About IAEM's conference

Every year, The International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) hosts 'Plugged In', a conference aimed towards helping its members gain and maintain training proficiency by learning about the latest insights and technology in emergency management from experts in the field, and networking with colleagues from around the world. The conference is also an opportunity for IAEM members to gain important training hours and credits towards achieving or maintaining their Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) qualification.

IAEM organizers switched to a virtual format spurred by the pandemic — and then, realizing the benefits it brought members, have continued to do so.

“The virtual setting is a great solution for those who don’t have the resources to travel to an in-person event” points out John Osborne, Digital Events Specialist.“It also gives members the ability to attend speaking and training sessions from anywhere.” 

The challenges

It hadn’t always been smooth sailing. Last year, limitations with their chosen event technology meant rigid registration options, stressful run of show, a lack of customization, and a fracturing of event activities. IAEM organizers were unable to completely realize their event goals and vision.

Looking to fill these gaps in their event tech, IAEM chose Zuddl to help them drive the results they wanted to reach. 

[.customer-stories-objectives-wrapper][.cs-36px]Event objectives[.cs-36px][.customer-stories-objectives-inner][.customer-stories-objective][.cs-objectives-icon-blue-iaem][.cs-objectives-icon-blue-iaem][.cs-p2]Providing a seamless and stress-free experience for audience and organizers alike[.cs-p2][.customer-stories-objective][.customer-stories-objective][.cs-objectives-icon-blue-iaem-2][.cs-objectives-icon-blue-iaem-2][.cs-p2]Delivering top-notch education and training proficiency for members [.cs-p2][.customer-stories-objective][.customer-stories-objective][.cs-objectives-icon-blue-iaem-3][.cs-objectives-icon-blue-iaem-3][.cs-p2]Facilitating business and job opportunities through networking[.cs-p2][.customer-stories-objective][.customer-stories-objective][.cs-objectives-icon-blue-iaem-4][.cs-objectives-icon-blue-iaem-4][.cs-p2]Enabling members to earn credits for their Certified Emergency Manager qualification.[.cs-p2][.customer-stories-objective][.customer-stories-objectives-inner][.customer-stories-objectives-wrapper]

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Key outcomes

(1)Zuddl Studio ‘Scenes’ contributed to a smooth and high-quality run of show

‘IAEM Plugged In’ featured a mix of speaker and sponsored solution sessions, as well as multiple choices of training sessions, many provided by federal partners, so careful orchestration was critical.

With Zuddl’s Studio, organizers were able to pre-configure their entire run of show using Scenes (videos, presentations, transitions between sessions, etc.) and then push it live with one click.

“Scenes simplified things for us”, comments John,“and really eased the run of show.”

The result: was a simple, lightweight and stress-free experience for organizers (25 fewer hours of staff time was required this year!), and a professional and immersive experience for the audience that contributed to the high average time spent at the event.

(2)Lively interaction via an integrated platform and helpful tools

Driving engagement at last year’s virtual conference was made complicated because pre-recorded sessions were shown on one platform, while follow-up Q&A was held on another external one. “After sessions, attendees would have to open a new tab to access an off-brand zoom call for follow-up discussion” says John. Hardly ideal.

With Zuddl, no duck tape solutions were necessary. All activity happens in one place - on the platform.

Engagement tools like Chat and Q&A are accessible within each Stage, so that during a session attendees can react to content and conversations in real-time. John says that the IAEM speakers liked how the tools helped drive live interaction. They could respond immediately to a question or an insight made by a member and go “that’s a great point - let's talk about that for a minute.”

Amongst the engagement tools, ‘Raise Hand’ was a hit! 

Organizers can bring attendees who ‘raise their hand’ to ask a question onto the Stage to talk to speakers face-to-face.

“[The Raise Hand feature] helped keep things very interactive especially during lengthy sessions.” John enthuses.“During a 3 hour session, one of IAEM’s past presidents actually got on stage and was able to interact with the speaker, and that was really nice because we’ve never been able to do that before.”

The result: members spent an average of 716 minutes at the conference stages.

(3)Driving better opportunities for students with targeted networking 

IAEM has a membership category just for students.These members are looking for internships, jobs, or just the next step after post-graduation. Zuddl’s networking feature enabled students at the conference to indicate this intent or goal on their profiles, and therefore be matched with members who could help provide educational or job opportunities.

The result: Over 90 1:1 meetings were facilitated as a result of this targeted matchmaking.

(4)Providing members with on-demand content to gain certification credit throughout the year

By attending sessions held by top experts in emergency management at the conference on current trends and topics, and information about the latest tools and technology in emergency management and homeland security, members could earn CEM credits. To this end, organizers set up an attendance tracker/ credit tracker within Zuddl’s platform.

The association also wanted to offer this content on-demand after the event ended, so that members who couldn’t travel out-of-state for speaking and training sessions wouldn't miss out. 

Using Zuddl Studio’s video production capabilities, IAEM organizers were able to save a lot of time and money producing high-quality video content from the conference.

“In the past, the sessions were basically just Zoom calls, and we’d struggle to brand it”, says John. “ Zuddl’s customization options made it easy to add a logo, a banner, a background to our videos so the production value, time commitment, and the end product was much better.”

To sum up

The platform eliminated many of the pain points faced by the organizing team as well as attendees last year, says John, and this allowed the IAEM team to create a high-quality, professional experience for their members that was not only impactful in terms of learning and career opportunities, but also fun, inclusive, and truly memorable.