How the Croatian Presidency of the Council of the EU used Eventrify to transform MSCA2020 into successful virtual conference despite COVID-19

Industry
Research & Innovation, Government, Academic

Event location
Virtual event

Attendees
645

Countries
57

Speakers
20

About Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions EU Presidency Video Conference

The MSCA 2020 EU Video Conference MSCA2020.HR: MSCA impact and future challenges, served as a platform to discuss impact and importance of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions on achieving fair and positive brain circulation, attracting and retaining excellent researchers, as well as inspiring participation in R&I programmes.

The Conference was organised by the Croatian Ministry of Science and Education together with the Agency for Mobility and EU Programmes, as well as with the kind cooperation of the European Commission.

THE GOAL

The aim of the Ministry of Science and Education and Agency for mobility and EU programmes was to shift the on-site conference to online experience in light of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The vision of the conference was to bring together online delegates from 57 countries around the globe to discuss importance of achieving fair brain circulation and incentives for attracting and retaining exceptional researchers in EU.

The European Commission decided to go with a fully-fledged interactive experience where 21 speakers will need to go live 100% without having their presentations pre-recorded.

"All our congratulations for this very successful MSCA2020 conference, organized in such a short time and despite all the logistical challenges. All colleagues were unanimously impressed by the event. "

Celine Peroni

EU Commissioner, Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture

THE SOLUTION

We designed a virtual solution that encouraged participants to actively participate in the program by asking questions during 4 panel discussions and to vote for the best MSCA 2020 project. Moderators could log into the platform and collect questions from the online audience and pick up the most interesting one and incorporate them into the panel discussion.

Participants had the opportunity to visit expo area that acted as a virtual exhibitor hall for MSCA Awards finalists where they could see a pre-recorded video of a finalist’s projects and enroll into the discussion with each of the finalists. On top of that, delegates had chance to visit the networking area where they could meet one-on-one and have a video chat with attendees they matched based on their interests.

Each panel discussion and presentation were recorded and published later. Have a look.

ACHIEVEMENTS

MSCA 2020 had 635 registrations and over 400 attendees for the live event.

It resulted in about 8 hours of fully interactive and dynamic programme that was not delayed nor interrupted for one single minute.

"You flawlessly organized the first MSCA Presidency Virtual Conference on the European level with live attendees from 57 countries, without any technical issues and finishing impeccably on time."

Sandra Vidović

Senior Advisor in Department for Mobility of Researchers, Agency for Mobility and EU Programmes

"You managed to keep the Conference dynamic and engaging throughout the day, a real challenge in online events."

Tome Antičić

State Secretary, Ministry of Science and Education of the Croatia

Check out the most impactful shots and inspiring thoughts of the conference