Having been a part of Digital Jersey’s TechWeek for the past few years, it was clear that this year’s event would have to be done differently. Whilst previous TechWeeks have seen speakers from across the world travelling to Jersey for the week-long conference, due to the current climate this year’s event would inevitably be a virtual one.
The challenge then came to make this event different. The team didn’t want follow the same webinar format that has quickly become the norm in 2020. This is when we decided to test the idea of staging a live ‘TV’ broadcast. With regular communication with the Digital Jersey team and a lot of thinking on our end we decided that with a bit of effort this would be a very possible and exciting concept.
With this in mind, we began to look into how we can seamlessly transition between virtual and physical speakers as those in Jersey would still be able to attend the event. Having the Hub as a base was ideal and acted as our studio floor where the host Gary Burgess could anchor the show between talks, panels and chats with virtual and physical contributors. Bringing our partners Delta on to help with the technical aspect we built a control room in the Hub where we could edit the live broadcast as it happened.
This was not just a live event and involved a lot of pre-production. With numerous short films, graphics and technical rehearsals to be done we have to take this opportunity to thank the team and also the on-camera contributors for providing their time, especially Gary who’s EVie bike journey saw him travelling to various businesses, schools and building to highlight the various smart tech around the island.
An event like this is ultimately beneficial for all who were part of it. For the audience, it’s a highly engaging format in comparison to other webinars out there and for the speakers it’s far more rewarding to have the opportunity to connect with viewers and other contributors in a more structured way. For Digital Jersey it allowed them to reach contributors all over the world and focus on the speakers and their message rather than the complicated logistics of a physical conference. As many mentioned throughout the week, it changes the focus from bringing people to Jersey and instead allows them to showcase Jersey to a wider audience.
Although not without some technical hiccups, which are to be expected, the event was a huge success and a lot of fun. It shows that putting in the extra effort is worth the final product and hopefully leads the way to create more events like this in the future. As the current climate isn’t clear on when traditional events will be returning, its a good time to take on challenges like this to see how the confines of the current situation can not just produce filler events until we return to normal but can inspire a new, and maybe better, way of doing things.
From us we have to say a massive thank you to the Digital Jersey teams for trusting us with this event and also for providing such a rewarding challenge. We hope you take the time to watch any of the events on catch up and enjoy them ad much as we enjoyed making them.
