The annual Moore Markhams Conference is held in February. This year, the whole country had a change in Covid-19 alert levels a few days prior to the conference commencing. After discussions with the committee and the AV team (Streamline Productions) we made the executive decision to move the conference online due to the alert level restrictions.

What was meant to be a live annual conference turned into a virtual event within 24 hours. Our preparation turned from cross checking rooming list, organising transfers, speaker prep and more to converting our office and a room at the ‘meant to be’ venue into studios. We were from then on known as the ‘Auckland studio’ and the ‘Wellington studio’.

We worked alongside Streamliner Productions to create the studios in both Auckland and Wellington. It required full AV set up and we used Zoom for delegate interaction. The full two-day conference was run over Zoom and speakers had the ability and option to either zoom in or speak live from a studio and present to delegates virtually.

Geoff Bryan, one of New Zealand’s leading sports broadcasters, was back on board as the MC for the conference. This is the third conference Geoff has been a part of and his 35 years’ experience in the media came though when the alert level announcement hit.

All speakers including Tony Alexander and Nigel Latta embraced the virtual aspect of this event and we ensured they had everything they needed (AV soundcheck/run-through and more) to provide the delegates with the best virtual conference experience.

We had amazing feedback from delegates around our team’s organisation and professionalism leading into both the live and the changeover to a virtual event – especially with a short lead time. For most delegates it was the first virtual event they had been a part of and even though they couldn’t network and enjoy that post conference beverage in person they all had a great time and made the most of the new, fun and interactive way of events.

Some delegate feedback -

“I am full of admiration for the quality of this virtual conference and the results achieved by the organisers of this conference given the very short notice that they had to change to a virtual conference. Thank you very much.” - Anonymous

 “Running it virtually was great and getting it underway in such a short space of time was impressive. It was run very well” - Anonymous

“Considering the time frame the organisers had to get things done due to COVID restrictions, the conference worked really well” - Anonymous

“Appreciated the time and effort that went into bringing the digital version of the conference to us given the Change in Alert Levels.”- Anonymous