Executive Summary
The Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Chicago (CEAS) hosted a virtual conference using Whova’s all-in-one event management platform. Their 33rd North American Conference on Chinese linguistics brought scholars from across the world to integrate multidisciplinary perspectives in their research.
Distinguished speakers joined from universities worldwide, including the National University of Singapore, Humbolt University, Zhejiang University, and more.
With Whova’s assistance, the organizers successfully ran live streams sessions and managed the information of almost 80 speakers.
We couldn’t have pulled off hosting NACCL 33 online without Whova! We particularly like the fact that participants were able to interact with the site on either their computer or their favorite mobile devices. We’ve already contracted Whova for another conference we’re hosting this year!
Alan YuAbout North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics 33 @ UChicago
The U.S. Department of Education, a part of the federal government that coordinates and establishes federal assistance in education, designated CEAS as a Title VI National Resource Center.
The Title VI National Resource Center Grant helped CEAS sponsor the conference and support research on China’s linguistic diversity.
CEAS is a vital collegiate resource for students, faculty, and more. They distribute valuable information for East Asian studies while supporting research, outreach, and public events to promote a greater understanding of China, Japan, and Korea.
Using Whova’s platform, the organizers helped attendees learn and network within their field.
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Tickets sold through Whova
Challenges
- Show live streams in a central location
The organizers wanted to smoothly upload live streams and videos in one space, so attendees did not have to use multiple platforms during the event.
- Gather speaker information
The NACCL organizers needed to manage the information of almost 80 speakers across different time zones, and they wanted a system that would help them do this quickly and efficiently.
- Make sure attendees obtained important documents
The organizers could not distribute essential handouts and brochures in person, so they needed an online method to share event documents with attendees.
- Register attendees in one space
The organizers needed a registration system to help them manage attendees and keep track of their information. They wanted to keep it on the same platform as the event, so they could manage attendee information in one space.
- Encourage networking in the industry
It was critical attendees had the chance to meet and chat with fellow researchers to make strides within their industry. The organizers wanted to encourage this through discussions and sharing articles on the app.
Solutions
- Enable Whova’s live stream integration
With Whova’s advanced live stream integration, the organizers connected their Zoom account with Whova and directly embedded videos onto the app. Once attendees entered a session, they could immediately start watching without logging into Zoom.
The organizers could still enable sessions to view on Zoom for all or specific sessions.
The organizers added live streams directly onto Whova’s platform
- Empower speakers to upload session information
Whova’s speaker center helped the organizers efficiently gather speaker biographies and session details.
The organizers easily emailed speakers using one of Whova’s many pre-made templates, inviting them to upload their information onto Whova’s platform using a personal link.
From there, speakers could go in at any point to edit or add information, and Whova would automatically update it on the app. Organizers could also modify the speaker and session information.
Besides effortlessly managing speaker information, Whova uses this information to automatically generate a professionally designed speaker page that organizers can embed or link onto their event websites.
- Upload documents to the app
The organizers took advantage of the app’s Resources section to upload useful documents and handouts to each session, brochures, sponsor guides, presentation slides, and academic handouts.
If attendees missed any important documents, they could still access them in the app up to 3 months after the event was over.
Attendees easily accessed event documents on the app
- Register attendees through Whova’s platform
Whova’s registration system made it easy to register and track attendee information. Organizers added their questions about company titles, university names, and attendee locations with the customizable registration form.
The NACCL organizers created free tickets through Whova so that once attendees signed up, their information was available for the organizers to view on the platform. It was then easy for organizers to coordinate event logistics.
- Facilitate networking on the Community Board
Whova’s Community Board, an online chat forum, was a popular networking tool among attendees. They posted many discussion topics about questions in their field, introduced themselves with icebreakers, and shared significant scholarly articles.
The organizers also posted important announcements through the app that remained on the Community Board under the “Organizer Announcements” discussion topic.
Attendees could also search for speakers or other attendees on the app to send a direct message or start a group chat.
Attendees could find Organizer Announcements and Icebreakers on the Community Board
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