Every so often, you receive a piece of feedback that means rather more than the person sending it might realise.
Following a recent international medical education webinar, we received a lovely email from one of the speakers, Prof. Aris Papageorghiou.
Aris is a leading figure in fetal medicine and obstetric ultrasound, well known to clinicians and sonographers around the world through his research, his longstanding involvement with ISUOG and his passion for education, including co-founding scan.academy and contributing to the Voluson Virtual Academy.
I’ve lost count of how many events we’ve produced over the years with Aris among the speakers. On this occasion, he decided to join on a second device to experience the event as a delegate as well as a presenter.
His verdict?
“The whole thing is a dream of clarity and functionality.”
I have to say, that made my day.
Not simply because it was such a generous compliment, but because those few words captured something we’ve been working towards at BeThere Global for almost 18 years.
Making the complex feel simple
Long before BeThere Global was established in 2008, I’d spent years producing live, in-person events, always with the same underlying ambition: to communicate clearly, engage audiences and make the experience as effective and enjoyable as possible.
When we began developing our own virtual event platform, the technology was different, but the ambition was much the same – to make it as easy as possible for people to actively participate in events online.
The technology has changed enormously since then. So have audience expectations, the ways people interact online and the possibilities for bringing people together across the world.
But that original ambition hasn’t really changed.
We want delegates to arrive at an event and immediately feel comfortable. To find what they’re looking for, follow the programme, engage with speakers and make the most of the experience – without having to think about the technology making it all possible.
Of course, achieving that apparent simplicity is anything but simple.
Bringing the best tools together
Over the years, we’ve continually refined our platform, incorporating new capabilities and technologies as they become available.
Today, that includes integrating tools such as Slido, which enables delegates to ask questions and participate in polls, and Wordly, which provides AI-powered translation to help make events more accessible to international audiences.
These are powerful technologies in their own right. But our focus is on how they work together as part of the overall delegate experience.
It’s not about adding features for the sake of it. It’s about making it easier for people to participate, wherever they are in the world.
And when everything works as it should, much of that complexity becomes invisible.
Engagement is what really matters
There was another part of Aris’s email that I particularly appreciated.
He commented on the number of compliments received following the webinar, but also on the depth of the questions coming from delegates – a reflection of just how engaged the audience had been.
For an educational event, that’s surely one of the most encouraging measures of success.
Attendance figures matter, of course. But what really counts is whether people are listening, learning, questioning and contributing.
Great speakers and compelling content are fundamental to that. Our job is to provide the environment that allows those things to flourish.
Still learning, still improving
After nearly 18 years and hundreds of online events, we’re certainly not finished refining what we do.
There will always be new technologies to explore, new challenges to solve and better ways to help people connect.
But it’s reassuring to know that the principles we’ve always believed in – clear communication, thoughtful production and genuine audience engagement – are just as relevant today.
And when someone who has experienced an event from both sides describes the result as “a dream of clarity and functionality”, it’s a rather lovely reminder of why we put so much effort into getting the details right.
Thank you for that reminder, Aris.
