Thousands Register for Certified Virtual Training Sessions

Specsavers is one of the UK’s best known & loved brands. A part of their ongoing commitment to the thousands of staff in over 2700 stores, Specsavers runs industry leading training for it’s clinical staff and holds large, training conventions throughout the year. With all gatherings on hold because of Coronavirus, the organisation made arrangements to hold all of the training online in the form of virtual training sessions.

Having partnered with Specsavers on their in-person conferences in the past, Event Connections were commissioned to design, build and deliver the online event registration and delegate management aspects of the virtual training sessions.

Rethink with Virtual Events

A traditional training event is bound by time, space and many other factors. By moving to virtual training sessions, the Specsavers team were able to reformat the entire event - expanding the dimensions in every direction.

Rather than compress the training, 2500 attendees took part in 38 virtual training sessions spread over five weeks. Delegates were able to select the virtual training sessions that were most relevant to them and update their event diary throughout. Capacities were set for sessions, but at a far higher level than would have been available in-person. And because the sessions did not overlap, attendees had much more access to training than they would have normally had at a conference centre.

Innovative Virtual Event Registration

As part of the registration process, various options helped steer the attendees into different tracks (some with online payments). Then, our smart seminar system ensured that each person was only able to clearly see the virtual training sessions that they were eligible for with any repeated sessions blocked to avoid double bookings.

Reminder emails and unique personal session joining links were sent 24hrs before each session (and an hour before). The personal URL links meant that we were able to clearly track who had attended and when. From an event security perspective, it also meant that the links could only be used by the registrant.

Multi-Channel Conference Customer Service

Our Delegate Service team handled all enquiries for Specsavers via phone, email and WhatsApp. This high service level ensures that delegates were given the level of support that they are used to from Specsavers. It also served to underscore the value and importance that the organisation places on it’s clinical workers.

By outsourcing the whole event registration process, the training team at Specsavers were able to fully focus on the content and delivery of their virtual training sessions.

CPD Certificates for Virtual Events

Because the virtual training sessions are certified by an industry specific body, accurate reporting on attendance and event engagement is critical. Our multi-stage delegate tracking and engagement statistics ensured that Specsavers would identify and validate those who had reached the required standard of participation.

Once validated in our systems, automated certificate emails were sent to attendees so that they had a permanent record of attendance along with the quantity and type of professional development points attained.

Full Event Data Analytics

The Specsavers team were provided with a bespoke, real-time reporting system, allowing them to see all of the data in a sensibly broken-down way. All reports were available on-screen and as downloadable reports.

Conclusion

The Specsavers Virtual Training Sessions have opened up a new way for certain training to be delivered to Optical and Audiology professionals. The feedback from attendees has been overwhelmingly positive with the delegates able to book and attend sessions at a time that suited them, with no travel time or expense.

Planning has already begun on a range of training projects in 2021.

If you need a robust, flexible & secure registration solution for your virtual event or conference, please do get in touch with the UK Event Registration Experts..