Aapresid Congress 2021: we accompanied the great event of agriculture through technology

Aapresid Congress 2021 edition was held during the month of August, a well-known agricultural event that is thought to be the most distinguished in our country and a worldwide reference. 

In this edition, the organizations chose us to develop the platform for the Congress. An interactive virtual environment whose aim was to create a complete event with a diversity of functionalities, modern technologies, and a strong willingness to provide a unique experience to all the participants.

 

The client

Aapresid (Argentine Association of Direct Seeding Producers, by its acronym in Spanish) is a non-governmental and non-profit organization. Integrated by a network of agricultural producers, scientists, technicians, researchers, and students who, regarding their interest in soil conservation, adopted and promoted the spreading of a new agricultural paradigm based on Direct Seeding.

The organization is made up of agricultural producers and engineers as well as other actors from the agri-food community from all over Argentina. It consists of a network of innovative agricultural producers who are open to scientific and technological advances. 

From Syloper we have accompanied them on several and diverse projects, and it is always an enormous pleasure to work with them as a team.

 

Aapresid Congress

Aapresid Congress is an open-house and participatory event which takes place annually and constitutes a meeting point for all the leaders of the agro sector. 

In this 29th edition, Siempre Vivo, Siempre Diverso (Always Alive, Always Diverse) was the main slogan of the Congress. The event was supported by seven major themes: biodiverse systems, science and net knowledge, public policies, climate change, economy, new technologies, consumers, and food trends.

One highlight was the debate on the role of agriculture in the region, focusing on the alliance between science, production, and technology.

The event lasted a total of seven days and it was attended by national specialists from INTA, Conicet, and different universities, as well as international specialists from different countries around the world.

This edition, which was the second under virtual modality, was tailored within the framework of Aapresid Comunidad Digital (Aapresid Digital Community), Aapresid’s new environment.

It featured 9 conference rooms and 239 chat rooms, and attendees were able to enjoy a wide variety of content. Moreover, many and diverse functionalities were incorporated which have been rigorously thought and developed to provide an excellent experience.

 

Some notable features:

• Possibility of enrolling in advance to the event.
• Easy registration process.
• Possibility of interaction with the public in a simple and fast way.
• Optimized format to offer a better distribution of the content of the talks.
• New opportunities for participation and dissemination.
• New formats of virtual stands.

 

The Congress was live broadcasted by the streaming platform from Aapresid Digital Community, from a TV studio located in Rosario, Santa Fe. 33 media outlets covered the event and they transmitted it to the public. 

To celebrate the Congress, the organization bet on the Syloper team and all the technological solutions that we successfully offered them. The objective was to develop a large-scale event with a wide variety of modern and up-to-date functionalities and methods. Continuously thinking of providing a unique experience to all attendees.

 

Challenges

Because of the magnitude of the project, we faced some challenges.

First, we developed the event platform that allowed attendees and speakers to interact, learn, connect, and reflect on the sector’s future. This time, the platform offered new opportunities for participation and dissemination of the audience. 

Additionally, we provided technical support while the event was taking place, ensuring that everything worked as planned. We also manage to provide real-time assistance in case it was necessary. 

It was of high importance that during the Congress we could keep track of the audience, as we know it was going to be on a big scale and, apart from that, that all participants could connect and generate networking.  

Another of the axes we worked on was the measurement of the results of the event. We worked with different indicators and metrics before, during, and after the event. The main objective was to measure their success and recognize areas of opportunity and strengths to improve upcoming events.

 

Prior to the event

In order to bring this project forth, we worked together with an Aapresid team consisting of 30 people and a vast number of external suppliers with whom we continuously interacted throughout the process.

It was a process of many months, which involved a lot of effort and commitment from all parties. At the beginning, we held sporadic meetings, but six months before the Congress, we met on a weekly basis and work fully on the project.

As time went by and as the date approached, the meetings took place every day. 

During the meeting, the method implemented was as follows: Aapresid team communicated their idea and we put it into practice by analyzing the best technical strategies to achieve their purpose. 

We applied the Scrum methodology throughout the entire project, an agile framework that enables faster and more flexible decision-making. This ensured the quality of the processes and allowed us to speed up the development of software in each of its stages according to the available resources.

Following Scrum guidelines, we worked on two concepts: we sorted out priorities and detected the bugs that arose.

 

Our role: the key points

We carried out the development of the platform for the Congress, which we accomplished by relying on Aapresid’s new virtual environment, Aapresid Digital Community.

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❱❱❱ This project was also made by Syloper.
✚ Read more: Aapresid Events: tailor-made streaming platform

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The main task consisted in evolving this platform to make use of it in the event. This involved the need to develop different functionalities:

 

• Conference rooms

We created 9 virtual rooms in which different discussions were held, many of them simultaneously. 

A total of 239 talks have been organized in different languages: Spanish, English, and Portuguese. 340 national lecturers and 54 international lecturers were in charge of said talks.

All the sessions offered a chat tool for the users to send their doubts and comments to the organizers and speakers.

In each room, the number of people who could participate was unlimited, which is a major advantage over face-to-face congresses, in which is very difficult to distribute the number of people depending on the size of each room, besides the fact that each space has a capacity limit.

Another advantage of virtuality is the fact that speakers and attendees from different parts of the world can participate with no difficulties or expenses whatsoever. 

 

• Registration process

In order to enroll all the participants interested in the event, we created a public registration form on the Congress website. They had the possibility to choose and pay for the desired ticket.

We develop a specific ticket system for the event. By signing up, users had access to two tickets, which enabled them to attend two free talks and all the content. Then they could buy more tickets to participate in more talks.

The system had four sponsorship options: each of them had access to different features of the Congress and the price of the ticket was according to that.

 

• Tickets sale

We integrated Mercado Pago and Pay Pal as payment getaways so all the users could pay from our country as well as from other parts of the world.
We considered all the necessary functionalities so the process could be carried out in a simple and fast way.

 

• Multi-language platform

We adapted the platform to English, Portuguese as well as Spanish taking into account the technical area.
The website automatically detected date format, currency, and all the content in the desired language. 

 

• Congress timeline

We included a schedule in which participants could consult all the relevant information of the 230 talks (time, workshops, plenary sessions, speakers’ name, language, and extra information).

In addition, those interested could access to highlighted talks and to the complete timeline and syllabus of the Congress by clicking on a button on the website home.

 

•  Attendees and lecturers browser

We created a browser in the platform for everyone to look up information of both attendees and lecturers.

 

• Press area

We developed an area within the platform with press content of all kinds. In this sector, the participants were able to find articles, photos, files, and all kinds of material related to Aapresid and the agricultural sector.

 

• Commercial hall

We created a hall in which the stands of over 100 companies that participated in the event were located. Government institutions, universities, and various media also had their virtual space.

Each organization could own a virtual stand, which could be prepared in advance and which was self-managing. This allowed access to the web and for banners, images, videos, and different panels that could be clicked on.

 

• Interactive workshop

We built an interactive workshop, which was a space for exchange between each company, producers, and attendees, where the company was the host and it had the opportunity to present its experience and cases of interest.

A moderator appointed by the company led the workshop. There were up to twenty producers telling their experience and an unlimited number of attendees online.

 

• Posters room

We built a place for Sistema Chacras, an Aapresid program that seeks to provide sustainable solutions to local product problems together with Science and companies. In this area, each field presented its progress regarding the different topics: management of water surpluses, improvement of productive ceilings, Agricultura Siempre Verde models, soil recovery, added value, etc.

 

• Budget for Campaigns 

We developed a campaign budget. It is a tool that producers and consultants can use to request supplies and services estimates from companies so they can study the finances for the following campaigns. 

Users could request information about areas, seeds, crop protection, fertilizers, supplies, and machinery, among others.

 

• Technical forum

We created an interactive forum where attendees could ask for doubts, concerns and interact with other producers, companies, and specialists to answer all technical and productive management questions.

The companies could subscribe to receive the participants’ questions, which were made by accessing the forum from the top menu.

 

• Connect with another assistant

We developed a messaging system that participants could make use of to communicate with other attendees, and thus generate networking.

 

 

During the Congress

During the two weeks that the Congress took place, we worked all day long to provide support and to check all minimum requirements.

We also coordinate the server infrastructure with Tux Solutions, a technology solutions integrator that provides Cloud solutions.

In addition, we assisted the streaming that took place throughout the event. Another company carried the same out, and we took care of helping the supplier to solve the problems that were arising at the time.

While we were handling all these tasks, we also took care of all the necessary changes so that all participants could have the best possible experience during the Congress.

During one of the live broadcasts, Julián, one of the founders and a fundamental part of the Syloper team, was interviewed. You can see the interview here.

 

 

 

After the Congress

The Congress finished but not our job. We focused on studying the analytics of the Congress. This included each of the reports with all the information we could obtain through Analytics and other means of data analysis, including our own metrics. 

We worked a lot on different metrics and we were able to collect data and analytics of the activity among the very interesting attendees. We were able to generate a user log, which provided us with a broad view of all the movements that each user made within the platform.

This allowed us to measure the visibility, scope, and impact of the event. And most importantly, it allowed us to detect patterns of behavior and opportunities for improvement for the upcoming Congresses.

 

The results

These are some numbers from the Congress:

12673 people registered
2 weeks of Congress
9 Conference rooms
239 talks
340 national speakers
54 international speakers
53 participating countries
55 companies supported the Congress
33 media outlets covered the event

 

These are some of the numbers we gathered, and they show absolute success. Technology was an important factor in order to celebrate the most expected event from the agro-sector.

On the one hand, capacity was no longer an issue. On the contrary, as boundary limits and borders were no longer there, a greater amount of people had the opportunity to attend the Congress from all parts of the world. Moreover, many specialists from different areas were invited to participate.

On the other hand, technology allowed us to develop a complete and safe platform to deliver an incredible experience to all participants. Countless functionalities have been thought and developed to add value to the participants and to generate interaction between themselves and the speakers. We also considered the space for the sponsoring and exhibiting companies, which were a meeting place for attendees, companies, producers, and everyone who wanted to participate, generating networking and forming ties thinking about what is coming in near future.

The Congress was broadcast live by streaming through the Aapresid Comunidad Digital web platform, broadcasting from a television studio located in Rosario, Santa Fe.

Thirty-three media covered the event, broadcasting everything that was happening to the general public.

 

Last but not least

We are extremely happy to have been chosen by Aapresid to accompany them in this beautiful and enriching experience.
This year’s event was even greater thanks to virtuality. The event was much more complete and interactive, which was crucial not only for the learning experience but also for the interaction between participants.
A Congress which was live broadcasted from the streaming platform “Aapresid Digital Community” and through a hybrid format from a studio located in Rosario.
A Congress which generated a rich exchange with the guests who joined the virtual event from every part of the country and the world. Moreover, it brought together the main companies and organizations in the field.
The fact of having participated in and contributed our experience and knowledge to the success of this event fills us with pride and satisfaction.

 

Every project transforms us as into a better team. They make us face new challenges and we grow not only professionally but also personally.
We gained a lot of experience thanks to Aapresid Congress. Today, after we overcame all the challenges, the team is more strengthened, unified, and trained in order to add value to our current and future clients.
What is more, as we had a close relationship with the Aapresid team for so long and we worked side by side, we ended up creating a beautiful friendship.
In short, those are the most valuable things that each project leaves us. They change us, make us better, and lead us to love our work every single day.

 

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✚ Keep reading:

▶  Other recent projects:

• Aapresid Events: tailor-made streaming platform
• La Segunda Recompensa: an effective landing page
• Vlov: support app for people with problematic consumption

 

❖  We are Syloper, a software development company based in Rosario, Argentina and with projection throughout Latin America and the entire world.

✉  If you need us to help you make your idea come true: contact us.