This event set a new expectation for hybrid events, illustrating how you can have a fully engaged virtual and in-person audience.
The UMCP Foundation Board of Trustees provides fundamental support to the University of Maryland (UMD), College Park, for stewarding its resources to the benefit of the university and its mission. Trustees oversee the investment and distribution of private funds, promote philanthropic support for the university, and assist and advise foundation and university leadership.
With the Board of Trustees convening only three times a year, each meeting is vital in aligning trustees, and maintaining effective oversight of the foundation and university. Moreover, the need for creative, hybrid engagement is important, now more than ever, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated apprehension around travelling and gatherings.
After holding virtual meetings over the past two years, and with restrictions eased for in-person gatherings, University of Maryland leadership was keen to provide a hybrid event experience for their University of Maryland College Park Foundation Board of Trustees meeting that would seamlessly connect 90 in-person and virtual attendees.
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Here's how the UMD team pulled it off:
“Creating a polished and branded meeting venue was very important for us from the beginning,” says Lindsay Meyers, Senior Director, Office of Special Events. “Being able to curate every aspect of the experience was critical. We wanted to design everything in a way that trustees would immediately feel they had come to the right place, and also capture the energy, professionalism, and pride of previous Foundation board meetings.”
With this in mind, UMD organizers were able to completely brand their in-person venue with decor and signage, and leveraged Zuddl’s customization tools to brand the entire virtual event venue with UMD logos, colors, and graphics as well.
The result: a fully branded and high-quality venue production that showcased the university and the critical role the Foundation plays. The venue wowed the trustees as well. The mirroring of UMD branding elements in-person and on the virtual platform established a sense of familiarity and furthered the sense of a shared experience.
It was essential for UMD organizers to make the user experience as easy and straightforward as possible. Virtual attendees were able to easily access the meeting, and understand how the platform worked without any hassle.
Lindsay and her team also customized the virtual event lobby to make navigation effortless. They placed hotspots in the lobby that would direct trustees to central areas in the venue such as the Stage. They even placed a Help icon in the lobby so that trustees could quickly reach out for assistance to a live staff member. “Our attendees felt confident in using the platform to attend the meetings,” Lindsay says.
For UMD organizers, one of the most important goals in hosting the board meeting was to create a shared and interactive experience, or to quote Lindsay, “show the attendees that they were all together.”
To achieve this, the UMD team used two unique in-platform features that brought virtual and in-person attendees face-to-face, supported by the highest production quality provided by ETP:
Zuddl provided each virtual attendee with a separate feed, which ETP projected on the LED wall at the physical venue in order to allow attendees to become speakers where they could ask a question or add their insight to a conversation. With this, Lindsay and her team were able to produce extremely curated roundtable discussions as they were able to turn the spotlight on each trustee when needed, just like a slickly produced TV news segment. “There was no barrier for virtual speakers to share and participate, they could engage just as if they were standing on stage,” comments Lindsay.
As the Board of Trustees only assemble a few times a year, every meeting needs to be as efficient as possible. UMD organizers used in-platform spaces and tools to open up two-way communication that enabled and encouraged each trustee to share their views, discuss and decide on business decisions, and connect socially.
Here’s how:
By inviting their colleagues to participate rather than be passive, the UMD team ramped up engagement and inclusivity, and by leveraging in-platform tools, they were able to drive 30% more engagement as compared to previous events.
Although this was UMD’s first hybrid board meeting, it was a resounding success. Not only did the organizers facilitate a focused and purposeful meeting where trustees, regardless of physical location, were able to work efficiently together, but they also created a new and improved experience that was inclusive, and truly memorable. Lindsay concludes “We did not have to settle on using a conference call line or screen sharing, we could curate the entire experience.”
This event set a new expectation for hybrid events, illustrating how you can have a fully engaged virtual and in-person audience.
The UMCP Foundation Board of Trustees provides fundamental support to the University of Maryland (UMD), College Park, for stewarding its resources to the benefit of the university and its mission. Trustees oversee the investment and distribution of private funds, promote philanthropic support for the university, and assist and advise foundation and university leadership.
With the Board of Trustees convening only three times a year, each meeting is vital in aligning trustees, and maintaining effective oversight of the foundation and university. Moreover, the need for creative, hybrid engagement is important, now more than ever, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated apprehension around travelling and gatherings.
After holding virtual meetings over the past two years, and with restrictions eased for in-person gatherings, University of Maryland leadership was keen to provide a hybrid event experience for their University of Maryland College Park Foundation Board of Trustees meeting that would seamlessly connect 90 in-person and virtual attendees.
{{demo-widget}}
Here's how the UMD team pulled it off:
“Creating a polished and branded meeting venue was very important for us from the beginning,” says Lindsay Meyers, Senior Director, Office of Special Events. “Being able to curate every aspect of the experience was critical. We wanted to design everything in a way that trustees would immediately feel they had come to the right place, and also capture the energy, professionalism, and pride of previous Foundation board meetings.”
With this in mind, UMD organizers were able to completely brand their in-person venue with decor and signage, and leveraged Zuddl’s customization tools to brand the entire virtual event venue with UMD logos, colors, and graphics as well.
The result: a fully branded and high-quality venue production that showcased the university and the critical role the Foundation plays. The venue wowed the trustees as well. The mirroring of UMD branding elements in-person and on the virtual platform established a sense of familiarity and furthered the sense of a shared experience.
It was essential for UMD organizers to make the user experience as easy and straightforward as possible. Virtual attendees were able to easily access the meeting, and understand how the platform worked without any hassle.
Lindsay and her team also customized the virtual event lobby to make navigation effortless. They placed hotspots in the lobby that would direct trustees to central areas in the venue such as the Stage. They even placed a Help icon in the lobby so that trustees could quickly reach out for assistance to a live staff member. “Our attendees felt confident in using the platform to attend the meetings,” Lindsay says.
For UMD organizers, one of the most important goals in hosting the board meeting was to create a shared and interactive experience, or to quote Lindsay, “show the attendees that they were all together.”
To achieve this, the UMD team used two unique in-platform features that brought virtual and in-person attendees face-to-face, supported by the highest production quality provided by ETP:
Zuddl provided each virtual attendee with a separate feed, which ETP projected on the LED wall at the physical venue in order to allow attendees to become speakers where they could ask a question or add their insight to a conversation. With this, Lindsay and her team were able to produce extremely curated roundtable discussions as they were able to turn the spotlight on each trustee when needed, just like a slickly produced TV news segment. “There was no barrier for virtual speakers to share and participate, they could engage just as if they were standing on stage,” comments Lindsay.
As the Board of Trustees only assemble a few times a year, every meeting needs to be as efficient as possible. UMD organizers used in-platform spaces and tools to open up two-way communication that enabled and encouraged each trustee to share their views, discuss and decide on business decisions, and connect socially.
Here’s how:
By inviting their colleagues to participate rather than be passive, the UMD team ramped up engagement and inclusivity, and by leveraging in-platform tools, they were able to drive 30% more engagement as compared to previous events.
Although this was UMD’s first hybrid board meeting, it was a resounding success. Not only did the organizers facilitate a focused and purposeful meeting where trustees, regardless of physical location, were able to work efficiently together, but they also created a new and improved experience that was inclusive, and truly memorable. Lindsay concludes “We did not have to settle on using a conference call line or screen sharing, we could curate the entire experience.”
The University of Maryland, College Park is the state's flagship university and one of America’s preeminent public research universities. A global leader in research, entrepreneurship, and innovation, the university is home to more than 37,000 students, 9,000 faculty and staff, and 250 academic programs.
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