“We just wanted to send out a HUGE thank you for all of the work that your team put in to make our symposium go so well on Friday. We have heard nothing but amazing feedback from those that attended. They were impressed on how professional it looked, on how ‘tech’ issues were solved within seconds and on how much support was provided for those attendees needing help. ”
— CAROLYN JAEGER, PT ORTHOPAEDIC SURGICAL CARE
The Story
Operation Walk Canada is a not-for-profit volunteer medical services organization that undertakes annual missions to Ecuador and Guatemala to provide hip & knee replacement surgeries. Their medical mission aims to improve quality of life by enlisting the resources and skills of Orthopaedic Surgeons, sending them overseas to help make surgeries accessible to South American patients who need their specialized help the most.
TL;DR: The successful digital Symposium was hosted on Zoom and featured a full day of live speakers, educational videos, expert panelists, and sponsors. rTraction assisted with planning the event logistics and provided technical support on the big day. With more than 350+ ticket sales and even more viewers from all parts of Canada, Operation Walk Canada raised over $30,000 in funds!
Operation Walk looked to rTraction to assist in hosting their first Virtual 2020 Hip and Knee Arthroplasty Symposium. With the current COVID restrictions, the annual conference needed a digital approach that could showcase educational components and the Multidisciplinary Orthopaedic Team presentations, while encouraging donations. So we partnered together to host a Zoom-based webinar that was informative and inspiring.
We kicked off our initial meeting by laying the groundwork of expectations: planning event set-up, brainstorming the attendee experience, and envisioning the lead up to the big day. The Operation Walk Team was fully engaged from beginning to end, ready to share their expertise and processes. The working meetings were an excellent opportunity to bounce ideas and benchmark goals. By prioritizing constant reporting via Basecamp, we set-off on the right foot towards success.
It was important to convey the trust and facilitation Operation Walk had built over the years with their contacts, so we opted for direct e-mail blasts to their immediate network to open the invitation window and get save-the-dates into inboxes.
We set-up an Eventbrite to manage registration; it was an excellent option as we used the platform for communications as well, sending out reminders that were consistently delivered and trackable. When setting-up the Zoom capabilities we knew we would provide the event details through Eventbrite as well; sending the registrants exclusive day-of access to the Symposium via the contact system.
We sold 363 tickets to the 2020 Virtual Symposium, passing our estimate. A portion of the ticket sales included group rate tickets, an idea we had incorporated for those who wanted to watch the webinar as a team. The accessibility of the digital symposium helped us reach more viewers than we had predicted, bringing in audiences from different parts of Canada who were excited to be a part of a great cause.
In the upcoming days, we provided pre-event training and support to the panelists and speakers. Presenters were invited to submit pre-recorded presentations in light of social distancing, lending to an effective format of running videos throughout the Symposium.
On the day of the Symposium we added to the mix: live presentations, panel discussions, and speaker Q&A sessions hosted at University Hospital. Taking time to plan an itinerary that took into account small details such as breaks, timing of videos, and sponsorship features, allowed us to host an event that was interesting and fun.
By the end of the day, we were able keep attendees engaged to the very end, wrapping up with over 200+ viewers and raising over $30,000 in funds! rTraction provided certificates of participation to all the attendees and set-up a week-long access to the Symposium recording via the website.
This was an incredibly exciting partnership for rTraction as it’s important to us that each of our projects help to increase our client’s capacity to drive community impact in their unique ways. The success of the Symposium was a significant team effort that resulted in a full day of education and successful fundraising, uniting our passion for technology and storytelling with Operation Walk’s drive to support the Orthopaedic community and the lives they strive to help change.