Trending Topics SEE is a fast-growing platform for innovation journalism, focused on building an inclusive and regional innovation media in South-East Europe. It provides an arena for the local startup and tech community, showcasing inspiring success stories, emerging technologies and disruptive business models. The fast-growing news platform aims at consolidating the knowledge of the ecosystem and actively contributes to its further development.
The team has been recently experimenting with various online studios and video forms, introducing its own TV channel on their website, offering interesting interviews and talks with inspiring guests and stakeholders from the innovation ecosystem in the region and beyond.
‘The Big Reset’
Hardly any continent, company or individual became unaffected by the coronavirus challenges. March and April 2020 witnessed massive lockdowns, followed by closure of businesses, unemployment, healthcare crisis, educational system hiccups and a switch to online solutions, facilitating collaboration and substituting ‘brick and mortar’ services.
The SEE region made no exception - and despite the relatively small percentage of coronavirus-positive percentage of the population, the region witnessed shrinking economies and fear-based precautionary measures which significantly slowed down the optimistic growth it had enjoyed the previous years.
Being an avid promoter and contributor to creating a community of innovators and entrepreneurs, Trending Topics SEE wanted to grasp the opportunity to convert the turmoil around the unexpected crisis into an opportunity for the region. The team recognized the need for a constructive and insightful experience to engage professionals of diverse profiles and industries in providing a platform for discussion, exchange and innovative ideas which would inspire the community despite the challenging situation. The question was, what platform would sustain the diverse formats planned by the organizers? With the many potential subscribers, and the necessity to utilize a variety of interactions, Trending Topics SEE needed a reliable and responsive partner who would design the experience along with the media and would provide a stable connection throughout the whole venue.
Trending Topics SEE partnered with Launchee to provide an engaging 4-day online conference in May - ‘The Big Reset: From a Crisis Mode To Entrepreneurial Mindset’. Just within three weeks, the team managed to organize a massive communication of the event and gather over 1700 registrations for a conference which was entirely free of charge. All speakers, panelists and participants from Europe and across the world were connected virtually. Launchee hosted the event in its main space – Kepler, where the main stage was built, gathering the organizers and the moderators of the venue.
The venue managed to provide a variety of formats, connecting like-minded people from around the region and beyond, to solve pressing issues collectively. It showcased the success stories of leaders, experts, community builders, entrepreneurs and policy-makers and tackled a variety of topical questions like creating opportunities for development in an unexpected crisis. Trending Topic and Launchee managed to offer a variety of formats – apart from the mainstage, the working sessions panels via Hop.in platform provided an arena for meaningful discussions with renowned experts, where participants could also comment, ask questions and network. Sponsors connected with the audience through virtual ‘stands’, exchanging on topical questions and showcasing relevant products and services.
The event exceeded everyone’s expectations with over 1700 registrations, just three weeks of preparation, four full days of technical organization and testing, participants spanning over five continents, and a variety of formats, ensuring efficient interaction and inspiring connections.
The Big Reset Days was a true innovation in the space of conferences and events amidst the lockdown. While everyone was focusing on doing webinars, Trending Topics and Launchee managed to put together a four-day interactive conference in just three weeks. It truly raised the bar when it comes to digital events - from the innovative concept, to the rich content and the impeccable technical execution. For me this was the flagship event of 2020 in the Bulgarian digital ecosystem.
Check Launchee’s YouTube channel to view the videos from the conference – and many other venues, free of charge!
Make sure to browse Trending topic's page on our custom video library as well.
