Participant connections skyrocket with Networkapp at EAES annual congress

Introduction

EAES (European Association for Endoscopic Surgery) is a medical association founded in 1990 to develop knowledge of endoscopic surgery through training, education and knowledge sharing. EAES association has members attending their events each year. The main focus of their annual congress is to connect medical professionals, share know-how and reach consensus on medical practices and patient care.

Together with his team, Arjan, Executive Director of EAES, coordinates all aspects of EAES congress logistics each year. From the event registration process to securing industry relations, Arjan and his team safeguard that EAES’s congress attendees will have a unique and useful experience.

“Endoscopic surgery is one of the most innovative branches of the surgical industry, innovations are coming up very often and new medical machines are released each month. Thus, our congress is a way to update our attendees on all the latest developments of the field.“

Arjan Appel
Executive Director of EAES

Challenge

EAES event attendees are mostly medical professionals and corporations that aim to connect with each other during the event. An easy to use event management app was crucial in elevating participants’ experience.

The number of attendees in the 27th International EAES Congress in 2019 that took place in Sevilla, was 1400. There was a great mix of different themes and activities throughout this year’s congress. As the EAES congress represents one of the most innovative branches of the surgical industry, the congress team wanted the innovative identity of EAES to be reflected in their annual congress.

That’s why EAES chose to elevate their congress experience through Networkapp.

The EAES team inquired for an event app that would:

• Reduce the time needed for attendees to register for the event’s workshops, presentations, and product exhibitions;
• Enhance the engagement with the congress and the interaction among participants;
• Provide them with real-time insights into event attendee activity and control over congress’s interactions; and
• Give the organizers a holistic overview of participant profiles and enable them to ask participants questions prior to the event.

“ We were tired of big queues, which usually take up a lot of time for event attendees. As we are an event that is constantly innovating, we wanted to provide a top of class event experience for everyone. How could we do that? By easing our pre-congress process, having access to insights before and during our event regarding our participants’ characteristics and preferences and thus, providing a useful, personalised congress experience.”
Arjan Appel

Solution

After carefully mapping out the specific event’s requirements, we were able to identify the most useful event app features that would elevate EAES’s congress.

Therefore, among other Networkapp features, the most used were:

Before the event

• Event registration tools: We enabled EAES to fully centralise and control their pre-event registration process, using our event registration tools. This way, attendees had their badge ready before the event and there was zero time spent on queues.

During the event

• Live Module: Our live event feed allowed the event organisers to have a complete and broad view over participants’ connections, most active users of the app, while it helped to monitor the levels of interactivity during the event.
• Share, find & connect: Our feature assisted EAES congress attendees to connect with each other via speedates, matchmaking, group and 1 to 1 chats.
• Personal event assistant: Our personal event assistant provided personalised suggestions for presentations and workshops tailored to congress attendees based on their profiles and interests.

After the event

• Event Data Reports: The detailed reports we provided to EAES, presented Arjan and his team with an insight into the overall event activities. Hence, the EAES management team could better understand the 2019 congress’s success and prepare their marketing activities for 2020 based on our data reports.

A total of 1200 participants used Networkapp for the EAES congress in Seville. The secret formula that the number of visitors who downloaded the app was so high, was that the event organisers started sending out app activation invitations long before the actual event date.

Results

Our success in numbers:

• App activations: 88% of participants activated Networkapp;
• The number of connections: In total 885 connections were made during the event. This means that 55.7% of the participants scheduled a meeting or connected through (group) chats; and
• Conversations: 507 conversations were initiated with an astonishing 1043 messages exchanged between attendees.

“ The format and the organisation of the program was very forward-thinking. The introduction of Networkapp went beyond the usual congress app and truly enhanced the overall experience of the event. This was highlighted by the ease with which information could be shared, the connectivity between the delegates of the industry and the ability to plan your day with comfort.”

Professor Tan Arulampalam,
ALSGBI Honorary Treasurer

Looking Forward

“The information that was retrieved from the app afterwards provides a good insight into what our participants want regarding the program and what the profile of our participants is. This will ensure that in future we will be able to better attune to the needs and get a better picture of how the field of participants is structured. This is indispensable if your meeting aims to be at the top of the huge range of meetings that are offered.”
Arjan Appel