Jake Group executed a seamless and total web experience including the conference site, registration and log-in functionality, session rooms, embedding livestream video, navigation, and more. View our finished work here. 

Some Background 

AAVMC (American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges), approached us in September of 2020 with an important ask:  their annual conference the following  March would require a digital solution due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. They needed  a virtual space to bring hundreds of stakeholders together, and we were ready for the challenge.  

We had previously built trust and confidence with AAVMC having redesigned and launched their primary website in October 2020, and also created–from–scratch an online Veterinary College application directory website, which launched in August 2020 (more on that here). We know their brand inside and out, so  it was important to not just use an off-the-shelf virtual conference platform. We wanted to ensure that this virtual conference site would be customizable and seamlessly integrated with their enhanced digital brand in mind. We were excited and ready to hustle hard.   

Our Approach 

We worked closely with AAVMC to understand what made their past in-person conferences a success. As they initially didn’t know how to pull this off virtually, this was a crucial first step. We were able to identify essential elements such as registration and log-in, content elements, event calendar, session “rooms”, video and livestream integration, speaker information, and much more. This virtual conference would include 40 sessions.  

We also wanted to drive users to the conference site, making it the authoritative resource for the event. This required a library of information to be organized in a simple manner that made everything easy to find and navigate.  

This of course was a virtual conference and we wanted to ensure people felt like they were actually “there” and engaged. It was important for attendees to have and enjoy a seamless experience.  

Executing a Virtual Conference 

Building buzz and early engagement 

Prior to the build out we first created a “one-pager” site as a placeholder. This was a simple design to include keynote speaker info, a way to register, and a countdown clock to the virtual conference. Launching this teaser site marked an official start to the conference season and helped create some early buzz.  

Launch 

The final site was a success (more on that below). Beyond a beautiful and clean website design that you can expect from the Jake Group, our team executed on: 

• Creating and hosting the virtual conference site. 
• Developing registration functionality and log-in functionality for access.  
• Emailing attendees prior to the event with their log-in credentials. 
• Creating 40 session rooms with embedded video from livestream zoom links, as well as pre-recorded Vimeo links, in addition to live Q&A sessions. 
• Designing site navigation so attendees could easily find session rooms and log-in accordingly. 
• Including speaker bios and headshots, all organized and in the correct places/rooms.  
• Embedding an Event calendar organized by date and content sections. 
• Integrating Analytics tracking to help understand key traffic areas and other useful data.  

 

Success 

We are of course always proud of our team and championing our clients. AAVMC’s virtual conference was a major success with a record number of attendees and an awesome mix of attendees. From ideation to planning to execution and launch we were true partners in a total web experience and established a number of virtual conference best practices.  

Leslie Wilson, Program Manager at AAVMC and our key partner who spear-headed the virtual conference website efforts, deemed the website and subsequent event a great success.

“My organization had the opportunity to work with the Jake Group for our Annual Conference. From the beginning, the entire team was a pleasure to work with. We met virtually regularly to discuss goals, objectives, and timelines. The Jake Group was able to take a small vision and bring it to life on a larger scale with the conference website. It was also reassuring to see the Jake Group work well with other vendors for the conference. Overall, it was enjoyable to work with the Jake Group, and because of their hard work, my organization had a successful event.”

-Leslie Wilson, AAVMC

 

 

Let’s Work Together 

We’re here to help and would love to make your future virtual conference a success. You can count on our expertise and commitment whether you are looking to execute for the first time or if you are looking for a new partner for your conference, seminar, or a large company meeting.

 

 

Ready to get started? Drop us a line, and let’s start your project today!