Aventri Virtual Event Platform Success Story - HLB

Making the pivot from in-person to virtual, HLB was able to grow their annual conference by 50%

HLB was forced to make the decision to postpone its annual in-person conference. Instead of canceling their event, they were looking for a technology provider that would help them to move their conference virtual and reach a wider audience. Aventri was able to meet their needs with the Aventri Virtual Event Platform. The HLB team designed a virtual event with Aventri that held 40 sessions, with speakers and delegates from 76 countries and over 400 registrants in total.

Location: London, United Kingdom Founded: 1969 Employees: 29,300+ Industry: Independent Advisory & Accounting Firms

HLB is a dynamic global network of independent advisory and accounting firms. Through the power of 29,363 professionals across 158 countries, we combine local expertise and global capabilities to service your needs. HLB firms are locally established with deep roots in their communities, yet are closely connected with professionals from across the world to help clients grow across borders. We are everywhere you are and everywhere you want to go.

Challenge

Solution

Event

HLB Challenge

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, HLB needed to postpone its annual in-person audit tax and advisory conference, and they needed to pivot to a virtual conference quickly. They were looking for a solution that would meet their needs in terms of price, ease of use, and accessibility. Besides that, they needed to find a provider that would work with them to deliver the right event and experience to their delegates. Since this was their first time hosting this annual conference as a virtual event, they wanted to ensure that their delegates would have a smooth transition and not have to download multiple tools to experience their online conference.

HLB Solution

HLB chose to work with Aventri as they met all of their initial needs for moving to a virtual event. Aventri's ability to offer an end-to-end service for all types of events was reassuring to the HLB team. They knew they were working with a group of professionals experienced in the events space.

After initial demos of the Aventri Virtual Event Platform with the Aventri sales team, HLB signed on to complete their virtual conference with the Aventri solution. Upon signing, HLB met with their dedicated Aventri Professional Services Project Manager, who would work with them throughout the entire process for their virtual conference. As moving to virtual was new territory for the HLB team, Aventri assured them that they would help keep to their tight deadline, get them trained on the new platform, and ready for their first annual virtual conference.

Upon completion of training within the Aventri Virtual Event Platform and the set up of their virtual event environment, the dedicated Aventri Project Manager for HLB now shifted focus to assist with the team's live event. During the conference, they were available to moderate sessions, answer technical questions, and ensure that the event was a success. "Knowing that we had someone from the Aventri team supporting us through the live event was a huge help," said Susanna Spada, operations project manager for HLB. "It was one of the strongest points that helped us deliver a successful conference."

HLB Event

HLB's annual Audit-Tax and Advisory Conference was a three-day virtual event focused on sharing best practices and experiences to get their delegates through these uncertain times. The conference consisted of 40 virtual sessions throughout the three days, with 400 delegates and speakers from 76 countries participating during the event.

Aventri worked with HLB to understand the audience, the type of content they wanted to deliver, and how to implement it. The virtual event was able to be designed in a way that would be most beneficial to the audience. Before the pandemic, HLB had chosen to change the format for their annual conference, and then once the pivot to virtual happened, they needed to add new sessions to help their delegates through these uncertain times. With the Aventri team, HLB was able to design a virtual conference that would meet their objectives to deliver business sessions with empathy.

When it came to building their event, Aventri implemented the technical structure of the virtual event so that HLB could focus on their business program. This allowed more time for the team to engage with their speakers and deliver more successful sessions. During the event, HLB decided to enable specific virtual event features that would help to amplify their audience engagement and allow them to connect with speakers, which was the overall goal of the event. The agenda, speaker information, chat, Q&A, and polling modules were active throughout the event.

While in-person events offer the social and networking elements at a wider scale, by using Aventri's networking features, HLB felt that they were connecting to their audience in a more authentic way. The annual conference grew by 50% when making the switch to virtual, which allowed them to connect with even more people than they would have in person. HLB was able to bring their community together and support them during this time. "Our motto 'together we make it happen' has never been stronger," said Spada. "Being able to connect through Aventri, through this virtual event, made us feel less isolated."

HLB is already scheduled to host their next virtual event within Aventri and looks forward to continued success.

Susanna Spada Operations Project Manager

"Switching to virtual, thanks to Aventri, helped us reach out to a much wider audience who would not have been able to attend the conference otherwise."