Meetings are at the core of human interaction, governance, and diplomatic practice. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the use of technology to organise meetings online. A hybrid format, which combines face-to-face with online meetings, is emerging.
ConfTech's activities are centered around five pillars - technology, security, moderation, behvariour, diplomacy - as analysed during Diplo's landmark conference on 'Future of Meetings'.
ConfTech achieves its mission through five areas of work:
Contributions from Switzerland and Finland, and operational support by the Ford Foundation, helped make the ConfTech a reality. Get in touch with us at conftech@diplomacy.edu
Latest updates
17 May: Microsoft has launched the personal version of Microsoft Teams. The service is now available for free personal use amongst family and friends and is almost identical to the Microsoft Teams for businesses.
15 May: A new study showed that talking on video conferencing services such as Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic has helped older people avoid the symptoms of dementia.
10 May: Microsoft Teams will soon have a new PowerPoint Live feature that will allow users to start their presentations directly in a Teams meeting, without having to share their screens.
Training
Online meetings and conferences have become a necessity for most organisations. In our four-week highly interactive and practice-based course, you can learn how to plan, manage, and run successful online events - from choosing and using an appropriate technical platform, and planning the entire process from the initial idea to follow up, to effectively moderating interaction in an online environment.
What skills will you gain?
ConfTech Lab in Geneva
The ConfTech Lab in Geneva was launched in October 2020 with the aim of developing innovative ways of hosting and moderating online and hybrid events. It uses the latest technology to bridge the gap between onsite and online and increase the quality of meetings and conferences. The similar ConfTech lab in Belgrade was launched in January 2021.
Help Desk
COVID-19 has forced the world to shift to a digital way of working and meeting, creating a new normal, which is likely here to stay. While some have managed to adapt easily, others need a helping hand to adapt to online meetings and conferences and select the right approach and tools.
The Help desk provides immediate advice to help countries and organisations identify solutions and make quick decisions on how to organise and run online meetings and events. The Help desk also helps meeting organisers identify and manage unknown unknowns.
There are two ways to access the Help desk:
Meeting organisers who are pressed for time can outsource their meeting or event to ConfTech for tailored hands-on assistance. ConfTech can help the meeting organisers in the following activities:
In the previous months, ConfTech has assisted its partners in organising numerous events, such as SEEDIG 6, RegHorizon AI Policy Conference, Youth IGF Turkey, to name a few.
Platforms & tools
Choosing the right platform and tools depends on how small or large your group will be, the level of engagement during the meeting or event, the duration of each meeting, and the regularity.
Think also about the technical expertise of your group, and the skills needed to use the platform. Will you use multimedia during the meeting? Will your participants connect also through mobile devices? What is the cost you are willing to pay? To help you choose the right option for your needs, we’ve reviewed some of the leading online platforms. Click here to explore our comparative analysis of major online meeting and conferencing platforms.
Research
ConfTech helps meeting organisers develop, conduct or moderate online meetings and conferences successfully by developing related guides and manuals.
Click below to access a set of platforms guides, do's and don't for hosts and moderators and many other tips and tricks for effective video conferencing.
ConfTech also publishes a monthly digest that contains crucial developments and updates related to major online conferencing platforms, as well as ConfTech news.
Subscribe to our monthly ConfTech digest!
