Scientific Workshop Singapore
A collaborative meeting on accelerating the clinical development pipeline for antibiotics in Asia.
The Challenge
The challenge was to organise a 3-day event for an international audience of 70 scientists, academics, researchers and distributors to promote regulatory alignment and facilitate inter-agency discussions around key challenges and potential resolutions.
The primary goal was to ensure seamless coordination of multiple elements, including flights, ground transfers, accommodation, breakout sessions, and an external dinner. Given the diversity of the attendees, it was crucial to cater to different dietary preferences and cultural expectations.
Further to this, we aimed to provide a memorable experience that highlighted Singapore's unique culture and hospitality, ensuring all guests felt welcomed and engaged throughout the event.
The Approach
As with any event, Zentive approached this project with sustainability and accessibility front and centre. We began with a comprehensive planning phase, involving detailed discussions with the client to understand their objectives, preferences, and special requirements for the guests. Sustainability and accessibility were a hot topic on the weekly agenda to ensure an inclusive event was produced for all.
During the registration phase of the event, we amended the dietary question, meaning that all group meals provided at the event were vegetarian as standard but allowing guests to opt into a meat option if desired. Keeping along the lines of sustainability, we selected a meeting venue which had strong sustainable credentials in addition to an offsite dinner restaurant, Open Farm Community Singapore, known for its farm-to-table dining experience. We coordinated with the restaurant to create a customised menu that catered to various dietary preferences in addition to showcasing the delicious food which it produced onsite at the local urban farm.
On the accessibility front, we made sure the event was produced with the ability to stream the event out virtually, allowing for multiple attendees and speakers to join without the need for travel. In addition to this, we provided live human generated captions both on the stream and in the room to support those whose first language was not English and quiet rooms were available within the hotel for attendees to take a moment out of the meeting if needed.
The Result
The event was a resounding success, exceeding both client and delegate expectations. Post event feedback showed overwhelmingly positive comments from the guests who praised the organisation, attention to detail, meeting content, and the overall experience. 97% of attendees rated the overall meeting experience excellent including the pre-event logistics support and communication.
On the sustainability front, by adopting a ‘vegetarian first’ menu, we reduced the overall carbon of the F&B at this event by 66.8% which equates to 3.37 tCO2e.
In relation to the event as a whole, it produced 226.32 tCO2 (99% travel emissions) which related to:
- CO2 equivalent from 113 cars on the road for one year
- The carbon sequestered by 1131 tree seedlings grown for 10 years
Using these figures, both Zentive and our client will look to reduce emissions year on year for events held in Singapore as well as looking at key areas of the event to further reduce emissions.
