A pharmaceutical conference was originally planned as an in-person event. When COVID made that impossible, the client needed more than a set of video links. VI built a complete virtual venue in 6Connex for 1,000 attendees — five parallel Zoom tracks, pre-assigned breakouts, Spatial Chat networking and dedicated tech support in every session room.
Moving a physical conference into a virtual format is not simply a matter of replacing rooms with video calls. A conference has a structure. There are plenary sessions, parallel breakouts, networking moments and the feeling of being in the same place at the same time. A list of Zoom links cannot recreate that on its own.
The challenge was to preserve as much of the original event experience as possible for an audience of 1,000 people who had expected to attend in person. VI chose 6Connex as the virtual venue platform. Attendees entered a digital lobby, moved between rooms and experienced the event as a structured virtual conference rather than a sequence of separate video streams.
The virtual event setup combined three platforms, each with a clear role. 6Connex provided the virtual venue — a lobby, session rooms and a clear navigation structure for attendees. Zoom Meetings handled the live sessions. Each track ran through Zoom, with the meeting setup configured and tested before the event. The sessions ran as Meetings, not Webinars. This allowed participants to turn on cameras, interact directly and feel more present in the room.
Spatial Chat provided the networking layer. Attendees could move through a virtual space, join smaller groups and have informal conversations between sessions. Instead of sitting in one large call, people could gather in smaller circles — much like they would at a coffee station during a physical conference.
This networking element became one of the strongest parts of the event. It gave attendees a way to meet and speak with others without the stiffness of a formal video call.
With five parallel tracks running at the same time, attendees needed a clear path through the event before the live days began. The registration process included breakout selection. Attendees indicated their session preferences during sign-up. VI assigned participants to the relevant breakout sessions and prepared the technical structure around those choices.
On the day of the event, attendees did not need to decide where to go under time pressure. Their sessions were confirmed, their rooms were ready and the virtual venue guided them through the programme. A multi-track virtual event can quickly become confusing if the structure is unclear. Pre-assignment helped reduce friction and made the conference easier to follow.
Running five parallel Zoom tracks across a multi-day conference creates a different kind of risk. A speaker might have trouble sharing their screen. Audio may need to be fixed quickly. A late participant may need to be admitted without interrupting the session. Questions and handovers need to be managed in real time.
VI staffed every session room with dedicated technical support. Speakers did not have to manage Zoom while presenting. A VI team member handled the technical layer in the background. This allowed speakers to focus on their content. It also gave the client confidence that issues could be handled immediately in any room, not only in the main session.
Speaker preparation was a key part of the project. Before the live conference, every presenter was briefed on the technical setup. They knew how their session would run, what to expect from Zoom, how interaction would work and who to contact with questions.
No speaker entered the live event without having tested the environment. This reduced stress, avoided last-minute surprises and made the sessions feel more professional. For a virtual pharma conference with multiple parallel tracks, this preparation mattered as much as the platform setup itself. The technology only works well when the people using it feel comfortable.
VI's involvement covered the full virtual event setup, not only the live production days. The scope included building and configuring the 6Connex virtual venue, setting up the Zoom Meeting architecture, managing registration and breakout assignments, briefing speakers, staffing all live session rooms and coordinating the Spatial Chat networking environment.
The client focused on content, speakers and programme design. VI managed the virtual conference platform, the technical structure and the live event operations needed to deliver the event at scale.
The event worked because it was treated as a conference, not as a webinar replacement. Attendees had a virtual venue to enter, rooms to move between, networking spaces to use and live sessions that supported interaction. Speakers were prepared and supported. Every session had technical coverage.
The combination of 6Connex, Zoom Meetings, Spatial Chat and dedicated VI support gave the client a virtual conference setup that could handle 1,000 attendees and five parallel tracks without losing the structure of the original physical event. The result was a digital experience that felt more like attending a conference than watching a long series of online presentations.
Whether you are running a single-track webinar or a multi-day virtual conference with parallel sessions, we handle the platform setup, speaker preparation and live production so your team can focus on the programme.
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