Cholera Research Uptake Workshop
A workshop bringing cholera research teams to Mombasa to identify risks, challenges, mitigations and opportunities for collaboration.
The Challenge
As this event was to happen between two other cholera meetings within Mombasa involving some participants from each meeting, special care had to be taken during the registration and delegate management elements to ensure each delegate had a seamless and tailored experience.
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The event was switched to a hybrid event midway through the planning stage to allow for delegates who could not attend in-person to attend virtually. There was also interpretation required as some delegates from countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo were French speaking. This had to be seamlessly integrated into the hybrid set-up.
The Approach
Due to a short lead time of less than 3 months, the Zentive team had to act quickly. Venues were shortlisted due to sustainability, security and suitability. Sarova Whitesands was chosen as a previously vetted venue with good sustainability and security credentials and great conference facilities.
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The registration site was created with several registration paths as it had to account for those who were attending the other meetings. We were able to assign registration types to the delegates to mitigate errors during the sign-up process. Registration commenced with travel being booked depending on both attendance and funding parameters.
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Halfway through the planning process, several key attendees were unable to attend in-person and therefore the event was switched to hybrid to allow for virtual attendance. This meant a new registration path had to be created, additional AV equipment brought in and virtual meeting comms set up.
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There were constant calls between organisers and suppliers to ensure everything was covered including a focus on sustainability and accessibility. From these calls, key decisions were made such as removal of high carbon items from all menus, agreeing to provide key carbon data, interpretation and hybrid.
The Result
Being the second of three events meant delegates had already had a chance to meet and break the ice so more substantial deeper conversations could happen. This elevated the networking and educational elements of the event.
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The use of a single conference centre worked well and having outdoor breaks amongst the trees and the sun refreshed delegates between sessions. The evening dinners were a great way of having more informal conversations whilst enjoying the Swahili delicacies Mombasa has to offer.
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From a sustainability point of view, there were no single-use production items or single-use serveware used during the event. The hotel was chosen for its strong sustainability credentials, and this was evident onsite; bamboo keycards, sustainable information cards and a focus on reusing food surplus.