Envisage Events Portfolio - Real Events and Virtual Events

Real Events for the 21st Century

Through the year 2000, we hosted frequent events at the Millennium Dome.

We have used the DTI Future Focus Suite many times in recent years.

Since their inception, we have frequently used facilitated electronic meeting rooms for highly productive brainstorming and voting exercises.

Over the years, our networking events and workshops have proved stimulating and popular.

We introduced the concept of the 'connected home' at the 2002 Ideal Home Show.

We have supported The UK pavilions at CeBIT and ITU Telecom World with multi-media presentations.

Over a decade of virtual events

A Technology First: Online Marriage Brokering- In 1992, we were asked to establish a 13M collaborative programme by the DTI. In six months we registered 800 people and took 400 of them through a series of workshops culminating in a marriage-broking session where partner details and project profiles were entered into on Lotus Notes and participants were able to log-on, match their profiles and negotiate their consortia. This was the practical culmination of an essential networking activity.

Another First:International Video Conferencing-In 1993, an ISDN line had just been installed at the DTI when we had decided to run a seminar with speakers from a number of market research companies explaining how partnering was being approached in different countries. We used the ISDN line to video conference with researchers from NTT in Japan who were prepared to tell us something about the collaborative technologies they were working on.

Another First: Multimedia on multiple sites-In 1997, we undertook an ambitious eight-way simultaneous video-conference with 400 delegates in the presence of the UK Technology Minister. Three of the inter-linked sites operated electronic meeting rooms which acted as 'feeder workshops' to the conference. In order to allow participation from overseas experts, a simulataneous web forum was open before, during and after the conference period. These experts could comment interactively on the issues raised.

Another First:  A Virtual Roadshow: 'Play it again, Sam'- In 1999, we orchestrated a Nationwide road show which could be replayed from our web site so others could experience what went on during the 6 month seminar series. The speakers delivered a shortened version of their presentation using steamed audio and selected slides. Virtual reality models could also be manipulated online. The home page took the form of an airport departure lounge to help those browsing the site to gain an intuitive understanding of the navigation rules for our virtual worlds.

Innovative Market Research: 'If you listen to the people, you hear what the experts will be saying, two years from now'-Nelson Mandela from Charter 88 Trust brochure.  For our year 2000 market research into the ten-year future for electronic communications (eComms), turned it around.  First, we interviewed gurus.  Then, we brought entrepreneurs into electronic meeting rooms to brainstorm and select the future scenarios they thought most likely to happen. We also opened a web forum available to mobile phone users. Through this portal, participants could join in the selection process and broaden the opinions being expressed on the gurus' forecasts.

At the leading edge: Bringing the web into the mobile world: gettogetheronthe.net-More recently, our event support system has provided visitor or delegate profiling. This applies to trade shows just as much as networking sessions. On the one hand it help exhibitors pre-qualify their stand guests. Alternatively it allows workshop participants to establish shared interests with other delegates - even begin panel sessions before arrival. The system integrates web conferencing with our mobile forum. Whether you are in the office or on your mobile, you can still see what?s being said and make a contribution.