Consultants for COP26 hybrid events and online user experience

Global Assembly commissioned Rhodium creative to help provide consultancy for a series of upcoming hybrid and virtual events as part of their involvement in the recent UN Climate Change Conference UK 2021. The events saw a huge increase in exposure so we worked with them to ensure their digital user journey enabled them to follow up on the event experience.

The Global Assembly is the first global citizens' assembly that anyone on earth can join, and has been co-designed with citizens, institutions, scientists and social movements. They provide the tools and support needed to run community assemblies in local schools, workplaces or neighbourhoods all over the world. In addition to this they run a core assembly which is a proportionally representative group of 100 people from around the world; a snapshot of the planet's population.

Assembly members learn about the climate and ecological crisis and decide how they think we should respond to this. These ideas formed a people’s declaration which was presented at the United Nations' COP26 climate conference in November 2021.

How we helped

Global Assembly had invited an audience and press from all round the world to attend their virtual launch event ahead of the main climate conference in Glasgow. We began by helping them in sourcing suitable and cost efficient platforms to run their event and drew on our experience from running previous conferences to help advise on how to run a successful show. We provided branded slides and animations, as well as feeding back on their video content and producing an effective running order.

Following the virtual launch event, focus turned towards a 2 hour hybrid session as part of COP26 in Glasgow. Again we helped with the content of the session designing slides and animations to increase the production value of the event. The event was a great success with high profile figures such as Nicola Sturgeon speaking live, and Assembly members joining in virtually on the big screen from all over the world.

Learnings from a hybrid event

As hybrid events are becoming more common as we adjust back to being able to join conferences in person, we thought we’d share our learnings.

Get audiences used to the screen
With virtual guests joining, the screen has a pivotal part to play. The live audience will have to change their view from the on stage speaker to the virtual guests on the screen throughout. Although this is not an entirely new behaviour as we are used to seeing slides on screen, It is a somewhat different experience. Therefore we do suggest getting audiences used to engaging with the screen from the start so that when a virtual guest joins, the switch in focus feels more natural.

A well prepared host
We have all experienced the issues we can face in virtual events or meetings over the last few years, however this can become slightly harder to track when the host is not directly on the same call themselves. They can’t immediately see that someone’s mic is on mute, or that a guest is having connectivity issues or even dropped off the call. Ideally the production team would have some way of communicating with the host perhaps via a prompter or ear piece, on any issues that may be happening. The simple solution is to have a well prepared host who understands there may be delays in answering questions, or has the ability to adapt as things are solved behind the scenes.

Translation for a global event
As a global event there were speakers and contributors from all over the world, some of which needed a translator before they could answer the hosts questions. This naturally created a delay which in some places in addition to the slight pause caused by streaming made for an uncomfortable wait and a break in the flow of conversation. We think this something important to consider and perhaps harnessing technology via a platform that instantly translates the hosts question onto the contributors screen as they are speaking might be an option.

Beyond the event

COP26 provided the Global Assembly with a great platform to showcase their mission, and reach a global audience. We worked with the team to help capitalise on this exposure and help nurture audiences to further engage with their work. The website was promoted throughout both events, and here is where you could find out more information, see how to get involved as well as download useful resources.

We provided both strategic UX consultancy as well as creative advice to help create efficient and engaging user journeys. The site has a wealth of information to dive into, but we needed to make sure this was clear and easily accessible. We looked at page structure, design elements and perhaps most importantly the copy to ensure that the message was instantly digestible with clear call to actions.

In summary

We at Rhodium were very proud to have played a small part in the success of Global Assembly’s work as part of COP26 and look forward to helping them in the future to achieve their own ambitions, as well as playing a part in tackling the world’s climate and ecological crisis.