General description
In June 2021, we organised an event for the Microsoft Education team as part of the Edu Day series. Titled "What will education look like in the future? A report from school life", it was a dynamic and informative online meeting for teachers and principals of all levels of education that featured panels dealing with the most important issues in education, interwoven with numerous animations, interviews and visual materials. These materials had been recorded in full before the event date, and were then broadcast live on the day.
How to prepare for such a large undertaking?
Our work began with a meeting with the client, where we learned about their assumptions for the 2021 edition. Together, we decided that it was to be an interesting and dynamic event, similar in style to breakfast television. We therefore planned a schedule of rehearsals with the speakers, and made the recordings themselves at a school in Gdynia. The final date was the moment when the complete, edited and post-produced footage was streamed – and there was a lot of it.
Recordings of 1:1 interviews, compilations of students' statements, advertising materials and informative panels – all these materials required not only processing, but also selection of the best shot. During the online conference, in addition to the interviews and individual statements, we also recorded the debates, where two people in a studio set up in a classroom were connected through Microsoft Teams with two other people either at home or at their school.
Challenges in recording the materials
The main challenge in this project was the location. We recorded all the materials during two days of shooting at the school, when lessons were taking place. We wanted to get as many shots as possible, both inside and outside the school, but we didn't want to disturb the students or teachers in their daily work. And we did it! Of course, looking like a TV crew meant we attracted lots of attention, but we didn't stop any of the lessons or distract the students from their studies.
Online conference
The platform we used to carry out the event was Microsoft Teams Live, which made it possible to have constant contact with the participants in the chat, answer their questions and send additional materials.
Online communication
For Edu Day 2021: What will education look like in the future? A report from school life, we created the design for a website (layout, graphics and text) that complied with Microsoft's in-house guidelines and for a mailshot inviting participants to take part in the event. We also supported the communication on social media through multimedia animations and a set of banners. For each of the speakers, we created a dedicated post with their photo, and we also suggested content for posts that anyone involved in the event could use.
Statistics
Online event statistics:
- Number of people: 600
- Platform: Microsoft Teams
- 100% online
- Duration: 4 hours
