EBG

EBG goes hybrid for its most important event of the year

« Our collaboration with inwink has enabled us to be very flexible! 2020 being what it was, the format of Digital Benchmark kept evolving until the last minute. We could rely on the inwink platform’s versatility and features depth to make Digital Benchmark a success. »

Philippe Khattou, Director of The Digital Benchmark, EBG

Key Figures

250
in-person attendees
300
online attendees
979
business meetings
500
professional content

The context

Gathering over 110 000 professionals, from over 660 member companies, EBG has been for 20 years, one of the largest French think tanks on innovation and digital marketing.

Every year, EBG organizes over 150 events for decision makers from companies in all areas: marketing, data, customer relationship, innovation, IT, HR, Procurement, etc.

EBG has chosen inwink to orchestrate all its events, starting with one of the most important ones: the Digital Benchmark.

Over 2.5 days, EBG welcomes digital and marketing project bearers and offers them:

  • Conferences and workshops to help decipher the main marketing strategies and solutions of the market.
  • An exclusive publication of 500 pages, called the Yearbook, that includes market studies, comparative analyses of digital tools and use cases.
  • The opportunity to meet the main market players.

Objectives

  1. Offer an exceptional experience to participants through the hybrid format
  2. Manage partners relationship in the most seamless and efficient possible way

Strategy

An exceptional participant experience with hybrid format 

One of the main features of the Digital Benchmark, which takes place every year in a different European city, is that it embarks decision makers in an exceptional experience.

This year, the hybrid format (mix of in-person and online participation) contributed to the quality of participant experience, whether they were on the premises or away.

Digital showcasing of sessions

The rich program of sessions was entirely shot on site and then broadcast with a small delay on the event website.

Business meetings adapted for both in-person and online formats

Business meeting opportunities were designed to occur either in person or online.

A few weeks before the event, EBG teams deployed a system enabling participants and partners to schedule meetings in their preferred format.

Manage partners relationship in a seamless and efficient way

The Digital Benchmark is an event with a large number of partners, mainly consulting firms and marketing solutions providers.

Managing the partners relationship in an optimal way is a key success factor for the organizing team.

A centralized partners page

EBG team set up the inwink partners page, so that all the interactions between partners and organizer could be centralized in one place:

  • A dynamic to-do list, listing all the tasks each partner had to complete
  • Company details to be uploaded to the event website
  • Upload of documents to showcase the offerings and services of each partner on the event website
  • Information about sponsored sessions’ organization
  • Upload of graphics materials for the in-person event (booth decoration, logo…)
  • Scheduling of business meetings
  • Internal chat to keep a log of discussions
  • A news section, to keep partner updated on latest information

Results

The hybrid format convinced the decision makers, and makes the even last longer 

In total, 250 professionals attended in person, and 300 participants attended online. Participants’ feedback was very positive both on social media and via email.

The digital part of the event broadens and complements the traditional in-person approach and is a way of making the event last longer, even after it has ended. Replays of all sessions are available online, and EBG team has also uploaded the Yearbook on the event’s website.

979 business meetings, both in-person and online 

Over 979 business meetings between participants and partners took place: 75% in-person, 25% online.

Business meetings were not made mandatory by the organizer, which enabled project bearers to meet the main market players at their own tempo, without any pressure.