Memory Studies Gained 4X Attendees at their 2021 All-Virtual Conference – Case Study

1500+
attendees
220+
virtual sessions
510+
abstract submissions

 

MSA Conference, Warsaw 2021 is the 2nd large conference (1500+ attendees) from MSA that uses Dryfta event platform. MSA Conference, Charlottesville 2020 and MSA Conference, Newcastle 2023 are the two other conferences organized by MSA and hosted on Dryfta.

 

The Memory Studies Association held its fifth annual conference in Warsaw this year. The leading theme of the event is “Convergences”, and we would like to invite you to join us in discussions around the interplay of mnemonic layers.

While the event offers the opportunity to debate all aspects of memory studies, we believe that our East-Central European environment gives us a unique perspective into a region filled with overlapping memories. How do local practices, traditions, and studies compare to global ones? And taking the question further: how does the intertwining of human and non-human, digital and analog affect our memories?

 

MSA Warsaw Conference

 

MSA Warsaw Used Dryfta for:

510+ Abstracts Submitted

One of the most important parts of planning an event is making sure that your review process is well-organized and efficient. It’s also one of the most difficult parts to get right—especially when you’re working with a small team. The MSA Warsaw Virtual Conference was no exception.

When we started planning our event, we knew that having a well-organized review process would be essential to its success. We also knew that our team is small and busy, so we needed to make sure that the review process was easy for everyone involved.

The Dryfta abstract platform made it easy for us to collect the abstracts from authors in a way that suited our needs, and then allowed us to quickly and easily decide on accepting or rejecting them based on their quality. Reviewers could evaluate abstracts assigned to them in less than five minutes and track chairs then accept or reject submissions and let the system notify authors automatically based on their abstracts’ statuses. After reviewing all of the submissions, we were able to invite accepted authors into Dryfta so they could upload their pre-recorded videos. This whole process took place within the Dryfta platform, which allowed us to stay organized even as we worked with multiple people at once.

1500+ Attendees registered

MSA Warsaw was a huge success! Over 1500 attendees registered for the virtual conference via Dryfta’s fully-integrated online ticketing system.

We had so many goals for our registration process, but we knew that we needed a tool that could do it all: accept online payments, and be able to ask custom questions from attendees during the ticket buying process. Dryfta’s event ticketing platform offered us everything we were looking for in an online ticketing system! They allowed us to configure the look and feel of our registration form based on the specific needs of each conference, and they provided all the tools we needed right out of the box—no need for additional integrations or complicated setups.

The best part? It was easy to implement. Our team did not have any difficulty using or configuring Dryfta’s platform—it made our lives easier by saving us time and resources so we could focus on other priorities during the planning process.

220+ Virtual Sessions

One of the biggest challenges of a pandemic is that travel is often restricted. That’s why virtual events are a great way to reach out to your target audience. MSA Warsaw 2021 was scheduled during the pandemic and it was a success—On Dryfta virtual platform, people could watch the sessions at their convenience, and then those who missed the sessions could go back and watch them on demand until the next year.

This approach is especially useful during a pandemic where travel is out of question and there are thousands of attendees who will be interested in attending the event. Also those who missed sessions can watch them on demand until the next one year, which is a big advantage of virtual events. It means that people don’t need to be available for the entire conference in order to take advantage of what it offers.

The attendees were able to join remotely to watch the live streams. This is an increasingly popular way to reach out to your target audience, as it allows you to reach more people and remove the need for travel especially during a pandemic. The virtual participants could ask questions from anywhere in the world and speakers can interact from the other end.

Private messaging

If you’ve ever attended a virtual event, or just tried to find a new friend on the fly, you know it can be tough. There’s just so much noise out there, and it’s hard to know who’s worth talking to.

A great way to find people who share your interests and background is through Dryfta matchmaking tool, combined with a private messaging and video chat tool which provides attendees with a list of other attendees based on their interests or background. During the MSA Warsaw conference, this helped attendees find people they can connect with and have a great chat.

The result: happier attendees, higher engagement levels and better networking opportunities.

 
 

Testimonial from MSA 2021

 

We used the Dryfta conference platform to organize the Memory Studies Association Fifth Conference “Convergences” (5-9 July 2021). This event, held entirely online, lasted five days and had nearly 1500 participants from all over the world. The program included 230 panels, roundtables and special sessions. We did not have a single technical glitch during the entire event, at least none caused by Dryfta!

The Dryfta team, and especially our personal assistant, Zeb Reyaz were very, flexible, supportive, responsive and communicative. They did their best to adjust the platform functionalities to our specific needs and were very quick to implement changes and remove any errors. Zeb and his team supported us throughout the conference, often going well beyond their obligations (e.g. by staying over hours or by downloading the recordings of the sessions much faster on the website than it was originally agreed on). MSA is a non-profit organization with a limited budget. Dryfta services were value for money.

– Zofia Wóycicka, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Sociology, University of Warsaw