A long-standing Pharmaceutical client appointed us to deliver a roadshow of 25 x 3-day product training courses across Europe throughout 2020. However, the events of the year meant the planned physical training courses had to be redeveloped into an equally rich virtual experience.
As the activity formed an integral part of their sales strategy, it was imperative that the virtual experience still delivered a first class training and education programme.
A dual approach
Our solution was to create a bespoke, immersive platform, and work with the client to develop content that engaged delegates in a virtual environment. As with any virtual experience, the content and platform needed to both land well in order for the experience to be successful.
Global platform reach
Creating digital content
We have developed a virtual event hub that acts as the go-to place for all trainees to access and interact with course designed content. The platform is paired with a carefully orchestrated personalised agenda and communications plan that utilises timed content delivery and a suite of engagement tools to ensure trainees have a rich and absorbing experience.
We brought the platform to life with a 3D animated home page, which hosts a branded avatar to welcome each trainee in their native language, just as you would experience at the training centre. Backgrounds are designed to create an immersive environment, replicating 3D scenes of the physical training centre, complete with the product machine itself.
The platform incorporates a variety of different content including;
- on-demand interactive documents & videos
- live presentations & discussions
- 1:1 meetings & networking sessions
- live Q&A, polling & surveys
We have been able to work with the client to redesign the course materials to ensure that they are digestible and engaging for a virtual audience. Live sessions will also be run multiple times to accommodate different time zones, and materials will be available in 12 languages.
The platform is optimized for use on desktop, but is also functional on mobile devices, so allows trainees the flexibility to join when suits, whether at a desk or not.
Live review & analysis
As the programme is running over a number of months, the platform has built-in analysis features to allow the platform and content to constantly be reviewed and adapted to optimise performance. The extremely detailed analytics package gives a deep insight into dwell time, user experience, knowledge retention, and behavioural/attitudinal changes, which allows for real-time ROI measurement.
It also enables the client to monitor trainee learnings and ascertain their competence level throughout. One particular feature of note is the online interactive workbook or ‘passport’ to the training course. Throughout the sessions trainees must refer to this and complete the necessary content. This document allows for live feedback and interactivity between trainee and trainer.
Enabling networking
To facilitate successful networking and social engagement through the platform, we have included informal sessions in the agenda to allow trainees to get to know one another, just as they would at a live event. These are in the form of live chat rooms, meet the expert sessions, personal profiles, instant messaging, and 1:1 video calls.
The use of gamification throughout also encourages teamwork when completing tasks, and featured competitions ensure deeper learning and retention.
Delivering amongst uncertainty
By utilising this huge range of technology solutions, ensuring that the participants are receiving a very personal, relevant and interactive experience, and by constantly evolving and improving the programme in line with delegate feedback and reactions, we have developed a delegate experience which ensures key messaging is understood and retained, and that despite the challenges of 2020, the clients overarching education strategy as part of their product launch has still been delivered.
The training courses launched in September and are currently underway for multiple countries.
