Reopening with attention to innovation and safety, solid proof that the events industry in Italy is ready to get back to business. With three days of online training for Search On Media Group’s Web Marketing Festival, the largest national marketing and innovation festival, in hybrid form from 4 to 6 June at the Palacongressi in Rimini – the post-Coronavirus phase has really kicked off for the conference industry.
A major success for Italian Exhibition Group, with its Palacongressi di Rimini venue, in collaboration with technical partner Sound D Light, offering a permanent fully-equipped room to its clients who intend to keep their 2020 appointment in hybrid form, thanks to the new Live to oooh format!: an authentic TV studio set-up for live connections and transformed into a platform for streaming events.
This comes as the Emilia-Romagna region, along with other parts of Italy, has just been given the green light to hold conferences in traditional fashion from June 15. A great boost of confidence.
Every day about seventy people crossed the threshold of the Palacongressi, including in-house personal, technical crews, organizational staff and guests, in complete safety ensured by the procedures put in place by the IEG Safebusiness project which included designated safety routes, thermoscanners, masks, hand sanitizers throughout the venue and constant monitoring in all phases of the event.
With more than 200 speakers, guests, staff and artists, the WMF was able to stage their regular June event in a unique and innovative format.
With this new setup, the festival was able to count on an online multiplex area with 30 vertical simultaneous training rooms on as many themes including Artificial Intelligence, Digital Tourism, Onp and Philanthropy, E-Commerce, Start-ups, SEO, Content Marketing, Export and International Markets. A mainstage was erected in the Tempio room, hosting a live TV show format with a rich line-up of well-known celebrities from the world of journalism, current affairs, sports, national and European politics. Streaming links were set up with important places of culture and sport throughout Italy with “social” testimonials, featuring also musical entertainment. An unprecedented Expo Online Area acted as an exhibition platform thanks to which the sponsors of the Festival and over 80 exhibitors and start-ups – including ESA, Infinity, Intel, Shopify, Nexi and many others – were able to reach participants connected through live meetings, consultations and appointments.
“I don’t think I’ll ever forget this day; it was like starting over again, in every sense”, said journalist Andrea Scanzi at the opening of the event. Scanzi is one of the best-known names in Italian journalism and very popular on social networks.
“Spreading innovation is possible thanks to collaboration, just like the long-standing one with Palacongressi in Rimini, and that has allowed us to create this first hybrid and far-reaching edition of the Festival. We are really satisfied with the success of the event and that WMF has been a trailblazer for a new format of events”, said Cosmano Lombardo, CEO and founder of WMF. The traditional version of the Web Marketing Festival will take place at the Palacongressi in Rimini from 19 -21 November 2020.
