As part of its series of global summits, Leaders in Sport recently hosted its annual ‘Leaders Week’ conference as an online forum (for the first time), due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The physical event, originally due to take place in New York, was transformed into ‘LeadersWeek.direct/’ – a broadcast delivered by technical solutions specialist WL, from their socially distanced studio in London.
Over four days, an audience of 2240 delegates from 54 different countries viewed the conference online. WL’s SmartStage enabled the live presenters to safely host more than 25 high-profile sports business leaders from around the world, including executives from ESPN, NHL, MLS, AFC Ajax, Amazon, EA and AT&T, who connected remotely for a series of ‘Leaders Live’ presentations. These sessions were created in SmartStage, which is powered by the disguise xR technology, and then streamed and then streamed to a private platform created specifically for the event.
James Thurlow, WL’s Technical Manager explains: “The decision to make this event fully digital was relatively short lead and we worked closely with the Leaders in Sport team to engage their audience. On the broadcast days, in accordance with safe social distancing measures, we had a maximum of two presenters physically on the SmartStage at any one time. We built a branded studio environment for the event and used the technology to professionally collate all content with a number of remote presenters that were connected via video link.”
The new format conference was extremely well received by the delegates and many expressed gratitude to Leaders via social media, for digitally connecting their industry while they remain physically apart.
Laura McQueen, Leaders Managing Director comments, “Shifting a 4-day physical event into a bespoke, online broadcast was somewhat of an unknown for the Leaders team. Reflecting back, we are absolutely delighted with what we were able to pull off from our first attempt at going completely digital, and huge credit goes to the White Light team who were with us every step of the way. The studio itself was extremely impressive and we look forward to building on the partnership, as we broaden our digital offerings in 2020 and beyond.”