This was only the second year for the THE Awards Asia, although the THE Awards have been running in the UK since 2005 and are widely referred to as the 'Oscars of higher education'.

David Suter, Special Projects Manager at THE explained, “We knew that a virtual awards ceremony could never fully replicate the excitement of a live experience, so our focus was on engaging the audience through the content, and delivering networking opportunities.

“Awards on this scale could not take place without the support of sponsors, and in the absence of a big night out and a table full of guests, it was equally important for us to offer those partners a real return on their investment in a virtual environment, and an opportunity to interact with attendees as directly as possible."

The existing virtual event supplier was unable to offer any of the specific requirements for an awards ceremony, and so the team turned to Evessio, already a long-established technology partner for THE.

According to Suter, “For nearly five years we have used the Evessio platform for our awards submission and judging process, and later in the cycle for ceremony registration and ticketing, so when we heard that a trusted supplier with specialist knowledge of these events was developing a virtual awards platform from scratch, we were immediately interested.”

“We had conducted research on other suppliers, but from the minute we saw a demo of the Awards Room platform, we knew it had huge potential for the kind of event we wanted to run. Not only was the platform developed with awards organisers in mind, but Evessio specifically demonstrated a knowledge of how our brand and events portfolio operate from the off, which gave us the additional confidence we needed.”

“Evessio also offer exceptional customer service – response times are incredibly short, clear explanations are given, and when required, solutions are promptly identified and implemented. When you are pivoting your event from live to digital from scratch, with a pared back team, it is hugely reassuring to know you have a supplier like Evessio who feel like an extension of your event team.”

Both of these events were extremely successful for the THE.

With several hundred logging-in for the THE Awards Asia, and around 1,800 for the THE Awards, the chatroom facility was incredibly lively during the two ceremonies, with more than 50% of all attendees actively engaging. Some wonderful feedback was received from attendees, particularly from one winner, who commented;

"As much as we would have liked to go to a fancy black-tie do in London, the reality is that only a few of us could have attended in person, but this way the whole team – and supportive colleagues from other departments – were able to witness the announcement simultaneously from their homes, and to interact together across our virtual table. It was a wonderful night".

An excellent, highly detailed post-event report was also provided very quickly after the events concluded, giving the THE team real insight into the attendees' activity and engagement. On top of this, a full public chatroom transcript from each event was provided, allowing the THE team to follow-up on questions or comments that may have been missed in real time.

The pandemic has probably changed events such as these for good, and although people will always want to gather to celebrate together, the hybrid model is clearly going to become more popular in the future. With platforms such as the Awards Room, the potential for growing your community, and increasing engagement are obvious.

Find out more about the THE Awards:  www.theawardsasia.com and www.the-awards.co.uk