Executive Summary

The Physical Society of Taiwan held its Annual Meeting at the National Taiwan Normal University with the support of Whova’s all-in-one event management platform. Attendees joined from local regions in Taiwan to hear from distinguished speakers in the physics field. As a hybrid event, they successfully engaged remote and in-person attendees during live sessions using Whova’s Q&A features while also managing over 800 presenters. 

About the Annual Meeting of the Physical Society of Taiwan

The National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) Institution is the leading research institute for Education and Linguistics in Taiwan. This year they were the site for the Physical Society of Taiwan’s Annual Meeting, where thousands of students and professionals joined to present their research findings in pure and applied physics and physics education. Using Whova’s many networking tools, remote and in-person attendees had the chance to connect and learn more about each other.

Challenges

• Managing the information for over 800 posters 

Because the annual meeting is a unique opportunity for physicists across the world to share their latest findings, they needed a place to present materials and posters for both in-person and remote attendees to access. With over 800 posters, it was necessary they found a way to coordinate everything online.

• Engaging both sides of a hybrid audience during live sessions

Managing a hybrid audience can be a challenge, and the organizers wanted to help speakers connect with in-person and remote attendees to ensure that sessions were engaging and interactive.

• Coordinating speaker information 

Over 400 speakers were joining the event and with so much to coordinate between speaker biographies and session information, the organizer’s needed an easy way to  manage all the information.

• Inspiring networking opportunities between remote and in-person attendees

Many members of the Physical Society of Taiwan only see each other once a year at this event, so it is an important opportunity for them to network and set up in-person or virtual meetings.

Solutions

• Streamline presentations by gathering information in one spot

Whova’s Artifact Center is a comprehensive online space that supports all kinds of presentations, from business pitches to poster and art presentations. The feature conveniently helped organizers manage the information of over 8000 presenters at their annual meeting. Presenters could access their unique digital presentations with personal links sent by the organizers, and upload videos, photos, PDFs, abstracts, contact information, and more. 

The organizers easily monitored profile progress in Whova’s dashboard and could email all or specific presenters pre-made poster profile reminders if they were missing an item. The digital presentation spaces were highly interactive for both online and in-person attendees. They could like, comment, and message presenters directly from the app. Attendees could also view presentations at their convenience in the virtual Artifact hall and search for specific presentations if they needed.

Attendees could search for and view all the digital posters in the Artifact Center 

• Encourage attendees to post questions in the Q&A chats 

During live speaker sessions, remote and in-person attendees could post their questions in the Q&A feature on the app. The feature was a great way for both kinds of attendees to interact with each other and the speakers in the same space.

As attendees liked questions, the most liked ones automatically moved to the top of the list. Moderators could also manually delete inappropriate questions or move essential questions to a higher priority on the list. The Q&A helped the speakers communicate with the audience members, as they could answer their questions directly during live sessions. 

• Empower speakers to upload information to the Speaker Center

The Speaker Center saved organizers time coordinating speaker information by providing one space for the organizers and speakers to manage information together. Speakers directly uploaded their biography and session details onto the platform, using personal links similar to the Artifact Center presenter links. They could easily input contact information, session descriptions, photos, videos, livestreams, and more without the organizers lifting a finger. 

If organizers needed to modify any speaker or session information, they could easily access speaker profiles, and any changes made were automatically updated on the platform. Whova seamlessly generates speaker information onto convenient speaker webpages that the organizers can embed to their website. Attendees could also view speaker details in the app and message the speakers if they wanted to connect further. 

It was easy to view speaker profiles on the app and send a direct message or set up a video call 

• Network and set up video calls on the Community Board

It was easy for in-person and remote attendees to connect in the app’s Community Board, an online discussion forum designed to inspire networking. Attendees posted many discussion topics about the physics industry or chatted about fun topics like favorite foods. They conveniently utilized the app to share photos with attendees, posting over 490 photos throughout the event. If they wanted to quickly introduce themselves on the app, they could post an Icebreaker, sharing a quick fun fact about their favorite foods or animals. 

Whova’s online Meet-up feature allowed attendees to coordinate in-person or video meetings on the Community Board. They could post “virtual coffee hangouts” or share a restaurant they were going to for other attendees to view and join.

Posting Icebreakers on the Community Board was a fun opportunity for attendees to introduce themselves