GlaxoSmithKline, Cubist Media Group Partner to Produce Virtual Global Leadership Forum

Business case to ‘stay home’ results in cost savings, reduced carbon footprint & expanded communication opportunities.

Philadelphia, PA – February 16, 2010 – With today's challenging economy and the business mandate to address sustainability, companies everywhere are working hard to do more with less, reduce travel costs, and address carbon emission issues. Recently, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) touched on each of these initiatives by replacing a live meeting with a virtual conference.

Produced by Philadelphia-based Cubist Media Group, the 2009 Global Leadership Forum was originally slated as a live event for GSK’s top 1,000 senior leaders. With the conference date approaching, the impact of the H1N1 flu became a consideration for the global healthcare and vaccine provider, and the event was re-conceived as a virtual meeting. As planning for the virtual event began, it became evident that the audience, once limited by the size of the original space for the meeting, could be expanded to include additional leadership tiers. In an afternoon, the target audience grew from 1,000 to 6,000. The 2009 conference was off to a good start, and a global virtual meeting, the first for GSK, was born.

"We wanted to ensure our virtual conference experience was as compelling as a live meeting would have been," says Elaine Macfarlane, senior vice president, Global Internal Communications, GlaxoSmithKline. That meant we had to have a virtual product that would deliver the same elements, from content to networking opportunities. Our relationship with Cubist is such that we knew they would understand our vision and be able to deliver on it."

Cubist developed a Flash-based application to host the virtual meeting, comprising both live and on-demand plenary sessions, interactive workshops and exhibits. Once registered, attendees had access to the atrium lobby where a 'live' host presented a functional overview of the conference site. With the lobby as a starting point, all meeting events were accessible: 15 plenary sessions, seven workshops, eight exhibits, discussion boards for each session, a resource center for downloads to support the events, a course catalog, and "myConference," a tool developed to help delegates schedule their events. In all, Cubist worked with GSK to deliver more than 13 hours of international content for the meeting. "Our goal was to deliver the same content delegates would have received at the live meeting, through an engaging and user-friendly virtual environment," says John Ballentyne, president, Cubist Media Group.

By all measures, the virtual conference is a success. The majority of the feedback received from the delegates was positive, with many remarking they especially favored the self-paced approach to accessing the content, which was available over eight weeks.

From a financial standpoint, the savings are significant. The total cost for producing the virtual meeting was less than one-tenth the original projected budget for the live event, and at the same time, reached an audience nearly 500 percent larger. Net result, the per attendee cost was reduced by a remarkable 98 percent.

But the savings will not stop with the end of the meeting. During the broadcast of the conference closing speech, GlaxoSmithKine CEO Andrew Witty announced that the contents of the meeting were now available on-line to GSK’s entire global workforce, distributing the content and messages to the largest possible audience within the organization.

From an environmental perspective, the meeting's metrics are also very positive. Considering only the airline flights not taken by the original 1000 delegates to the live meeting, the initial emission savings is in excess of 7.6 million kilograms of carbon. The savings, however, expand far beyond that estimate when factors such as rental cars, restaurant meals, hotel rooms and linens, and traditional meeting printing costs are considered.

Will the virtual meetings like this replace traditional meetings? According to Ballentyne, you have to know your objectives. "In some cases, no, nothing can replace the larger-than-life impact of a dramatic live event or the intimacy found in a face-to-face exchange. On the other hand, given the extent and power of computers and fast global networks, coupled with the universal need to reduce costs, virtual meetings are, today, both a viable alternative to live meetings and a key component of hybrid events. With proper planning and realistic goals, they are a cost-effective and environmentally enlightened tool for communicators and meeting planners."