Advanced Solutions International (ASi), maker of the iMIS software, is a leader in association management systems. In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, they made a bold pivot to a full virtual conference.
As part of this move, they worked with Gather Voices to create video content for their virtual conference. In this series of videos, Raphael Badagliacca of ASi talks about how they worked with Gather Voices to create an unforgettable virtual conference experience.
When it became clear that we might not be able to have regular in person event, we began to think about about an online event. And my previous experience with Gather Voices made me want to have Gather Voices as a primary player in this event.
Raphael Badagliacca, ASi
You can be creative. So, in some cases we had asynchronously created presentations but opened up the Q & A to people who happen to be online watching it so that questions could be answered in Q&A fashion.
Raphael Badagliacca, ASi
You have your person announce what the award is, who won, and then you have someone come up, and accept that award. And it worked the same way. So even though these things were recorded asynchronously, you put them together. Gather Voices is great at putting them together and they look like they’re happening in the same place at the same time.
Raphael Badagliacca, ASi
This is true of any software company and any software product. There’s the product, and then there’s the guidelines for how to use it and then there’s the support for when you run into trouble should you run into trouble or even if you don’t run into trouble. There’s the support that has to be there in order to make it work the right way. And Gather Voices really did that expertly, very professionally, and it shows in the result.
Raphael Badagliacca, ASi
JOEL: So Raphael, thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me today and to talk a little bit about our experience together with Innovations Live with ASI.
RAPHAEL: When it became clear that we might not be able to have regular in person event, we began to think about about an online event. And my previous experience with Gather Voices made me want to have Gather Voices as a primary player in this event. So I have a series of interviews, carefully planned interviews, where we’re asking our partners and our clients what’s happened since the last year, the last innovations that might be remarkable, so I’ve already done these interviews by phone. And then what we do is we have a live event. They come up — they’re all on the stage together. And we have this interaction which hasn’t exactly been rehearsed, but they know the script for it..
I inquired to the staff at Gather Voices how we would go about doing this and they explained to me that I already had my questions, answers were already written, that they would send me a link, I would record the questions, with pauses, and another link would be sent to the interviewees and they would provide their answers. So they knew what questions were being asked and they would provide their answers. And then Gather Voices very expertly put them together and it really looked like a live interview.
JOEL: Yeah, and just thinking about the decision of doing Gather Voices this panel, the virtual panel that you did, versus trying to do it live and and you talked a little bit about the difference between asynchronous video with Gather Voices versus synchronous. Why would it be better to go down the Gather Voices path of asynchronous content.
RAPHAEL: When you do it asynchronously ou already know how long it took. And in fact if that interview happened to have gone on too long for the allotted time, you could always lop off a question. Right? So timewise, it was perfect.
JOEL: Talking back about your audience and the members being geographically located all over the globe from Australia to the UK to the US and even Canada. You guys were able to capture video from everybody using Gather Voices without any technological issues? It was all simple and easy for them to do?
RAPHAEL: It was simple. And let me also tell you, not only generally but even in small details, like this may not seem to matter, but it does. the time it takes for somebody to come up to the stage and how much time that eats outTof the event, that disappears. Right? Because everybody’s always wherever they have to be right away. Right? That’s the beauty of doing it that way. And also because it’s done asynchronously.
I mean, everything need not be done asynchronously, but the fact that it is done asynchronously means it’s controlled, right? Since you know you’re in an online environment, things can always go wrong. Audio can be off, or internet can go out or, all kinds of things that can happen. So as much as possible you want to record things because then you know you don’t have any problems. And so that’s that’s a major part of the event.
But you can also be creative. So, in some cases we had asynchronously created presentations but opened up the Q & A to people who happen to be online watching it so that questions could be answered in Q&A fashion. And those could be recorded by the way.
JOEL: It’s great if you live stream, how do you maintain people’s attention. So the idea of having short format that represents the faces, the voices of you know, your members, your clients, your staff, and your sponsors of being able to engage people is super powerful and it seems like the community engagement through the ASI app that you all utilize as well as having short format content and the awards, the panel and even your vendor sponsor messages was a great way to maintain that engagement with your audience as well.
RAPHAEL: What’s happened here is that you know, we’re acting like it’s a totally new experience and it is in a sense a new experience but it’s an experience that all Americans have experienced for years. It’s basically television. It’s basically televising an event. Right? . And everybody knows what that is. And the idea is to make it as real as possible and with the help we got from Gather Voices we were really able to do that.
RAPHAEL: We give out awards each year. We were able to have an announcer announce the award. Pretty much like you see on the Oscars or the Emmys or something like that. You have your person announce what the award is, who won, and then you have someone come up, and accept that award. And it worked the same way. So even though these things were recorded asynchronously, you put them together. Gather Voices is great at putting them together and they look like they’re happening in the same place at the same time.
JOEL: Would you feel comfortable recommending Gather Voices to any of the companies out there?
RAPHAEL: Yeah, off course I would recommend you. You made the thing, and this is under trying circumstances, right? Everybody is trying out something for the first time. Challenging — like you couldn’t believe. And everyone gave Kudos back to the team that put it together. But the reason for that is that the team extended beyond who we usually have doing things. And the team extended to the Gather Voices team. In other words you were very good at describing what we should do in order to take advantage of your product to make it work. And then you were there throughout the process to make it happen. This is true of any software company and any software product. There’s the product, and then there’s the guidelines for how to use it and then there’s the support for when you run into trouble should you run into trouble or even if you don’t run into trouble. There’s the support that has to be there in order to make it work the right way. And Gather Voices really did that expertly, very professionally, and it shows in the result.
