Executive Summary

World Systems Builder (WSB), a financial education organization, used Whova’s all-in-one event management platform to support their online association event, WSB G21: Building Forward. Members joined from across the nation to listen to renowned authors, MIT Professors, and the CEO of Charity: Water during the 3-day event. With Whova’s assistance, the organizers ensured that almost 40,000 virtual attendees had many opportunities to network with attendees, exhibitors, and speakers. 

About WSB G21: Building Forward

WSB is a community of financial professionals with a mission to build financial literacy and provide a reliable system to improve the financial service industry. WSB is an organization comprised of over 60,000 individuals associated with World Financial Group Insurane Agency, Inc. and World Financial Group, Inc. Their ambitious 30 by 30 financial literacy campaign will financially educate 30 million families by 2030. With Whova’s assistance, the organizers supported important sponsors and helped them gather valuable leads. 

Challenges

• Ensure exhibitor ROI

Because exhibitors could not engage with attendees as they would during an in-person event, the organizers wanted to ensure there were many opportunities for attendees and sponsors to connect online.

• Capture attendee interest during sessions

Many speakers were nervous about connecting with attendees during online sessions. The organizers wanted to provide tools to help speakers engage attendees during virtual presentations.

• Network online during the event

As an association event intended to inspire collaboration, it was critical attendees had the chance to meet each other and discuss new ideas in their industry. The organizers wanted to encourage this through online meetings and virtual hangouts.

• Provide different benefits for sponsor levels 

The organizers needed to showcase sponsors at different levels of visibility according to their level of support. They wanted to have banners in the app to share sponsor information.

Solutions

• Engage attendees with Whova’s virtual exhibitor booths 

Whova’s virtual exhibitor booths helped sponsors showcase their products and attract leads.

Exhibitors uploaded their information onto the booths, including live streams, company videos, product and contact information, and PDF handouts. Many exhibitors also included promotional offers to appeal to potential customers and collect their contact information. 

Once attendees entered a virtual booth, they could like or comment on the sidebar chat, and Whova automatically recorded them as leads. Attendees could also share their contact information with exhibitors using Whova’s unique QR codes. 

Exhibitors presented product information on the virtual exhibitor booths

• Facilitate attendee interaction through Q&A and live polls

The in-app Q&A and polling features made it easy for speakers to connect with their audiences during virtual sessions. 

Attendees could post and like questions in the Q&A chat during a live session. The most liked questions automatically moved to the top of the lists, or moderators could manually move questions. 

Speakers utilized the polls during sessions to gauge their audience and ask questions about subjects they were presenting. 

The live polls were not limited to sessions times; the organizers also created polls and set specific times they wanted them to show up during the event. 

After attendees completed polls or Q&A sessions, Whova’s system automatically added them to the resources section on the app so attendees could view everything at once. 

Attendees could find live polls and session Q&A’s in the app

• Inspire engagement through Whova’s Community Board

Whova’s Community Board, a virtual chat designed to help networking, was a popular engagement tool among attendees. They posted discussion topics about industry topics and planned virtual meetups for workshops or coffee dates. 

Attendees could also quickly introduce themselves on the app with Whova’s icebreakers. This fun social engagement feature encourages attendees to share their names and fill out personal questions about favorite foods or interests. 

Because the organizers published the app weeks in advance, attendees messaged each other and participated in discussions before the event started. 

The organizers also posted important announcements that remained on the Community Board under “Organizer Announcements”.  

Icebreakers were a popular feature among attendees

• Showcase sponsor banners with varying visibility 

The organizers easily created multiple sponsor tiers based on their support levels. The organizers displayed gold sponsors in the home, agenda, profile, and web apps. Bronze and silver sponsors were showcased in the virtual exhibitor booths, with silver sponsors given more visibility at the top of the list.