The milestone 60th conference of UNISA, the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA) and the International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS) was hosted online with the help of the Flock Eventing Platform from 26 to 31 July 2021.
The title theme of the conference “Public Administration in the Fourth Industrial Revolution” brought together a number of academics, Ph.D. students, young researchers and contributors from an array of educational disciplines who presented on a variety of topics related to the theme.
The five-day event had more than 300 expert speakers as well as several interesting panel discussions. The digital conference had over 100 delegates in attendance each day who logged into the event from around the world.
Delegates were able to register for the prestigious conference, which was held as a completely virtual event for the first time, through the IASIA Institute’s online event page. The event page provided attendees with the conference schedule, background on the hosts, partners, and sponsors of the event.
Flock provided the virtual platform, event social media marketing and engagement support for the duration of the digital conference.
Flock’s powerful and engaging eventing platform enabled the delegates to:
- Chat with each other during online breakaway sessions which encouraged engagement and commentary
- Provided guests with support and through the chat function
- Network and attend in-app meetings
- Visit sponsor booths and engage with exhibitors
- Attend a variety of sessions that took place simultaneously
The additional social media marketing service provided by Flock Evening Platform played a major role in creating hype around the conference’s first completely digital event. The social media activities created awareness among delegates and other stakeholders of the conference’s partners which included PWC, the Bela Bela Local Municipality, the Waterbery District Municipality, the Limpopo provincial government and the event sponsor, Limpopo Tourism.
The social media plan executed for the international NGO IASA event included a 30-day social media calendar which consisted of ten branded posts that were shared on Twitter and Facebook before, during and after the online conference. The social marketing efforts contributed greatly to the success of the virtual conference which was evidenced by the after-event reporting.
Key social media takeaways from the event social media plan:
- Twitter
- Increased profile visits by 518.3%
- Increased Twitter followers by 25
- Received 1705 profile visits
- Facebook
- Increased followers by 140%
- More than doubled page views
- Received 871 engagements
Liza van Jaarsveldt, Assistant Professor at UNISA had the following to say about Flock’s assistance with the execution of the successful online event.
“Our conference was challenging and had many components. I have a great appreciation for the professionalism and assistance that Flock gave us.”
Mike Lysko, CEO and Founder of Flock Eventing Platform says: “I am proud of my team and we are grateful to have been part of this prestigious and important conference. We hope to work with the educational institutions in the future and to assist them in further expanding the reach of their events in future”.
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