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Organizing a Live Virtual Conference Using LearnDash

Source – AutoSens


Ever since the shift in paradigm after the pandemic, we have seen an influx in online workshops, webinars and conferences. It’s a great way to connect with people all around the world and impart knowledge to those who need it.

Many platforms can be used to organize such an event. But sometimes help is needed to make the learning experience memorable and accessible as per the requirements of the attendees. 

Here’s how we helped one of our clients organize a 3-day LIVE virtual conference using LearnDash. Since their event was to be accessed from various locations, the idea was to optimize the experience to provide meaningful networking opportunities.

About Our Client

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Our client, Deborah Felicio, the IT and Systems Manager at Sense Media Events (AutoSens) is responsible for the technology that is used to run conferences.

AutoSens offers conferences, training and research offerings that are curated by a team of technical experts. They also provide training topics on ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) and autonomous vehicle technology.

Their offerings are market tested with engineers to ensure what they deliver is current and relevant for the audience.

Over the years, AutoSens has become a very successful event. People attend these events from all over the world to keep up to date with the technologies, share experiences and meet potential clients. 

Requirements & Challenges

Our client had the following requirements:-

  • They were in the process of developing not only a website, but a full conference management tool. The conferences are loved because of the high level content within the presentations and the great line up of exhibitors showcasing their latest technologies. 
  • They wanted to reproduce some aspects of a conference and also add features that are quite unique and advantageous to an online event. So, our client contacted us to provide access to their courses for a 3-day conference using LearnDash.
  • The event consisted of online courses where each course was a video recording of the guest speaker which would be scheduled to release at a specified time. 
  • The intention was to create an environment where sponsors could benefit from nurturing leads and users could have a more meaningful networking experience. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, they couldn’t hold Live events. So, it was hard to find ways to deliver it online.
 

Customization with LearnDash is what we specialize in but the biggest challenge was to make the changes in the given timeline. 

  • The deadline for the project was in 2 weeks as there was a conference being held on said date.
  • Our developers had to work in tandem with the clients to ensure the project was launched in time and the conference was held smoothly.
  • We also had to reimagine  LearnDash to create a structure for the conference and display the itinerary of the event while also enabling notifications so that the users could follow along.

Our Solution

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Source – AutoSens

We had to make sure that the users make the most out of this conference by offering appropriate and relevant content to the audience based on their behavior.

Having worked with LearnDash for years, we knew exactly what to do. So, the team at WisdmLabs created a workflow for the entire conference.

Since the conference was a 3-day event, we helped them customize the page layout to make it easier for users to understand the courses and sessions available each day.

  • We used the LearnDash setting to change the wording from courses to conferences.
  • We provided a setting on the course edit page to mark it as a special course in case the attendee wanted to use the LearnDash courses in the future.
  • We created a custom template to show tags as well as tabs with all special courses. So that on clicking next or previous, it showed associated sessions with a refreshed tag list. 
  • In addition to that, we helped create a card-like layout to display other information like the course speaker, number of lessons,  date and time, sponsors, etc. on the main page. Sessions in the card format included – session title and short description with read more option, time, speakers list, and sponsors icon, etc.
  • Along with the customizations, we set up the functionalities and also hid some elements on course pages. The team managed to do this by providing special settings, hiding the progress bar, and renaming the Mark Complete button on course pages.
  • In cases where users needed to go back and access a particular session or course, we used the bookmark plugin and the default bookmark listing provided by it so that users could bookmark their favorite courses or sessions and find them on their profile page.
 

Final Result

 
  • Reimagining the use of LearnDash – traditionally used for creating courses, the client can now use it as a conference management tool with custom features built on top.
  • Custom functionalities enabled the team to make changes to the content without dependency on the technical team.
  • Tailored templates allowed the team to relevant important information using a modern layout.
  •  Efficient and effective process for attendees to bookmark their favorite courses.
 

Client Testimonial

Deborah Felicio, 
IT and Systems Manager,
Sense Media Events | AutoSens

Everyone that experiences our conference website is always very impressed with what they see. Throughout the whole 2020 year, we all have attended dozens of online events so to be named as the best tool some of them used it was just what we aimed for. 

We are the best in-person event to that community, so working hard to replicate that online was amazing.The new website is amazingly fast, despite the complexity of the setup. It looks modern. 

The user journey is very streamlined, adding immensely to the user experience. Based on this success, we are planning to launch online conference management as a new product to other companies that like us had suffered the impact of this pandemic.

And that is only possible because of the results of working with many talented people and developers but most importantly, the results of working with the WisdmLabs team.