ESGE Days 2023 | The CCD’s largest post-COVID event
The European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) held their annual event, ESGE Days 2023 at The CCD. This event is one of the largest post-COVID events held at The CCD as well as being one of the larger events since the opening of the building.
Delegates: 2852
Client: The European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy
Event: ESGE Days 2023
Type: International Association
Date: April 20 - April 22 2023
Days: 3
Brief
The European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) sought to hold their annual event, ESGE Days 2023 at The Convention Centre Dublin. This event brings together experts in the field of gastrointestinal endoscopy to learn, teach and demonstrate innovations and techniques through discussions and lectures. The event consisted of an exhibition, panel discussions, plenary sessions, lectures and hands-on medical training sessions for over 2,800 national and international delegates over the course of a three-day event.
This event is one of the largest post-COVID events held at The CCD as well as being one of the larger events since the opening of the building. Given the substantial number of attendees and the diversity of occupations within different rooms, managing the flow of delegates through the building further added to the complexity of room allocation, especially with the concurrent hands-on training sessions.
Solution
To address the challenges that come with a complex event of this size, extensive planning was put in place, with the initial planning meeting taking place 12 months out. The client made use of The CCD’s virtual reality planning experience, and the ESGE event manager, Bridget Barbieri remarked ‘’Phil’s virtual venue tool is unique and fantastic and allowed us to host a very successful virtual industry site visit’’. Alive site visit was then conducted, and two months before the event date, ESGE and The CCD’s Event Manager, Technical Production Manager and Hospitality Manager attended weekly meetings to ensure that all bases were covered. This unusual number of planning meetings was for peace-of-mind of the organisers but was also well received by The CCD as there was a technical heavy component to the planning.
The magnitude and scope of this event posed several challenges, which The CCD team rose to. The exhibition comprised of over 60 intricate stand builds in the Forum, many of which required technical skills to build. The build of the exhibits allowed for two days, with an additional day of derigging at the end, which extended the event into six days on-site. Additional technical staff were brought onto the team where necessary, along with more exhibition managers, meaning there were a lot of eyes on the project.
The client’s on-site training session would need to facilitate 200-300 delegates in each session, which took place every two hours over the three-day event. Additionally, the training sessions necessitated the utilisation of synthetic cadavers, which occupied significant space. In a smaller space, these could have hindered the learning and overall experience of the delegates. The Event Manager offered a larger room for this training, increasing the comfort and enhancing the experience for delegates.
Regarding ESGE’s sustainable initiative, Green Days, and their goal of offsetting their carbon footprint, The CCD’s Head of Events, Declan Connolly, showcased the GrownForest program whereby ESGE was able to collaborate with and bring in over 40 local trees to promote this project. Contributing to the client’s sustainability plan, The CCD ‘s digital signage department created create a bespoke digital signage concept, helping the client to reduce the amount of printed signage needed.
Results
Throughout the extensive planning, the Events team was able to manage the flow of delegates through the building, ensuring there were enough staff to manage this flow in a safe and efficient manner. ‘’Michael from Catering assisted greatly in providing good ideas as to how to cater for the various aspects of our event, even recommending getting delegates into the exhibition hall by using the kitchens at the back to help with the flow’’, commented Bridget. Another notable outcome of the planning process was the identification of and solution to the challenge related to the hands-on medical training sessions requiring more space than anticipated. Offering a larger space to the client for this training improved comfort levels and the overall learning experience, providing a much more pleasant guest experience.
Overall, the event brought together 260 national and 2592 international delegates through The CCD doors. The client was very happy with the event’s success, which is evidenced in their feedback.
Phil’s virtual venue tool is unique and fantastic and allowed us to host a very successful virtual industry site visit. Michael from Catering assisted greatly in providing good ideas as to how to cater for the various aspects of our event, such as organising the flow of delegates into the exhibition hall by using the kitchens at the back. Our sustainability plan ‘’Green Days’’ is very important to us. Declan helped us realise our goal of offsetting our carbon footprint at the CCD and showcasing the GrownForest project with whom we collaborated, resulting in us planting almost 600 indigenous trees on protected land. We were also able to work closely with the digital signage department to create a bespoke solution, reducing the amount of printed signage we needed. Bridget Barbieri, Event Manager