Executive Summary

GameSoundCon used the Whova app for the second year in a row to host their music and sound design conference virtually. During the successful three-day event, attendees listened to over 100 speakers and panelists while staying connected using the Whova virtual platform.

Interview with the Organizer

About GameSoundCon

GameSoundCon is an annual conference with three days of speakers discussing music and sound in video games. This event allows sound designers, composers, researchers, dialogue specialists, and others to stay up-to-date on the latest in the industry. The event is helpful for anyone wanting to be on the cutting edge of video game music, dialogue, sound, and technology.

Challenges

GameSoundCon featured over 100 top industry speakers for three days of presentations. Organizers needed to find a way to manage speakers, keep attendees engaged online, and offer an ROI for exhibitors while preparing their second virtual event.

1. Reaching a broad audience of attendees: The event’s first year online had already had an impressive turnout, but they wanted to see if they could increase these numbers in their second year using Whova. In order to reach a wider audience, the organizers needed to find a way to make the event more affordable and accessible by an even larger group of attendees.

2. Managing hundreds of speakers: Organizers were tasked with finding a way to manage various speakers at the three-day virtual event while ensuring presentations and Q&A occurred on time. With many concurrent sessions, organizers needed to reduce stress and make sure sessions happened correctly. Additionally, they were looking for attendees to interact with speakers in a fashion similar to in-person conferences.

3. Facilitate event engagement: The first year GameSoundCon online utilized Whova to great success at the conference. Organizers wanted to promote further engagement at the virtual event to improve audience engagement for their second virtual event.

4. Giving sponsors and exhibitors high ROI: A virtual event meant that opportunities for sponsor and exhibitor visibility were going to be different, but the organizers were determined to provide a high ROI online. 

Solutions

1. Organizers utilized Whova’s many benefits to offer more affordable tickets and on-demand services so the event could reach a wider audience. By hosting the conference virtually, organizers didn’t have to pay for a venue, AV, travel, etc. Instead, organizers could pass these savings on to attendees, making tickets more affordable. With the help of Whova, the virtual conference nearly doubled attendance from the previous year.

In addition to cheaper tickets, organizers appealed to a broader audience using “On-Demand” access after the event occurred. Whova allows events to remain posted for months after the event finishes, making it available to people who may have been unable to attend live events during the conference. Attendees could register after the event was completed, get added to the attendee’s list, and view the recorded presentations through Whova. The platform helped GameSoundCon successfully attract a broader audience that was encouraged to attend future events thanks to the ease of Whova.

Attendees could view content on demand after the event directly from session agenda items or in the event’s video library

2. With the power of the Whova platform, organizers were able to manage many speakers during multiple concurrent sessions by having them pre-record their talks. Organizers would livestream a pre-recorded video over the Whova platform while attendees participated through session chat and the Q&A feature. After their video played, speakers would go live on the Whova app for a Q&A session with event attendees.

The Whova app made the logistics of preparing each session a breeze. Whova’s Speaker webpage was automatically generated based on information submitted by each speaker through the Whova platform. Organizers could then attach the speaker pages to their event website. The pages would even sync when information was changed in the app, so they did not need to enter it again. Once speakers were registered, they could also record their own videos and add them to their session to make the process easier for organizers.

Whova automatically generated a speaker webpage that the organizers could easily embed on their website

Attendees could schedule meet-ups and view announcements using the Whova Community Board, which lets attendees create different discussion topics during the virtual conference to discuss industry topics or have casual conversations. This feature permitted organizers and attendees to create virtual and in-person meet-ups, allowing attendees to interact virtually in the Whova app. 

The meet-up feature empowered attendees to form smaller, in-person gatherings across the country despite the event being held virtually. With over 7,000 messages sent and 43 unique meet-ups made, the Community Board allowed organizers to facilitate engagement during the virtual conference. 

Utilizing Whova’s sponsor and exhibitor booths, sponsors could receive a high ROI during the event. Exhibitors could display company materials, interact with attendees via a chat sidebar, and live stream demos. To increase vendors’ ROI, organizers redirected sessions to various sponsors’ booths for a live demo during the conference to increase traffic.

Exhibitors could feature videos, live streams, documents, photos, and more in an interactive digital booth

Exhibitors could gather more leads by utilizing gamification with Whova’s Passport Contest. For each participating booth visited, attendees received a digital stamp which entered them in a prize drawing. This contest excited and engaged attendees while empowering exhibitors to generate more leads at the event. The Whova platform gained over 400,000 impressions for exhibitors at the virtual conference.