“Essential for professionals working in advanced wound care” — that’s how the Jornada Paulista Sobratafe describes itself. And it’s not without reason.
The Jornada, now in its fifth edition, held its first-ever 100% online event.
It took place on October 9 and 10, 2020, featuring recorded talks and live interactive moments.
The event’s exclusive content, which featured renowned speakers from Brazil and abroad, stayed available for 3 months so participants could watch it as many times as they wanted.
It’s no surprise the first Jornada Paulista Sobratafe became a huge success and a worldwide reference in the wound-care field.
The numbers were impressive: nearly 900 registrants from 12 different countries and 26 Brazilian states (out of 27, counting the Federal District), taking part in more than 70 activities on the agenda.
The secret behind such success? Definitely that spectacular program, along with efficient organization that put speakers’ and participants’ well-being front and center.
At the 1st SOBRATAFE, plastic surgeons, residents, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and physicians from every specialty were able to watch, from the comfort of their homes, the best content available on the market about wound care.
There were 40 discussion topics, split between recorded and live sessions, covering the latest developments in processes, products, and technologies available for treating complex wounds.
Organizing a successful online event in just 3 months
Imagine having to pull off an online event in the middle of a pandemic in less than 3 months. Would you take on that challenge?
That was the tough task facing sisters Maristela Rizzo and Elaine Rizzo, of Imprimire Comunicação.
With only 3 months left before the event date, they were put in charge of planning the 1st Sobratafe — an event that, this time, would be 100% digital — after the original organizing committee decided not to move forward.
The Jornada Paulista Sobratafe’s challenge: “We were navigating in the dark”
That’s when they started researching how to organize online events, types of streaming, and event platforms.
“I still knew a bit about Instagram, but the truth is we were navigating in the dark — it was really hard to wrap our heads around all of it,” says Maristela.
With so little time, they realized they needed the help of a team that could support them — and, above all, guide them on how to organize an online event the best way possible.
When it came time to choose the events platform for the Jornada Sobratafe, it became crystal clear why Maristela and Elaine chose Even3: quality service and support for every question they had.
“You have a tutorial for everything, and whatever we needed, you were always ready to explain it, to talk it through with us — that was decisive in choosing Even3,” notes Elaine Rizzo.
“There was always that feedback, that back-and-forth, even with us in São Paulo and you in Recife — and that was really great, the ‘online’ part started right there,” she adds.
It was with exactly this goal — making online event organizing easier — that Even3 created and published more than 20 articles in our Help Center on this topic alone.
We cover everything from checking in participants at digital events, to getting links for video streaming tools like Google Meet and YouTube Live, and much more.
Not to mention the more than 23 pieces of content here on the Even3 Blog about how to create layouts for live sessions, types of streaming, and more. All of it designed to help organizers feel confident, calm, and supported while planning their events.
From in-person to online: what changed for Sobratafe?
An online event is, in itself, something new for a lot of people. But what actually changed for Sobratafe going from in-person to digital?
Breaking down physical barriers
The first major change they reported has to do with participant reach.
“Before, in person, a lot of people couldn’t make it on the event date — now we’ve been able to reach practically all of Brazil,” says Elaine.
Physical distance used to keep many people from attending the event. Once it moved to digital, people from all over could take part in Sobratafe.
Participants came from 12 different countries and from across Brazil. From São Paulo state alone, they had registrants from 50 different municipalities — quite an achievement for the Jornada Paulista.
100% content engagement at Sobratafe
This might be the most important change — and also the most rewarding one to hear about if you’re part of the event’s organization:
“This was the first time we heard from participants that they got 100% out of the event.” — Maristela Rizzo
This high level of content engagement came down to two factors.
Two bodies can’t occupy the same space at the same time
Events like Sobratafe, packed with an appealing lineup of content, need parallel tracks when they’re held in person.
Since everything happens live in person, attendees end up split, unable to be in two places at once. Networking also competes for attention with the content itself.
“Before, they had to choose between two rooms — split between networking and watching the content,” Elaine explains.
Watch the content as many times as you want, for 3 months
We’ve talked here on the Even3 Blog about how effective on-demand content can be — including as a selling point for registrations. Take it from us: your participants will love watching talks on their own schedule, and being able to pause and rewatch them to take notes whenever they need to.
Sobratafe’s organizers were extremely smart and adopted on-demand content for the event. Recorded talks stayed available for participants to watch for a period of 3 months.
That, of course, only added to the 100% engagement they reported.
“Since the event was pre-recorded this time, and thanks to Even3 Streaming, we were able to make the content available for 3 months — a lot of people who couldn’t attend before were able to take part and rewatch the talks.” — Maristela Rizzo
How Even3 helped the Jornada Sobratafe
A few things stand out and contributed to the huge success of the 1st Jornada Sobratafe.
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Recorded streaming through Even3 Streaming = no delays during the event
The event used two types of streaming: live video conferencing and pre-recorded video.
And the peace of mind that came with recorded video, combined with the reliability of Even3 Streaming, made a huge difference in keeping the Jornada Sobratafe running smoothly.
“Participants were thrilled because there were no delays during the event. If a live session ran long — because the discussion was really good — it wasn’t a problem, because the next session was already recorded. Thanks to Even3 Streaming, we were able to make the content available for 3 months,” said Maristela.
The idea for on-demand content, according to them, came from the president of the Brazilian Society for Advanced Wound Treatment, who couldn’t keep up with the sheer number of webinars she had to watch during the pandemic. Chances are you can relate to her too.
Higher-quality streams thanks to the recorded format
Recording the streams ahead of time also helped a lot with overall event quality, since the streams didn’t have to deal with noise or connection instability, for example.
On the contrary, the organizers even made a point of recording sessions in advance with some speakers, including international ones, to make sure everything came out perfect.
They also provided a Recording Tutorial for classes, with a full step-by-step guide on how to use the chosen platform, plus tips on lighting, sound, and setting.
In total, 57 recordings were made. Elaine and Maristela noted that, understandably, many speakers weren’t yet familiar with how online events work, and they stress how essential it was to have the event recorded.
“Some speakers didn’t know how to share their screen. Imagine if we’d been live — it would have been really complicated!” — Maristela
Efficient activity organization
Remember how we said one of the secrets to Sobratafe’s success was extremely efficient organization?
If you’re an event organizer, here’s a tip: Maristela and Elaine masterfully used Even3’s “Schedule” module to register and organize the event’s more than 70 activities.
To make the agenda easier to understand, the two of them created codes for each activity.
These codes indicated the type of streaming for that activity, so participants would immediately know whether it would be live only (meaning if they missed it, there’d be no replay) or recorded (available to watch repeatedly for 3 months).
That’s how they organized it:
- The letter “C” indicated recorded content, as did “PM” for Palestra Magna (Keynote).
- “W” stood for Workshops and “M” for Round Tables. These were live.
- In short: C and PM = recorded / W and M = live.
To create a moment of interaction between speakers and participants, each recorded Workshop ended with a live Q&A session, in a video-conference format.
That gave them plenty of time to answer all of the students’ questions.
Biggest challenge: winning over sponsors
As you can see, Elaine and Maristela ran a flawless operation over the 3 months before Sobratafe and the 3 months of on-demand content that followed.
But like any event, they hit some bumps along the way. And without a doubt, the biggest challenge was winning over sponsors.
In-person events still offer more interaction and networking, and convincing sponsors that the Jornada Sobratafe would work out was proving to be a real problem.
“The main challenge is convincing the sponsor that they’ll actually get a return on it.” — Elaine
Three strategies Sobratafe used to win over more sponsors
To make it happen, the sisters adopted a few strategies and took advantage of several features Even3’s platform offers to attract sponsors.
Opening bumpers and extra sponsor videos
Every piece of recorded content shown at the Jornada Sobratafe had an opening bumper, and another one at the end of each video. The bumpers featured sponsor logos.
Sponsors who wanted more airtime in the Jornada’s content could also pay for extra videos shown throughout the schedule.
Notifications as a value-add for sponsorships
The organizers are big fans of our Notifications feature.
As the name suggests, it lets you notify registrants about event information, news, or updates, right through the platform.
You can even use this feature as a value-add and a differentiator to land sponsorships, since it opens up countless possibilities for sponsors, as Maristela explains:
“Notifications are fantastic. It’s a direct channel with your registrants. You can invite participants to your talk, share more information about your product — they loved it!” — Maristela Rizzo
Discount coupons
Another Sobratafe favorite was discount coupons. They leaned on this feature to win over supporters and sponsors, and, on top of that, drive more registrations — of course, with special terms just for them.
Sobratafe was nothing but praise
With all these insights and attention to detail, the 1st Jornada Paulista Sobratafe was a success. The numbers speak for themselves.
They reached a good part of Latin America, 26 Brazilian states, and 900 registrants. There were more than 70 activities, 57 of them recorded.
With all the care Maristela and Elaine put into it, the feedback from participants could only be glowing.
“Our attention to registrants was highly praised — the event was a real success,” celebrates Maristela.
And the next event is already in the works for the two of them — expected to happen in October 2021. The platform of choice, once again, will be Even3. And we couldn’t be happier about this partnership.
