Satellite symposia are an integral part of modern medical conferences, providing healthcare professionals with vital opportunities to take part in small group discussions specifically designed to meet their continuing medical education needs. They are a chance for physicians to meet and hear from other professionals in their therapy area including, if they are lucky, a renowned national or international KOL in the field.
Having planned and delivered a number of successful satellite symposia over the last few years, one of the questions Corpus is asked most often by our clients is whether they should run the event live, pre-recorded, or simu-live (a mix of pre-recorded and live elements).
In addition to the benefits of in-person meetings, online satellite symposia also increase accessibility, giving delegates that are unable to attend the conference in person an opportunity still to take part and obtain key new information pertaining to their practice.
Why consider pre-recorded presentations?
Many people simply prefer the idea of a presentation being delivered live – but is there any real benefit?
The answer most often lies in what your goals are as the meeting organiser. Are you looking for an interactive meeting, with back-and-forth conversation between participants and speakers? Live meetings invariably lend themselves to two-way, interactive sessions, while if your goal is to have global experts share knowledge via a more didactic presentation, then pre-recording may be the simplest way to go.
One big benefit of pre-recorded presentations is the flexibility they allow. Allocating a 60 to 90-minute recording slot for a 30-minute presentation allows for multiple takes and a polished end product. Tweaks can also be made to things like the speaker’s background, audio, video and lighting setup, before the recording begins.
How to get the most out of your recording
There are several options to consider when thinking about pre-recording. PowerPoint has its own recording function and at first glance seems to be an easy option, but it requires the speaker to be technologically savvy and there are limited editing options available in post-production. If a highly customised, branded video is the end goal, other options may be better.
Recording in person, in a studio, undoubtedly provides the highest quality output. Being able to record in 4K in a dedicated recording studio is the only real solution if ultra-high video quality is necessary. However, this option comes at much higher cost, both financially and in relation to the speaker’s time, than recording remotely.
A dedicated online meeting provider such as The Corpus can bridge the gap between basic, inflexible recordings on PowerPoint and highly-polished, incredibly expensive studio recordings. The Corpus enables speakers to record their presentation from the comfort of their home or office. Speakers and organisers are provided with full guidance on how to get the most out of their recording, with The Corpus offering both technical and production support. Additionally, our highly customisable online meeting platform is designed to show high fidelity slide content and speaker video.
Any dedicated provider worth their salt will allow you to pass on the full responsibility of planning and executing the recording. This is certainly the case at The Corpus; additionally, we will also liaise with the congress organisers on your behalf, confirming file format, timelines, organise timings on the day of the meeting and more.
The Corpus are experienced providers of pre-recorded speaker presentations for use at satellite symposia. We have been leveraging our knowledge to help our partners produce outstanding content during the pandemic and will continue doing so into the future. For more information about our capabilities, get in touch with our team on +44 (0)207 428 2903, visit our website, or email: communications@the-corpus.com for more information.
As the world adapts to a hybrid lifestyle, how can you make the most of the technology on offer to complement your satellite symposia? These are our top tips for incorporating pre-recorded elements into your meeting.
