Six weeks to #shareEGU20: a communications strategy for training 18,000 participants to use an entirely new online conference format.

Abstract:

At the beginning of 2020, the European Geosciences Union (EGU) was fully committed to planning for our annual General Assembly held in Vienna, Austria every year. By the end of January, we had received more than 18,000 abstracts, but within weeks we realised that we would not be able to hold a normal in-person conference and might have to cancel for the first time in our organisation’s history.

By the time we were able to announce the move from an in-person conference to a fully digital one, the communications team had six weeks to plan and implement a communication strategy to retrain our members on what to expect from the online conference and how to engage with the platform. Adding to the pressure was the fact that the new platform was also being constructed during these six weeks, and all staff were required to enter full lockdown at the same time, in response to a peak in the coronavirus outbreak in Europe. Developing a layered, reinforcing communications plan, with clear guidelines, limitations and points of contact for support, was key to the successful emergency pivot of our General Assembly.

During the week of the annual General Assembly, which we renamed ‘Sharing Geoscience Online 2020’ or #shareEGU20, EGU hosted 22,376 unique users from 134 countries discussing a total of 18,036 abstracts. As the first conference of our size to go fully online in 2020, we hope the lessons we learned about training members to use an entirely new conference format in just six weeks will be of benefit to any other events or organisations that face such an upheaval in the future.