Digitlab

“Whatever challenge our client threw at us, we took it forward to the Cvent team and we always got responses like, ‘We can do that,’ ‘This can be done,’ ‘We’ll do it’. There was always a solution available, always a workaround, always a way to get something done. This was a big reason why we chose Cvent!’”

Kathryn Taljaard, Client Service Director, Digitlab

When You Want It All

When Digitlab was tasked with handling the virtual edition of the Durban FilmMart film festival, they had their work cut out for them. They had to handle the entire attendee experience of the 5-day event from start to finish, from event marketing, to the registration, the payment, the conference platform, the webinar delivery, the broadcast-level production and finally the supporting data analytics. They were also tasked with bringing in 1,000 film industry professionals as attendees to the event through their marketing efforts.

As far as events go, Durban FilmMart was a complex one. The 5-day festival required multiple sessions happening at the same time, with high engagement between the attendees that needed to be tracked. They also wanted a way for the attendees to meet sponsors virtually in a 1:1 setting. Since the event was open to a global audience, they needed a platform that could help them process payments in multiple currencies as well as support various languages. “The biggest challenge was ensuring the conference offered a smooth and slick experience to attendees, so that it didn’t come across as just another webinar,” says Digitlab Operations Manager Natasha Papini.

Digitlab’s client also needed the technology platform for the event to be secure. “Durban FilmMart was going to be attended by people who have created films that they are showing to potential filmmakers, producers, directors or film companies. They didn’t want the content to be available to public before it was purchased,” says Kathryn Taljaard, Client Service Director at Digitlab.

Digitlab decided to search for an event technology platform that would enable them to meet all their client needs. After looking at several event tech providers online, they zeroed in on Cvent.

Ticking All the Boxes

Cvent ticked all the boxes for Digitlab, and more. The Digitlab team began by creating the website for the film festival on the Cvent Event Management solution. They used the e-marketing module to send marketing emails and clubbed their email marketing with other digital marketing efforts such as displaying targeted ads on social media and search engines. All this helped create awareness about the conference and drive registrations.

The Cvent platform easily and safely integrated with their Zoom account ensuring their event data synced seamlessly while also providing a secure environment to manage the intellectual property of their attendees.

The event’s multilingual audience, which also included sign language interpreters, were able to interact comfortably with the platform, thanks to its ability to support multiple languages as well as handle monetary transactions in various currencies.

Cvent also provided Digitlab with a native mobile event app that was fully integrated with the Cvent event management platform. The event app offered chat functionality and gamification features to enable attendee networking, helping create a vibrant and professional event experience that included engaging discussions and interactive audience participation.

Digitlab’s client wanted the app to highlight their sponsors to make them stand out to attendees. “They wanted the sponsorship package to be communicated a little better up front and be zhuzhed up, to make it a little more appealing to sponsors who take part. We got excellent support from the Cvent team in customising the solution,” says Kathryn.

Digitlab also leveraged Cvent solutions to handle one of the most important aspects of the conference — networking. “If you come to the FilmMart as a make-up artist, you want to be able to connect with fellow make-up artists and get noticed. If you come as a filmmaker, you want to get producers and directors to notice you. You even want your peers from the industry to connect with you, so you can learn from them. It’s all about the connection — so networking was a huge thing,” explains Kathryn. With Cvent’s help, Digitlab was able to create networking opportunities by enabling attendees to schedule 1:1 meetings with other — all from the comfort of their homes. Attendees loved this so much that Dubai FilmMart was easily able to meet the target for the number of appointments they wanted to see at the event. “The person on the client’s team who was managing appointments was kept very busy, so it was a success on their side,” says Natasha.

The attendees were also able to interact with speakers and panellists through the live polling and Q&A options in the event app. “Attendees also leveraged the mobile app to connect and share contact details with each other,” adds Natasha.

“One of the best feedbacks we got was when the client came back to us and said one of their attendees had remarked, ‘The Cvent event platform was so slick — the experience was better than the Cannes virtual film festival.’”

Natasha Papini, Operations Manager, Digitlab

Beating Benchmarks

• 9,013 event website visits converting 1,059 registrations — that’s a conversion rate of 1 sale in every nine visitors
• Attendees from across 66 countries — the conference brought in more than five times the attendees they normally attracted with a physical event
• Stellar attendee experience — 98% positive sentiment for the virtual event on social media
• Sky-high engagement with mobile app and appointments tools
• 70% event app adoption rate with nearly 41K engagement touch points through the app
• More than 1,000 people in attendance each day — over 95% show rate every day
• Seamless data flow that ensured improved event reporting

“Going virtual enabled our client to jam-pack much more into their event program. When they did this event in person, they had to factor in breaks, include cocktail evenings and such, but now they could make the program a lot more valuable and enriching to the audience. The client received a lot of praise from the attendees about the virtual program — about the topics and the richness of the content shown. Going virtual was a definite success! Physical events just did not offer the same kind of value.”

Kathryn Taljaard, Client Service Director, Digitlab