How Sonova ACUS forges connections across their teams with virtual and hybrid events
Sonova brings the joy of hearing to everyone. But with a family of brands and numerous offices around the country, Sonova ACUS needed a way to share real-time messaging with its distributed workforce.
With an internal conference on the horizon, Sonova ACUS wanted to provide an “all team” experience that gave employees more exposure to leadership and greater insight into upcoming strategies, while maintaining a tight budget and minimizing travel. They needed a way to make remote employees feel just as connected and heard as those joining in person. They also wanted to increase their production value onsite, giving the conference a “real event” feel to set it apart from other meetings throughout the year.
Lastly, they needed a way to accomplish all of these goals within the confines of their chosen hotel venue.
The Details
Client: Sonova ACUS
Project date: Ongoing
Location: Aurora, IL/virtual
Industry: Healthcare
Headcount: Over 1,100 US employees
Services Included
Hybrid Event Production
Studio Production
Post-Production
The Plan
The Sonova ACUS team engaged Mainstream to professionally execute a 4-hour hybrid conference, streaming the program to employees around the country and driving increased engagement with both in-person and remote audiences.
Mainstream offered full-service event production support from start to finish, with audiovisual services at the venue to create excitement with onsite employees, and a multicam, high-quality livestream built to engage virtual folks.
The Mainstream team:
- Conducted a venue survey to confirm and assess onsite audiovisual capabilities
- Set up and managed a streaming portal that was easy for remote employees to access
- Developed a master run of show to keep event staff on track throughout the conference
- Performed a virtual tech check and rehearsal to ensure speakers were comfortable and confident with conference technology
- Created an animated graphics package for the livestream that introduced each speaker, seamlessly transitioned from one presentation to the next, and offered picture-in-picture graphics and full-screen interstitials to enhance the virtual viewing experience
And after the event, Mainstream provided Sonova ACUS with digital recordings of the entire event for future use.
The Outcome
While about 60 employees joined the conference in person, the Sonova team was able to reach more than 100 others who joined virtually. By engaging a dispersed audience, Sonova achieved its goal of gathering their full team, celebrating recent wins and communicating upcoming plans.
They also had the opportunity to invite remote speakers who couldn’t travel to Sonova’s Illinois headquarters, offering a platform to leaders who wouldn’t have otherwise been able to present.
Feedback from virtual attendees was overwhelmingly positive. Employees shared that they were able to join the livestream easily, and that the quality of the stream was great. In short, it was “all wins,” according to DiStaola.
After such a great experience, the Sonova ACUS team was happy to come back for their next meeting – their 2024 Annual Kickoff, filmed entirely at Mainstage Chicago!
“From tip to tail, Mainstream was an active partner in driving success. No ask was too big or too small.”
Elio DiStaola, Communciations Manager, Sonova ACUS
