ConfTech: From onsite to online

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

16 Dec: Zoom announced that it will expand its presence in Singapore by opening a R&D centre and hiring hundreds of engineering staff for the new operations.
 
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9 Dec: Microsoft reveals new ways to celebrate holiday festivities with Microsoft Teams, such as new holiday-themed Together mode scenes and custom backgrounds.
 
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8 Dec: Cisco announces new updates to Webex, including noise cancellation, transcripts and close captioning, and Webex Huddle that allows for starting a spontaneous meeting with other Webex users.
 
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Training

Become a certified moderator with our Online Meetings and Conferences online course

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?

  • How to organise and run online meetings, starting from the initial idea, via practical steps, to reporting and wrapping up
  • How to effectively moderate online events
  • How to select an approach to online and blended (hybrid) meetings that meets your organisation’s needs
  • How to manage the psychological and behavioural aspects of online interaction
  • How to select appropriate technical platforms and tools
  • How to benefit from the current uses and potential contributions of artificial intelligence (AI) for online events

Apply now


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.

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 transition to online meetings and conferences, and to selecting 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:

  1. Toggle on the live chat, by clicking on the chat icon on the bottom right-hand corner. Enter your name and official e-mail address, and wait for a Help Desk staff member to respond.
  2. Alternatively, send us an e-mail at conftech@diplomacy.edu with your query.

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.

Future of meetings library


Related blogs & articles

Innovation in online meetings: SEEDIG 6

Sorina Teleanu   20 Sep 2020   Diplo Blog, Diplomacy, E-Diplomacy

This year, the 6th South Eastern European Dialogue on Internet Governance (SEEDIG) on 21-25 September 2020 – the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) regional initiative for South Eastern Europe and the neighbouring area – was supposed to hold its sixth annual meeting in Moldova, and the community was looking forward to visiting the famous Moldovan wineries after day-long debates on the region’s digital policy realities and challenges.

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