Bayer Crop Science held its “Purpose to Podium” National Sales Meeting from 8th to 10th February, 2022. The decision was made to host the event virtually, thus accommodating attendees from across Canada, cutting out travel disruption and carbon emissions associated with the event. Hundreds of Bayer salespeople attended via the dedicated web platform, which helped to accommodate a number of speakers from the USA, who could not have taken part in-person due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Having worked with Bayer on a number of events, All In The Loop had a good understanding of what features their platform would require, but still requested further guidance to ensure satisfaction. Bayer was keen to make the event as enjoyable as possible for attendees, without sacrificing professionalism or hindering the spread of information. The platform’s design and data security were of paramount importance, to protect company information and ensure continuity of corporate branding.

To provide an air of joviality, the event was given a sporting theme, with All In The Loop working closely with Bayer to produce a layout reminiscent of a great sporting occasion. Given widespread Canadian interest in the Winter Olympics, which happened to be running at the same time as the event, this emulation aligned well with attendee interests.

The event logo, which featured an Olympic torch style motif and bore Bayer’s iconic light blue colouring, was incorporated into the platform’s drop-down menu to be ever-present. Likewise, each page was coloured light blue and many tabs featured athletes or people exercising as their backgrounds.

The client wanted speakers to broadcast live onto the platform, which allowed All In The Loop to collaborate with Proshow Audiovisual. Having worked with the Canadian AV specialist at a number of previous events, this partnership resulted in an entertaining series of professional quality live streams. A studio was booked and set up to resemble a news desk, with the AV team broadcasting onsite footage, whilst remote speakers joined virtually. Presenters in the studio conducted the bulk of the presentation, either appearing full screen on the platform or minimised next to virtual speakers and presentation slides, as with a televised news broadcast.

To encourage audience participation and inject some healthy competition into proceedings, elements of gamification were included across the platform. A scoring system was developed, whereby attendees could earn points from viewing the broadcasts, visiting different sections of the platform, viewing relevant documents and so on. All In The Loop even introduced a scavenger hunt function, whereby hidden buttons were secreted throughout the platform, which attendees could locate and click on for points. Individual scores could then be viewed in real time on a dedicated leaderboard tab, so participants could track their peers’ point tallies as well as their own. The highest scoring attendees went on to win prizes.

The client was eager to supply attendees with useful virtual resources like style guides, company pamphlets and sales advice. However, this content could only be accessible to Bayer employees for privacy reasons. To achieve this, clickable links were embedded in the platform, redirecting users to a verification page requiring a Bayer company login. This elegantly prevented outsiders from viewing company resources without inconveniencing participants.

As with many of their previous events, Bayer was keen to emphasize and promote a sense of community amongst all those in attendance. To accomplish this, live Q&A and polling features were implemented on the platform, with specific tabs dedicated to them. Whenever a question was asked or the poll updated, this data was then relayed in real time to the presenters in the studio, who would discuss it within the broadcast. This helped to ensure participants felt heard, appreciated and involved at the event.