November 22nd, 2021

Going beyond (incredible) numbers: How Underline created a game-changing experience

3 minutes read
photpo Going beyond (incredible) numbers: How Underline created a game-changing experience

What an amazing and exciting event this was! The bar was set (very very) high. 5 days packed with 23 workshops, 2 satellite conferences, keynotes, plenaries, posters, with 6 thematically organized parallel sessions and live Q/A and interactive discussion immediately after the talks.

The idea of this unique undergoing was to create a full democratic and equal experience for every attendee, on-site and online. Not everyone could enjoy the beautiful Barceló Bávaro Convention Centre and surroundings in Punta Cana but we did our best to bring the atmosphere to everyone on their computers and to make them feel as if they are there with us. Physical distance didn’t exclude anyone from participating actively in real-time.

The idea was grand in itself but so are the numbers that proved us right! With 500 people on site and 4,000 virtually attendees, 23 workshops including 600 presentations, and 1,500 papers from the main conference on 6 parallel tracks, we can proudly claim, we fulfilled our goals and paved the way for events of the new era.

Better than reading about it is to experience the Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing, EMNLP 2021 for yourself!

As it often is, with ideas this big, those 5 days were not always smooth sailing for us. This was the biggest hybrid conference we ever did and the pressure was high.

Our AV team, led by Luka Šimić, Head of Video and Media, faced some truly difficult challenges on site. The conditions were tough and we seemed to have been hitting strong waves constantly. But we knew what we were signing up for and we were more than ready to make this tough sail into a wonderful experience.

In November, the Underline team successfully coordinated the biggest scientific hybrid livestream event with more than 500 participants on site and 4000 remotely, in the Dominican Republic. With different knowledge, experience and diversity of skills, 8 team members effectively navigated 2796 lectures and 1735 speakers in 5 days. Due to the complexity of combining in-person with virtual audience, creating a successful hybrid event required a lot of planning and brainstorming.

It was not easy, but as my dear colleague Dan Luise liked to say during those 5 days: "A problem was not a problem, only an opportunity for success”. So with a focus on seamless streaming, technical solutions and end user experience, Underline overcame all challenges and exceeded all expectations. This proved to us that we are more than ready for scientific hybrid events as a new normal in the industry," Luka said.

The talented people that comprise the Underline team have learned so much through the extraordinarily challenging times of the past year. With event cancellations, stay at home and safety measures, events like this are rare and it is more important than ever to provide access to such valuable content to everyone.

Our CEO Alex Lazinica is honored to have Underline be part of this groundbreaking experience: “We are honored to work with ACL on EMNLP and their flagship conferences", so we take this opportunity to thank EMNLP 2021 Chairperson Marie-Francine Moens and Priscilla Rasmussen, ACL Chief Executive.

Gone are the times when we looked back. Now, we only look ahead and set our sails high(er)! This is only the beginning as we already have more hybrid events planned in the near future.

We dare to say that in the post Covid world, events will be better (and more sustainable)!

About Underline Science

Underline is the premier virtual conference platform for events in science, medicine, academia and other professional fields. Underline’s mission is to capture and disseminate scientific knowledge through video, making it globally accessible by enriching and preserving both virtual and hybrid conference content. Underline’s groundbreaking scientific Digital Video Library is providing new opportunities to access and expand the scientific record and accelerate scientific discovery. For more information, visit the Underline website and follow Underline on Twitter.

— November 22nd, 2021
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