EAST is a non-profit that focuses on transforming the current education system by utilizing technology. With hundreds of staff members and 3000 students, this annual conference is extremely important to their organization. For 2021, they decided to pivot their 3-day conference from fully in-person to 100% virtual. Even with the drastic switch, they were able to keep the students high-energy and well-engaged. EAST was even able to stay within their budget by utilizing a creative live event setup, all while keeping high production value. With the students’ area of focus being technology, our crew was able to add even more value by showing the kids behind the scenes.
Check out the highlight video our team produced for the conference.
The Challenge to Solve
In years past, EAST’s annual conference was held under one roof. Once the pandemic of 2020 struck, everything changed for this event. Their 2020 live event was held over a zoom meeting without the aid of a production company. This did not retain the students’ attention or provide as much value to their learning. With Covid cases still on the rise, EAST was once again presented with the challenge of making their annual conference fully virtual in 2021. This time they called for the aid of our professional production team, in hopes that their students could engage as if they were in-person, and still keep within their budget.
The Solution
Our solution for EAST was a fully virtual live event set up in their headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas. With the budget dollars they saved from reducing their team, presenter, and guest travel expenses, they increased the production value of their stream and gave their conference a more professional touch. Production value was especially important because of how difficult it is to retain a young person’s attention, especially when their event is being brought to them via a screen. For this event, we also added a live chat to the stream. This chat allowed for the students to interact with each other along with the EAST and avad3 staff on-site. This connected everyone live, as if they were attending fully in-person. Our team also completed the event by producing an array of video content and live presentations from EAST presenters.
Most uniquely to the EAST event, our founder Cameron stepped up as a session presenter. The EAST Conference is composed of thousands of aspiring technology students, and for them, a look behind the scenes at the production itself was a real treat. In Jessica’s own words, “It added an extra element for our entire EAST network.”
Don’t plan your next virtual event alone. Choose a production partner who complements the mission, vision, and values of your organization and your event is bound to be engaging. If you’d like to explore what that looks like, we’d love to hear from you.