UNCTAD 15
UNCTAD 15: A GLOBAL HYBRID SUMMIT
Background
UNCTAD’s ministerial conference takes place every four years. The conference is a subsidiary organ of the United Nations General Assembly.
The 15th session of the UNCTAD quadrennial ministerial conference (UNCTAD15) was a hybrid event held, with virtual attendees and members in Barbados and Geneva from 3rd to 7th October 2021, with pre-conference events running online from April 2021.
The conference is the highest decision-making body of UNCTAD at which member states assess current trade and development issues and formulate global policy responses. It also sets the organization’s work priorities for the next four years.
The UNCTAD15 conference seeks a concrete decade of action in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals focused on reducing inequality and vulnerability by ensuring trade works for all and that development remains high on the global agenda. The theme, “From inequality and vulnerability to prosperity for all”, is a clarion call to work to fix the fractures across the world to build prosperity for all.
Challenge
The global health environment provided numerous challenges for in person attendance of key global stakeholders, forcing organisers to create a truly hybrid event across two physical locations in Barbados, and (for the first time) needing to open the UN Palais des Nations in Geneva to an outside event organisation.
In addition, the delegate list included government ministers and world leaders, 200 remote speakers, and approximately 40 speakers per location including; UN Secretary-General António Guterres, alongside Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan.
UNCTAD for the first time, selected “A vendor who had already worked with international organisations”. accessing wtv.’s experience across the UN, World Bank and Global Governments with quickly established relevant credentials.
The decision to run a hybrid event was taken at short notice, creating multiple challenges for wtv.’s production team.
Strategy
We set out to establish a televisual production across 2 locations, and provide a gathering place for worldwide inclusion
wtv. facilitated this strategy through event production,
bespoke registration, content creation, live streaming, virtual hosting and platform deployment across the whole project. The Government of Barbados and their production team in Bridgetown plugged into the direction and supported the event seamlessly.
The Summit Solution
Live production services, taking responsibility to seamlessly connect the 2 locations and the remote presenters, to a broadcast level for the main events, with a director and full gallery installed at the Palais as the command and control. wtv. managed the creative production elements, with extensive video content creation, animated branded event clips, live interpretation, and at the Palais, full onsite audio visual setup was conducted in close and detailed liaison with UNOG, who’s support included connectivity, interpreter management amongst other things.
Barbados contributed extensive content to give the event true Caribbean content and flavour.
An EVENTSTUDIO hybrid platform where all the events forums and debates were played into the virtual auditoriums, with a resources and event materials area, schedules, engagement with attendees through Q and A, live social media wall, press area (including virtual bilateral rooms), pre-recorded and captured speaker VOD, helpdesk, networking area as a virtual beach cafe, exhibition booths, registration expertise including 3 levels of accreditation of attendees which controlled the content they accessed, and all within a bespoke designed immersive environment.
To aid solving rolling live production challenges, wtv. deployed additional key staff from London to bolster our Geneva team’s presence.
Results
200 in person attendees in 2 locations (Barbados and UN HQ in Geneva the ‘Palais de Nations’).
5000 virtual attendees
UNCTAD’s 195 member states adopted the Bridgetown Covenant, which outlines a roadmap for transforming economies through economic diversification; addressing unsustainable debt burdens in developing countries; making economies more sustainable and resilient; improving how development is financed; and reimaging how multilateralism will function in the future.
The experience of UNCTAD15 has fed into UNOG’s Conferencing Today and Tomorrow - 2 review of future needs for the UN:
