Event: 15th International Congress of Parasitology (ICOPAnhagen)
Client: World Federation of Parasitologists
Dates: 21 – 26 August 2022
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Service: Hybrid event, Marketing
Challenge
While meetings, in general, are still struggling to reach the pre-Covid numbers due to inflation and lingering global mobility difficulties, the case of ICOPAnhagen was no different. One of the challenges was to reach a significant number of in-person and online attendees, according to targets.
A greater challenge appeared in mid-June (just two months ahead of the congress) when key suppliers announced price increases, applicable effective immediately.
Solution
The marketing team continued to tackle the challenge of reaching the attendees’ target by promoting individual and group registrations. Three registration periods were marketed: early rate until June 1st, regular rate until July 27th and onsite rate until the event’s starting date.
Meanwhile, with the Procurement team’s support, Senior Account Manager Sigal Ben Peli started renegotiating services with suppliers to counterbalance the sudden price increase announcement.
To support the operations of the Kenes Group team formed by 18 members from Bulgaria, Spain, Portugal and Israel, a total of 20 local volunteers were enrolled, giving more students from relevant fields the opportunity to gain professional experience and young parasitologists to showcase their own research in the posters area as part of their volunteering agreement.
Outcomes
The World Federation of Parasitologists was gladly satisfied with the attendance which reached a total of 1,500 delegates from 95 different countries, 300 of them joining virtually. Other relevant milestones were:
- 1,300 abstracts received
- 650 oral presentations
- +500 speakers
- 114 sessions
- 500 poster boards and 100 e-posters
- 11 exhibition booths
The welcome reception and closing ceremony created remarkable memories among delegates.
A reception was offered by the Wonderful Copenhagen CVB providing a ceremony for 250 delegates in the beautiful City Hall.
The closing ceremony involved a WFP tradition of handing over a handcrafted flag from the previous leadership to the incoming one.
Photo by prof. Russell Stothard.
The sessions were very well attended and there were two poster exhibition evenings of one and a half hours each, during which participants stayed longer than the scheduled time to discuss their field and research.
Montreal, Canada is the chosen destination for the next edition of ICOPA, winning by a few votes from the second preferred destination, Sydney, Australia.
The Kenes IT team’s onsite operations were flawless. Every session was either live-streamed or offered on demand emphasising video quality and with absolutely no errors during the six consecutive days of broadcasting for the virtual attendees.
Finally, the digital coverage strategised by the marketing team and executed onsite by Social Media Specialist Iva Popova delivered impressive results on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn:
- 13.4% audience increase
- 325.5% net follower growth – 468 new followers on all 4 platforms
- 121.5% growth in total engagements
- 379% growth in video views
- 330 published posts
- 380,574 total impressions
The photo contest received 117 entries, 184 votes and 880 views. The winners:
Sigal Ben Peli, Senior Account Manager ICOPAnhagen
“The expectations of the client were not only met but exceeded. There was steady good energy at the venue, and it was so nice to be onsite. Our IT team did a wonderful job at live-streaming and recording all the scientific content and our online audience was highly engaged too. We ultimately delivered a memorable event!”