The Biochemical Society: progressing science

About The Society

Since it was founded in 1911, The Biochemical Society has been dedicated to creating a community of scientists to support the advancement of biochemistry and molecular bioscience. Connections, networking and information sharing are fundamental to the success of the organisation and creating its 7000 strong membership community. In bringing together its membership at events, it ensures that the vital work of its members is supported and the discipline of molecular bioscience advanced.

BeThere Global have been supporting the Society with hybrid and online event management for over 10 years, and the partnership has flourished and developed in response to the Society’s evolving needs and the dynamic nature of the events landscape for an organisation with a growing membership.

Here is the story so far…

First, there were in-person events

The Biochemical Society’s event calendar is as extensive as it is varied with webinars, training days, scientific meetings and large conferences spanning the calendar year. Each event showcases new research and high value content which is crucial to gaining and retaining members. However, there was an issue. These events were organised around insightful, innovative presentations from leading experts and then … it was over! All that content became nothing more than memories and scribbles in delegate notebooks.

In 2013, the Society wanted to do more. Recognizing the full strategic, educational and commercial value of their event portfolio content was yet to be fully explored, they came to BeThere Global for a solution to untap this ‘gold mine’ of content.

Our solution was simple and budget friendly. With our compact, easily transported equipment, we provided high-definition recordings of the Society’s academic conferences. Now attendees could revisit sessions they found particularly informative or missed due to schedule conflicts as an online event. They could take their time to review the content and reinforce their learning, boosting the benefits of Society membership considerably.

Extending the reach of their content beyond the confines of the conference room, gave members enhanced learning opportunities, boosting the Society’s membership offer.

The journey to virtual

When the pandemic hit, the Biochemical Society did not hesitate to turn to BeThere Global to take their events online. Our extensive experience of live streaming, technical know-how and flexible online platform stood us apart from the other event agencies that began crowding the market. They knew they were in safe hands with us, and we were thrilled to take them on the next step of their journey.

The Society wanted to ensure that delegates had the same benefits attending online events as they would face-to-face, and a key part of that experience was the opportunity to review academic posters. Presentation of new research through this format, enables discussion, exposure to the wider community and often sparks vital connections. We were excited to be given the challenge to bring the academic poster experience online, because we agree with the Society; online events should be every bit as rewarding as attending physically.

Our online event management team got to work and created a clean, easy to use poster module, fully integrated into our own online events platform. We added additional functionality, allowing poster authors the opportunity to provide an audio overview of their poster along with the poster PDF. They even have the option to add a video. Poster’s are accessed through a searchable index and are displayed at extremely high resolution with a zoom facility allowing even the most complex graphics and dense text to be explored in perfect clarity. Viewers are also able to interact with the poster authors through live chat or email. Over a series of online conferences we have now showcased thousands of online posters to the Society’s members.

Into the hybrid world

With venues opening up again, the Society wanted to build on the great success of their virtual offering and so took a confident pivot into the world of hybrid events.

BeThere Global is proud to now be the hybrid events provider for the Biochemical Society. Our teams go to leading universities and venues throughout the UK to record, live stream and deliver outstanding content to online members. The Society’s hybrid events allow an increased reach to an online audience while at the same time allowing remote speakers to participate from wherever they may be. We handle all technical elements ensuring a seamless operation. As with our virtual events, our online hybrid event services provide the same flexible features to enable delegate engagement as well as the hugely successful online poster module.

By embracing hybrid the Society maximises and blends the advantages of in-person events with the flexibility and accessibility of virtual.