On the internet for the internet
Success achieved
How the Internet Society brought together 2549 participants from 142 countries and set the hashtag #icomm15 “on fire”, to became a trending topic globally on Twitter.- Website
- https://www.internetsociety.org/
- Project dates
- 7-8 July 2016
Project team
- Internet Society Staff
- Board of Trustees
- Regional Offices
- Volunteers (Nodes & Event Speakers)
Tools & Systems
- Digitell - online platform
- Zoom - virtual meeting platform
Introduction
InterCommunity was hosted live from the society’s Board of Trustees Annual General Meeting in Auckland, New Zealand, with 2,500+ participants in 142 countries joining from more than 15 “nodes” around the globe. To accommodate a global audience - participating from different time zones - the event was split into two different, identical sessions.
The complex matrix of Regional Node connections allowed participants to gather in groups - to enjoy both the in-person and online aspects of InterCommunity. Our technology allowed regional nodes to interact with each other as well as with the host site in Auckland.
Individuals with an Internet connection could also participate from anywhere in the world. Viewing Nodes were another participation option. These allowed small groups to join and watch InterCommunity together. Though Viewing Nodes did not offer interactivity with other Nodes or with Auckland, they had the benefit of an in-person community to share with while participating. Registration was free, but Internet Society membership (which is free for individuals) was required.
Discovery
InterCommunity 2015 was the first attempt to bring together - at one point in time - as many participants as possible of the 80,000+ Internet Society global members from 110 Chapters, 140 Organisation members and experts across the world. Through the power of the Internet, InterCommunity was possible. InterCommunity 2015, the Internet Society’s first online meeting of its entire community, was designed using the Event Canvas methodology and the Event Design protocol.
The Internet Society community brings incredible diversity, a truly global reach, and strikingly unique perspectives together. But, we share one vision “the Internet is for everyone.” With InterCommunity, participants were provided a platform to advance the global conversation and affirm the Internet Society as a community - as a Society - of individuals, organizations and chapters who care deeply about the big and small concerns of the Internet.
Objectives
The aim was to showcase the Internet’s ability to rise beyond the traditional event boundaries - of time zones and geography - and bring people together in a unique way. Through the event design, the Internet Society was able to bring their diverse community together - in real time - for an opportunity to engage and connect.
The goals of InterCommunity included creating a global conversation about the key issues that matter to our members. We wanted our global community to share and learn from each other.
After InterCommunity we wanted our members to have a deeper appreciation for the great diversity of our membership, better insight into our Board of Trustees, and a stronger sense of community and a conversation happening on the internet for the internet by all stakeholders.
Activities
The one-day hybrid event was hosted live from the society’s annual Board of Trustees meeting at the SKY- CITY Hotel in Auckland, New Zealand, with 2,500 members in 141 countries participating. To accommodate different time zones, the first global session was held from 8 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. Auckland time, with a second, identical session beginning in Auckland at 6 p.m.
During Session 1, Nodes joined from: Ottawa, Canada; New York, and Washington, DC, USA; San Salvador, El Salvador; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Montevideo, Uruguay; Accra, Ghana and Tunis, Tunisia.
During Session 2, Nodes joined from: Nairobi, Kenya; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Geneva, Switzerland; Istanbul, Turkey; Manila, The Philippines; Hong Kong and Bangalore, India.
The complex matrix of connection involved 15 regional “nodes” in cities around the world, where members gathered in groups. Nodes could interact with each other as well as with the host site in Auckland. Individuals with an Internet connection also could participate from anywhere in the world.
Designing the Program
One of the biggest challenges for InterCommunity’s organizers was coming up with a design and an agenda that would drive engagement of the Internet Society’s diverse membership, who not only are spread across the globe but are involved in many different aspects of the Internet.
Designing a meeting that would address the society’s multiple communities became the task of Ruud Janssen, CMM, DES, a Swiss-based entrepreneur and co-founder of Event Model Generation (EMG), an event-design training organisation whose #EventCanvas is a visual template for strategically developing conference models and measuring outcomes. “The Internet Society is very much a bottom-up organisation,” says Janssen, “so it was really important to have inputs from the ground up and across the wide range of communities.”
Using the #EventCanvas framework, “we synthesised inputs from dozens of people,” Janssen said, “and from there were able to drill down to six core stakeholder groups, mapping out needs, goals, and metrics for each of them.”
One result was the emergence of three key areas of discussion for the meeting:
- Internet governance,
- Improving security and trust on the Internet
- Ensuring internet access for everyone in the world.
InterCommunity chose Digitell to stream the event, integrating with Zoom’s virtual meeting platform. Zoom is robust, simple, and offers excellent scalability.
Creating Engagement
Nicole Armstrong, CMP, CMM, Reston-based senior events manager for the Internet Society, echoes Janssen. “We knew we weren’t going to get everything right,” she said, “but we also knew that using the Internet to bring our community together across different time zones, languages, and cultures was incredibly worthwhile. And when it was over, I sensed a great optimism and excitement from participants, people realising they could use this model, use the Internet itself, to build connection.”
Planning and executing an Internet event was “surprisingly different, at every turn, from organising a face-to-face meeting,” Armstrong said. Beyond the technical challenges, which were spearheaded by the society’s senior director of IT development, Todd Tolbert, the key difference was the overriding importance of driving engagement. The first challenge in that regard was language. InterCommunity was conducted in English, with live audio streams available in Spanish and French. “The Internet’s span is global, and our stakeholders reflect that global reach and are heavily regionally focused,” Armstrong said, “so it’s a hard, ongoing challenge to deliver in all the languages of our community.”
InterCommunity allowed individual viewers who were not physically present at one of the 15 regional nodes to engage through a chat tool within the event’s interface, and to participate in polling and surveys using the app Social Q&A. Attendees at regional nodes could interact with each other and, in most cases, with other nodes, as well as with the Auckland host site. The Internet Society used small touches and details to build community identity, from kicking off the program by showing individuals from around the world holding identical photo frames branded with the InterCommunity logo, to ending each of the two global sessions by having participants at the host and remote locations simultaneously launch paper airplanes.
“At one point during the first global session, we could see on our screen in Auckland members in nine cities around the world,” Armstrong said. “I think experiencing the reality of our global community was one of the most exciting takeaways for everyone.”
Event Design
One of the biggest challenges of the event was coming up with an event design and agenda that would drive the engagement of the society’s incredibly diverse community, members who are not only spread across the globe but involved in many different aspects of the Internet.
To support the Event Design process, we employed the team at Event Model Generation, Ruud Janssen, Roel Frissen and Dennis Luijer. Using their Event Design protocol, we created an event that met the needs of our various stakeholder groups.
The Event Design protocol and the Event Canvas proved to be a very important tool in this aspect of creating InterCommunity. The outcome was an agenda that covered our three key objectives - Internet Governance, collaborative Internet Security, and development and Internet access.
#Eventcanvas template
Technology and Audio/Visual
Of critical importance in building an online event is the technology. For this component, the Senior Director of our IT Department took the lead. He enlisted support from a key technology partner - Digitell. And, using generally available, off-the-shelf technology (Zoom.us) they developed the plan to make InterCommunity a reality. Obviously, fast, ultra-reliable internet connectivity was critical for our Host Location and the Regional Nodes and Viewing Nodes.
Zoom allows real-time audio and video - creating a seamless conversation regardless of location. However that meant each of our Regional Nodes was outfitted with adequate video equipment (cameras trained on the speakers and audience; and projection and screens so the audience could see the other Nodes and Host) and audio (speakers to project sound and microphones to capture). Considering the vast differences in venues, local capabilities, equipment and training, ensuring everyone had the correct equipment was a huge undertaking. Our IT Team collaborated with each of the Regional Nodes to ensure they were planning, and executing according to the appropriate IT and AV standards.
In each Regional Node location, we assigned an Internet Society staff member to serve as liaison. And, we were also in direct collaboration with the Regional Node organizers. This ensured each Regional Node received the training and support they needed.
Content Generation
The Event Design process allowed us to create the right agenda. However that still left the heavy-lifting of creating content. Our agenda was broken down into three main segments - Internet Governance, Collaborative Security, and Development. To develop the content for each section, we turned to the Content Leads within the Internet Society. Each Lead took responsibility for developing and creating the appropriate messages and content to match our agenda. This resulted in three - very different - formats. The one similarity was that each section contained an element of collaboration and interaction with our community. The interactions came in a variety of formats; but we were careful to create opportunities for the all of our participants: those in the Regional Nodes, individual viewers, and Viewing Node participants.
Additionally, we utilised our Board of Trustees as key actors in the delivery of our content. Their role was crucial in establishing the different aspects of our community - the technical community, our public policy community and our development community. And, showcasing the value that each segment brings to the whole.
Marketing and Promotion
Driving registration and promoting our event was a global effort. We utilised normal tools such as email marketing, our website, and social media to drive awareness and registrations. But, we also invoked support from our Chapters and Regional Node organizers. Their local efforts ensured that we had strong attendance at the Nodes. Additionally, Viewing Nodes organizers created their own events - driving registrations and attendance independently.
We created a promotional video (new for us) and a promotional effort that went viral in our community. Our promotional effort was called “Get in the Big Picture.” We created a simple picture frame that individuals could download, print out and use to participate. To promote this, we took picture frames to events around the globe, encouraging members to have their picture taken and “Get in the Big Picture”. To showcase all the hundreds of pictures we received through this effort, we created a short video that we played at the start of InterCommunity. Fittingly, the video closed with our CEO kicking off InterCommunity with the picture frame.
Collaboration
Collaboration is a core value at the Internet Society. In developing and building InterCommunity, we worked hard to include our stakeholders in the process. This helped us realize synergies and capitalize on opportunities. For example: we were able to negotiate with some of our Organizational Members to use their office facilities to host Regional Nodes.
Another good example was the Regional collaboration that drove the creation of pre- and post- InterCommunity conversations. These allowed for Intra-Regional meetings of the Nodes to discuss the most pressing issues. These conversations happened before and after the main sessions of InterCommunity; and they were developed and implemented independently from InterCommunity.
Executive Leadership and Buy-In
Of utmost importance in creating InterCommunity was ensuring buy-in and support from the highest levels of our organization. We achieved this by involving leadership early on in the Event Design process. Additionally, our CEO provided clear guidance to the Executive Team that this was a top priority for the organization. Through regular updates to our Board and Executive Team, we ensured that everyone was up-to-date on our progress. These updates provided clear opportunities to provide feedback on the process and direction for the event.
Challenges
- Getting as many people on the Staff team be involved in the design and execution of InterCommunity 2015
- Not being able to estimate how many participants would be in the event
- 6 months planning window to create this new event without a precedent
- Connecting many different types of users from all around the world with various languages and internet connectivity bandwidths
- Dealing with time zone differences
- Creating engaging formats to encourage connection and conversations
- Alternating technological solutions and keeping the human connectivity balanced (instead boarding planes we flew paper airplanes at the end of the event across the globe)
Achievements
InterCommunity 2015 far exceed the expectations of our community. This was in no small part due to our strategy.
Utilizing the Event Design to create our agenda and develop the event format resulted in an event that set a new benchmark for our community. By using the Internet, and the specific agenda format, our community realized that real interaction and engagement is possible - with an online event.
The technology we selected was crucial to the success of InterCommunity. Our technical community has exacting standards and high expectations. By using off-the-shelf technology, and one that provided a real-time experience we were able to create a unique, global conversation. Without the ability for everyone to connect and share, our event would have been a failure.
As with most events, Content is key. By collaborating with our Content leads, InterCommunity delivered important insights and opportunities for sharing amongst our diverse audiences. And by utilizing our Board of Trustees to help deliver our content, we established them as the leaders - the visionaries - of our community.
Marketing and promotion is not a strong suit for the Internet Society. However, stepping outside our comfort zone allowed us to shine. And, our efforts created a special opportunity to showcase the many faces in our community. In the end, our marketing efforts truly paid off. Not only did our community feel a part of the program, during InterCommunity we were trending topic (albeit briefly) worldwide on Twitter!
One of the most important goals of InterCommunity was to create a strong sense of community. The mere act of creating InterCommunity allowed us innumerable opportunities to collaborate: with organisation members; with Chapters; with Regional Node organizers; intra- regionally; internally across teams. It was exciting to see our community join forces to create InterCommunity.
2549 participants of which 1964* Note that in the blog post above, the numbers cited were prior to our final review. The numbers presented here are accurate. During the event, the hashtag #icomm15 was “on fire” and became a trending topic Globally on Twitter and # 1 trending topic in a number of participating countries.
Targets & Statistics
“From the farthest corner of the earth, Auckland, New Zealand, we successfully harnessed the Internet’s power. We connected cities from Tunis, Nairobi and San Salvador to Amsterdam, New York and Ottawa, [...] Just a few years ago, it would have been virtually unthinkable to use Internet technology in this way, but with the help of a robust network in a New Zealand hotel ballroom and using widely available, affordable applications, we were able to provide numerous ways to connect and communicate between the nodes and from anywhere with a browser. Indeed, we reasserted the agility of the Internet in supporting this kind of interactivity and extent of global engagement. In this sense, the Internet itself is it’s own greatest champion.” Kathryn Brown, president and CEO of the Internet Society.
InterCommunity had registrations from 142 countries around the world, we hosted over 1,600 participants in the global sessions including over 1,000 online viewers (many more in viewing nodes) and 2,482 chat messages across both global sessions. InterCommunity has showcased hot Internet can be used in order to connect, communicate and collaborate.
What would we do differently?
The first edition was a big audacious new approach to connecting the Internet Society communities on the Internet for the Internet. It has proven to work but it takes a “village” to pull off a collaborative event of this nature. For future editions we know some things will not change (like the time zones) and the technology will evolve. We are already working on the 2016 edition and planning celebrations for the 2017 edition which will coincide with the Internet Society 25th anniversary. We will keep focusing on the user, the member, the contributors and design with the end in mind. Ultimately we will not be speaking about hybrid meetings anymore in the future but all meetings will include the use of the Internet and its functionality. Internet Society can experiment to lead the way so we can learn and share these experiences for everyone to benefit from.
Feedback & Testimonials
@amunya “#icomm15 proud to be part of this great event. So much to learn and share”
ISOC Board of Trustees member
@srajukanumuri “#icomm15 thank you all . one internet one world one internet society with human knowledge net works to connect life on mother earth.”
Participants / Contributor
