Over the last year like many companies, we adapted to the changing environment around us. With face-to-face meetings becoming a distant memory and video calls the new ‘normal’, we had to adapt.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, we were unable to hold our annual Global Partner Meeting last year but thought innovatively this year. We worked alongside an external production agency, The Outlook Creative Group who specialise in live production events to plan for our first ever virtual meeting.

We wanted to have a mix of internal and external presenters while ensuring we were COVID-19 secure as the safety of our colleagues is of the utmost importance. We set up a live pop-up studio in the Norma Gill room at Welland Medical HQ that facilitated hybrid presentations.

Overall, the event ran for four hours and was hosted by Gemma Care, a seasoned professional who has presented globally on TV and in events.

To accommodate our global audience and their time zones we recorded the live event to enable our partners to login later on and view at a convenient time. One part of the event we wanted make sure we didn’t lose by going virtual was the engagement. To address this, we used live polls and held an interactive quiz towards the close of the event to keep up interaction throughout.

A key focus of the virtual Global Partner Meeting was the launch of our new product range, Aurum® Plus. With the new shaped flange and body-hugging Comfort Curves, the products are conformable, helping to achieve greater confidence and more leak-free days. To find out more about Aurum® Plus or to request a sample, click here.

Looking back on our first virtual event, we were able to reach over 200 attendees throughout 30 countries and it enabled us to continue sharing best practice in supporting both Health Care Professionals and people who live with stomas across the world.

The feedback from the event has been positive and we can’t wait to hold our next one whether that be in person or virtually, we look forward to seeing our global partners soon!