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How ACCA utilized the ON24 Platform to deliver its annual conference over five days

About ACCA

Product: ON24 Virtual Conference

Use Case: Event Marketing

Industry: Professional Services

ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is the global body for professional accountants. The ACCA haa more than 241,000 fully qualified members and 542,000 future members worldwide. They’re among the world’s best-qualified and most highly sought-after accountants – and they work in every sector you can imagine.

Summary

ACCA used the ON24 virtual environment platform to deliver its annual conference. Using pre-recorded video, live audio webcast panels and practical workshops, members heard the latest ACCA research and earned CPD credits. The online event delivered on all of ACCA’s goals and was its most successful conference to date.

Product: ON24 Virtual Conference

Use Case: Event Marketing

Industry: Professional Services

ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is the global body for professional accountants. The ACCA haa more than 241,000 fully qualified members and 542,000 future members worldwide. They’re among the world’s best-qualified and most highly sought-after accountants – and they work in every sector you can imagine.

ACCA used the ON24 virtual environment platform to deliver its annual conference. Using pre-recorded video, live audio webcast panels and practical workshops, members heard the latest ACCA research and earned CPD credits. The online event delivered on all of ACCA’s goals and was its most successful conference to date.

Introduction

Support for those who seek a rewarding career in accountancy, finance and management 

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants is the global body for professional accountants, with more than 162,000 members and 428,000 students in 173 countries and a network of over 89 offices and centers across the world.

ACCA delivers support services for its members, including continuing professional development, regulating its membership and working with regulators and other organizations to strengthen the profession. The organization boasts a strong history of advancing the profession in developing countries around the world.

ACCA turned to ON24® for a stable platform to deliver its CPD content in a persistent online environment. With ON24, ACCA could run video and audio CPD webcasts year-round and deliver both live and on-demand events. The ON24 platform also gave ACCA a global reach, enabling the organization to stream the event globally while running it from one office.

Situation

Bringing worldwide members together via virtual technology

ACCA had offices and members around the world, making it impractical to hold a physical annual conference. To compensate, the association decided to take the conference completely virtual on the ON24 virtual environment platform. The organizers decided to change the format with a renewed focus on increasing the conversion of registrations to attendees.

The team focused on the event’s objectives and intended outcomes, the audience, their needs and the desire to showcase ACCA research. As a result:

  • The annual conference was expanded to five days
  • Each day was assigned a specific theme
  • Events were scheduled at pre-determined time slots throughout the day

In expanding the conference, ACCA was confident of the ON24 virtual environment platform’s ability to handle increased registrations, deliver five days’ worth of live and pre-recorded content and support an expanded resource library.

Support for those who seek a rewarding career in accountancy, finance and management 

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants is the global body for professional accountants, with more than 162,000 members and 428,000 students in 173 countries and a network of over 89 offices and centers across the world.

ACCA delivers support services for its members, including continuing professional development, regulating its membership and working with regulators and other organizations to strengthen the profession. The organization boasts a strong history of advancing the profession in developing countries around the world.

ACCA turned to ON24® for a stable platform to deliver its CPD content in a persistent online environment. With ON24, ACCA could run video and audio CPD webcasts year-round and deliver both live and on-demand events. The ON24 platform also gave ACCA a global reach, enabling the organization to stream the event globally while running it from one office.

Bringing worldwide members together via virtual technology

ACCA had offices and members around the world, making it impractical to hold a physical annual conference. To compensate, the association decided to take the conference completely virtual on the ON24 virtual environment platform. The organizers decided to change the format with a renewed focus on increasing the conversion of registrations to attendees.

The team focused on the event’s objectives and intended outcomes, the audience, their needs and the desire to showcase ACCA research. As a result:

  • The annual conference was expanded to five days
  • Each day was assigned a specific theme
  • Events were scheduled at pre-determined time slots throughout the day

In expanding the conference, ACCA was confident of the ON24 virtual environment platform’s ability to handle increased registrations, deliver five days’ worth of live and pre-recorded content and support an expanded resource library.

Solution

Turning the virtual event on its head, backed by ON24 technology

ACCA took the lessons learned from prior online events to maximize the return on the conference:

  • Created a more intuitive and attractive environment design. The ON24 design team created a slick 3D environment with a purposeful lobby design that helped visitors to easily navigate through the conference and find the desired content.
  • Defrayed costs through the platform’s virtual exhibition hall. ACCA sold sponsorships to several industry-leading companies. These vendors and partners were able to promote their products and services in virtual booths and interact live with attendees.
  • Capitalized on ON24’s scalable platform. ACCA was expecting tens of thousands of concurrent viewers for this online conference.

Turning the virtual event on its head, backed by ON24 technology

ACCA took the lessons learned from prior online events to maximize the return on the conference:

  • Created a more intuitive and attractive environment design. The ON24 design team created a slick 3D environment with a purposeful lobby design that helped visitors to easily navigate through the conference and find the desired content.
  • Defrayed costs through the platform’s virtual exhibition hall. ACCA sold sponsorships to several industry-leading companies. These vendors and partners were able to promote their products and services in virtual booths and interact live with attendees.
  • Capitalized on ON24’s scalable platform. ACCA was expecting tens of thousands of concurrent viewers for this online conference.

Events delivered on the ON24 virtual environment platform were offered as:

  • Pre-recorded video panel debates. An industry expert showcased ACCA research at a higher level.
  • Live audio panel debates. Interactive Q&A made these sessions some of the most popular of the five days.
  • Pre-recorded workshops. A single presenter with slides, these practical sessions met the CPD needs for attending members.

The ON24 virtual environment platform’s functionality, from automated registration to data capture on each participant, was key to helping ACCA focus on marketing activities and improving conversion rates, including re-targeting participants to attend specific sessions.

Results

Success measured by attendance, participation and ROI

This thematic format gave each day more clarity and relevance and more closely mirrored the structure of a physical event, where attendees could pick the day(s) and most relevant topics. The strategy for the ACCA “Accounting for the Future Conference” delivered more than:

  • 17,500 registrations
  • 16,500 live session views
  • 45,000 hours of user engagement
  • 200 minutes average viewer duration

 

Success measured by attendance, participation and ROI

This thematic format gave each day more clarity and relevance and more closely mirrored the structure of a physical event, where attendees could pick the day(s) and most relevant topics. The strategy for the ACCA “Accounting for the Future Conference” delivered more than:

  • 17,500 registrations
  • 16,500 live session views
  • 45,000 hours of user engagement
  • 200 minutes average viewer duration

 

ACCA credits the conference’s success to the revised format, quality of speakers and theme-based content, all flawlessly executed on the ON24 virtual environment platform. Selling sponsorships to the virtual exhibition hall helped to further reduce the cost of the event from £5.30 per delegate the previous year to £2.20 per delegate.

Brand reach was another measure of success for ACCA. Attendees were given brief questionnaires at the end of every session and asked to rate the event on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being completely satisfied. Nine out of 10 respondents rated the sessions 4 or 5, indicating they would recommend the event to colleagues.

Such word-of-mouth marketing efforts, combined with ON24 globalization and localization capabilities, will allow ACCA to further market and deliver events to member audiences around the world.

“As we move forward to focus on global content and delivering locally, we know that ON24 will be able to support us in our future plans with their worldwide network of delivery partners and localization capabilities.”

Marketing Manager