450+ delegates. Three days. Two venues. One shared learning experience.
Delivering successful hybrid event production for medical associations increasingly requires far more than simply live streaming a lecture theatre.
International medical associations face a growing challenge. Members expect to attend conferences from anywhere in the world without compromising the educational experience. At the same time, organisers need to deliver events that feel just as engaging for online delegates as they do for those sitting in the room.
ISAPS Body Masters 2026 demonstrated exactly what’s possible.
When the annual event headed to Barcelona in July, approximately 250 plastic surgeons attended in person while around 200 more joined online from across the globe.
Over three days, delegates experienced expert lectures, panel discussions and one of the most powerful surgical educational tools available – live cadaver surgery.
BeThere Global was proud to support the hybrid event production for this international medical association, connecting two venues and a worldwide online audience into one shared learning experience. The event demonstrated how hybrid education continues to transform specialist medical training, making world-class surgical education accessible to more clinicians than ever before.
Hybrid Event Production for Medical Associations – The challenge
Running an event like Body Masters involves far more than placing cameras in an operating theatre.
There are effectively two conferences happening simultaneously:
- a cadaver laboratory on one side of Barcelona
- a lecture theatre at the InterContinental Barcelona
And a worldwide online audience expecting the same high-quality educational experience as those sitting in the room.
Every delegate needs to feel connected to what’s happening, regardless of whether they’re seated in the conference hall or watching from thousands of miles away.
That means the technology has one simple job: become invisible.
Success in delivering hybrid events for medical associations isn’t measured by the complexity of the production. It’s measured by whether every delegate, wherever they happen to be, feels fully involved in the event.
Why live surgery still matters
There is something uniquely valuable about watching an experienced surgeon perform a procedure in real time.
Unlike carefully edited teaching videos, delegates witness every decision, every discussion and every unexpected moment. Faculty explain not only what they are doing, but why, allowing participants to understand surgical judgement as well as technique.
Questions can be asked as procedures unfold, creating a level of interaction that is difficult to replicate in any other educational format.
It’s the next best thing to standing beside the operating table.
Extending access through hybrid delivery
Not every surgeon is able to travel internationally for specialist education.
Hybrid delivery removes barriers.
Instead of limiting participation to those able to attend in person, specialists from around the world can learn, alongside colleagues in Barcelona, without leaving their own hospitals or practices.
Remote delegates aren’t simply watching recordings after the event. They’re participating live, asking questions, joining discussions and sharing the same educational experience as those in the conference hall.
The result is broader access to expert knowledge without compromising the quality of the learning experience.
This is one of the reasons hybrid events have become such an important part of continuing education for medical associations. They extend the reach of specialist teaching while maintaining the interaction, immediacy and collaborative learning that delegates expect from an international conference.
Behind the scenes
Delivering that experience required careful coordination between two venues located on opposite sides of Barcelona.
While delegates inside the InterContinental concentrated on the day’s lectures and live surgical broadcasts, the city itself was buzzing. Barcelona was hosting the Grand Départ of the 2026 Tour de France, and as the riders swept through the streets nearby, bursts of cheering from thousands of spectators occasionally drifted into the conference hall. It was a reminder that while one world-class event was unfolding outside, another was taking place inside – bringing together surgeons from across the globe to share knowledge that will ultimately benefit patients worldwide.
Behind the scenes, our hybrid event production team combined:
- live surgical feeds from the cadaver laboratory
- presentations from the conference venue
- audience questions
- multiple camera angles
- live production switching between locations
- reliable worldwide streaming
- simultaneous recording of every session for on-demand viewing.
As with any successful hybrid conference production, much of the work happened long before the first delegate arrived. Careful planning, technical rehearsals and close coordination between venues ensured presenters could concentrate on teaching while delegates simply concentrated on learning.
When everything works as it should, delegates barely notice the technology.
They simply concentrate on learning.
That’s exactly how it should be.
Measuring success
The true measure of any educational event isn’t the production – it’s the educational outcome.
Across Body Masters, remote delegates submitted more than 350 individual session evaluations, providing valuable feedback on every aspect of the programme.
The results were extremely encouraging:
- 79% awarded the highest possible score for speaker quality.
- 77% gave the maximum rating for overall session quality.
- 73% gave the highest score for learning value.
- 72% awarded full marks for opportunities to ask questions.
- 71% said they could directly apply what they had learnt in their own clinical practice.
Those figures reinforce something we’ve always believed.
When the technology is reliable, intuitive and unobtrusive, it disappears into the background, allowing the educational experience to take centre stage.
Looking ahead
Earlier this year we supported ISAPS Face Masters in St Louis and Body Masters in Barcelona has built on that success.
It’s encouraging to see organisations such as ISAPS continuing to invest in educational formats that genuinely expand access while preserving the quality and immediacy of face-to-face surgical teaching. With further Masters hybrid event productions already planned for 2027, online delivery is becoming an established part of the Society’s educational programme.
For professional bodies and international medical associations, that reflects a broader trend. Increasingly, organisations are recognising that well-produced hybrid events don’t replace face-to-face conferences. They extend them, allowing more members to participate, learn and contribute wherever they are in the world.
At BeThere Global, we’re proud to play a small part in helping expert medical knowledge reach surgeons wherever they are in the world.
The technology is important.
But ultimately, it’s what that technology enables that’s really worth talking about.
Event at a Glance
Event: ISAPS Body Masters 2026
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Duration: Three days
Delegates: 450+
In-person attendance: Approximately 250 plastic surgeons
Online attendance: Around 200 delegates from across the world
Venues: Cadaver laboratory and InterContinental Barcelona
Production: Multi-venue hybrid event production with worldwide live streaming
Content: Live cadaver surgery, keynote presentations, panel discussions and interactive Q&A
Legacy: Every session recorded for on-demand viewing
