CASE STUDY: PIVOTING TO VIRTUAL

In July 2020, TSES designed and delivered a six-hour virtual, multi-speaker investment forum, with a cultural performance live from Vienna as a beautiful finale. The Forum was hosted by BMG Financial Group, a Saudi investment bank, who has held their Summer Retreat, of which the Forum forms part, in the UK for almost a quarter of a century. 35 high-level government and private sector speakers, from more than 10 countries, talked about investment opportunities in Saudi Arabia. 

This year, the Forum was designed for a virtual delivery, and 400+ delegates joined from around the world for strategic discussions about new development funds and investment opportunities across a number of industries, including tourism, banking, insurance and healthcare. 

Speakers included H.R.H. Abdullah bin Khalid bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Austria and non-resident ambassador to Slovakia and Slovenia, H.E. Bandar Alkhorayef, Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources, Stephen Groff, Governor of the Saudi National Development Fund, and Dr. Frank Appel, CEO, Deutsche Post DHL Group. 

Delivered on a professional virtual event platform with TV-platform production functionalities and VIP speaker hosting, the forum offered key information from Saudi officials about newly launched development funds, the new mining law, sustainable investing and entrepreneurship.

The programme was optimised for a virtual delivery, and the speaker support and greeting included personalised tech rehearsals and Green Rooms per session with a dedicated Stage Manager.

With delegate and a speaker numbers close to three times what was feasible for previous, in-person editions, the forum focused on the silver linings of virtual events: ability to reach a bigger audience and welcome very senior speakers due to the simple and time-efficient access to the virtual event as opposed to having to travel to a physical event. 

Also, the forum lives on as it can can be watched in replay, allowing the client to share the message well beyond the dates of the event, whilst continuing to create new contacts and build relationships.