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Nordiana Sani, senior account director of Chab Events in Singapore, believes it’s truly important that we embrace digitalization and continue to orchestrate human connections in the COVID-19 era. In pursuit of structured learning content covering the fundamentals of digital/hybrid events, she turned to the Digital Event Strategist (DES) course.
We checked in with Nordiana to hear what surprised her about the DES course and how she will incorporate her newly acquired knowledge into an upcoming event she’s planning.
What inspired you to pursue DES in the first place?
COVID-19 is the biggest crisis we have ever faced in the Meetings, Incentive, Conference, Events (MICE) industry. In an industry where we thrive on global travels and face-to-face meetings, all these interfaces have now been momentarily paused due to the implementation of Safe Management Measures (SMM) globally.
While the restrictions have imposed many limitations and constraints on the way we run our events conventionally, this situation has also provided us with the opportunity to reset, re-think and re-imagine how events can resume amidst this new normal. I feel in the industry where fostering human connections is our core business, it’s truly important that we embrace digitalization and at the same time continue to orchestrate these connections.
There are many articles, blogs and write-ups readily available for self-reading, but I felt that a structured learning content covering the core fundamentals of digital/hybrid events would be the most beneficial for me as an event engagement specialist. I am extremely happy I found that in DES!
What surprised you about the DES course?
There were several eye-opening aspects in the course that offer perspectives that we normally do not encounter while running events conventionally. While it provided the fundamentals for planning for digital/hybrid events, I learned that there are many other considerations that digital event planners have to take into account in order to orchestrate the right virtual environment for successful digital event delivery.
An example would be how a Digital Event Strategist should take a panoramic view of the entire event in a virtual environment, and work towards the success of the virtual event through high audience engagement in terms of content and execution.
I also learned that digital event planners should be able to analyze how each part of the program adds value to the audience and keeping them continuously engaged amidst the many possible online and offline distractions such as checking emails, social media and toilet breaks, just to name a few.
Can you tell us how you will incorporate your new DES knowledge into an upcoming event you are planning?
With the new knowledge and many key learnings from DES, I will be paying even closer attention to every element that would contribute to creating a high audience engagement for successful virtual event delivery. This would be done by, and not limited to, creating the right environment for the speakers and playing an active role to ensure the contents being delivered are compelling for the audience.
In addition, another interesting takeaway I experienced from the course would be for us to actively consider how we can maximize the digital environment and tools, to track and present useful data to clients, in helping them to decide future topics (from highly engaged discussions in current sessions) and also using them to explore monetization opportunities.
What would you say to others considering getting the DES certification?
I would say, go for it! DES provides a great foundation for one to acquire and adopt the skillsets essential for digital event planning while we navigate through the landscape of this changing event. While digital events will never replace the magic of face-to-face engagement through physical events, they are here to stay and would continue to be an avenue for us at the moment, to remain engaged and connected with our peers, and consumers, amidst the border controls and SMM implementations in this new normal.
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The Digital Event Strategist Spotlight series features Digital Event Strategists and how they are making an impact in their work through digital and hybrid events.
For inquiries about the Digital Event Strategist certification, please complete this form.