Providing fresh inspiration to young, hungry entrepreneurs - 100% virtually

Introduction

Emax is where leading young entrepreneurs meet to get fresh inspiration, share knowledge and expand their network. The goal is to strengthen participant self-esteem, attitudes and approaches to entrepreneurship at an early stage of life, which also improves the long-term development of European countries.

Participants here gain a head-start in the business world by growing their contact network, gaining critical insights into entrepreneurial opportunities, and becoming motivated enough to take the risk and dare to invest in their passion.

The Emax team, determined to bring that same experience to their audience no matter what, plunged into the digital realm for their EMAX 2020, EMAX Norway and BE the future events.

Challenge

No surprise here – the Emax team needed to go virtual. They’ve hosted a variety of events in the Nordics and even Kenya, but those were, naturally, all in-person and live.

So how could they create an inspiring experience where young entrepreneurs could grow their network from behind a screen?

“When COVID-19 hit us, we were all really insecure of how we could create our highly appreciated event in a digital setting. To be honest, internally we discussed that ‘good enough’ is okay this year. We always receive high scores in our evaluation, and we didn’t believe that they would be as high with a digital event," says Jonathan Rudman, CEO of Emax.

Going virtual can feel constraining. It lacks the elegance and grandiose of a live experience. Plus, when you build your event around growing your audiences’ network, the challenges can seem unsurmountable.

After all, how can attendees possibly forge real, relevant connections from behind a screen?

Adding to that, the team wondered if it was possible to do it on their own, and take their platform of choice into their own hands and learn it from scratch.

However, after some deliberation, the Emax team decided to use Brella, the world’s leading virtual event platform, to host their virtual events, ensuring they lived up to their mission to both spark and support entreprenership in Sweden.

Solution

Starting with their Emax 2020 Sweden event, Brella has quickly become an essential part of the team's event toolkit.

However, it is thanks to the team's spirit, dedication and drive that their events consistently smash records - both Brella's and their own.

At their most recent event, Emax Sweden 2021, they received an incredibly high satisfaction rate of 5.4/6, and hosted 779 1:1 meetings between young entrepreneurs. What's more, they have an average score of 41.2 engagement per user.

To put that in context, the average across all Brella events is 16 - 2x less than their engagement!

What does this average engagement per user score mean exactly? We keep this number in our admin panel as an overview of how engaged your users are at the event. It takes many facets into consideration, including platform usage time, meeting requests, chat messages sent, and much more.

Virtual events are a true learning experience for everyone involved - the attendees, your team, and us as well. But the Emax team was pleasantly surprised after their first virtual event.

“We received the same score as we get from our physical events and, actually, a higher score in some important parts of our event. And what surprised us most was a higher score of networking virtually than when people are in the same room. The score of 5.45 in networking activities is .4 higher than normal and is directly correlated to our use of Brella."

"Networking is crucial for a successful event. The inspiration and knowledge gathered needs to be shared and reflected with others to really learn and improve."

And while this may not be surprising, these highly engaged attendees also loved the event - and Brella. Here is some of the attendee feedback from their past events:

“To make contacts with new people, as I have done at Emax, was totally new for me. You have a special environment here.”

"Everything worked well, and I loved the way the platform works."

"I am so happy about this event and about Brella; it was so organized. I have learned a lot and can't wait for the future meetings!"

"The schedule was simple to navigate and Brella in general was very easy to use."

“I had it totally wrong. I thought that it would be boring and I would not get to know anyone with the digital event. It was totally the opposite!”

Using Brella as an attendee is simple and easy. Attendees love the user-friendly interface and clean design.

The team at Emax was thoroughly surprised with their success and their attendee perception of their event – and also with how simple the platform was to use and update.

“We used the platform in a self-service mode and that was really easy for us. With several event managers we set up the event and information within Brella in an easy and fast way. It was also simple to make changes, which always appear when you arrange events.”

The last thing you need in a crisis is a complicated admin panel - our admin tool easy to use, by as many event managers as your team needs. And our Help Center is kept up-to-date with the recent updates, tips and tricks to help you manage your event efficiently.

"And what surprised us most was a higher score of networking virtually than when people are in the same room."

Emax is truly living up to their mission of connecting leading young entrepreneurs to further their development and expand their network. These bright minds are the future of business and their local economies, but often need that little boost to bring their idea to life. So it's essential for Emax to host effective events that not only spark entrepreneurship, but also support it.

A solid, stable event platform can help you connect your audience together in an engaging way, no matter where they are. Brella is perfect for virtual, physical and hybrid events, and you can get up and running in no time at all.

Contact our team for a demo and we'll show you how to set up and manage your event in a quick and simple fashion.