Transforming a Face-to-Face Congress Into a Virtual Experience : How can MCI the Netherlands Create a Future-Proof Virtual Congress?

Transforming a face-to-face (F2F) medical congress into a virtual experience without losing the added value of the offline event is the challenge many associations and event organizers face in 2020. Background: The unexpected COVID-19 outbreak has made face-to-face congresses impossible in Q2 of 2020. In order to continue medical education, virtual congresses are organized. Objectives: The aim of this thesis is to determine the advantages of a virtual congress format and illustrate a way to effectively organize a virtual congress. Moreover, the thesis aims to analyze the performance of the digital experience platform (DXP) created by MCI the Netherlands, taking into consideration different stakeholders’ needs and its future opportunities. Methods: This bachelor thesis is based on the available literature as well as data from the company MCI the Netherlands and quality interviews were conducted with 10 industry experts. Results: The digital experience platform can increase registration numbers and share the content with more people worldwide like never before. With the easy accessibility, the DXP offers the possibility to increase audience reach. By offering a long-term learning opportunity the platform enhances the user experience of the delegates. Valuable data insight can be retrieved through the platform and shared with various stakeholders. Evaluating the advantages of virtual congresses, it can be said that virtual congresses will be the future of the event industry, however they will not replace face-to-face congresses but can be seen as an additional learning possibility. Conclusion: With the digital experience platform MCI the Netherlands was able to successfully transform their internal digital capabilities into a future-proof innovative client solution. MCI is the first company in the European market who offered a virtual experience for more than 10.000 participants and strengthened their position as one of the market leaders