Examples

The Information Services Group employs approximately 750 members of staff. Pre-COVID-19, we held quarterly town hall style all staff events that would see around 200 join us physically to hear the latest news and updates from across the group.

Obviously we can’t do that in the current climate and so we turned to Microsoft Teams Live Events, as a supported service and one that can accommodate large numbers of both presenters and attendees online. Our first two Live events saw an average of 450 staff attendees, setting a new attendance record for our all staff meetings. Normally we would receive 10-20 questions during a physical event but online this increased to 80-100 questions, which were all managed during the event or very shortly afterwards.

When we asked staff what they thought about the online events and our internal communications, they responded with a 97.9% approval rating, which is impressive at a time when we’ve all had to adapt to new ways of keeping in touch and staying close as a community of staff and colleagues.

Technology is an important ally at this time as it gives us the channel to ensure we can continue with our large gatherings. In fact, it has done more than just replace our physical event, it has enabled more than twice as many staff to join and participate than previously.

ISG is doing all it can just now to ensure the wider University is aware and supported with such solutions. I, personally have found using Microsoft Teams Live Events fairly easy to navigate and producing the events has been a reasonably smooth affair, with the odd exception of a presenter’s ropey broadband. The major challenge is keeping the presenters quiet when they are off camera. Given my experience, I would absolutely recommend Microsoft Teams Live Events to anyone planning to run a large online event.