Hybrid Graduation Celebration University of Sydney

Client: University of Sydney
Venue: Hybrid, Sydney
Date: September 2020

Encore delivered the University of Sydney’s first ever hybrid celebration for the class of 2020’s 18,000 graduands/graduates. It celebrated the achievements of every student graduating that year and was delivered to an impressive 6,000 online guests from 90 countries around the world.

THE PROBLEM

With live events prohibited under COVID 19 restrictions at the time, the graduations team at the University of Sydney approached Encore to deliver the celebration event in a hybrid format.

The client had serious concerns about how the event would look and that the graduating class would get a professional, engaging experience to celebrate their success. In addition, there were concerns about broadcasting to multiple countries concurrently, in particular to China as the event was to be delivered concurrently worldwide.

THE SOLUTION

Encore presented the perfect solution, the intuitive Chime Live platform which features all aspects you would expect from an in-person event, plus live engagement for everyone to be involved via the platform’s ability to integrate Instagram, Facebook and Twitter messages using the hashtag #USydClassof2020.

THE RESULT

The event was streamed live from the Great Hall at the University of Sydney featuring speeches and entertainment for the thousands of online viewers. It was a virtual hit with large numbers of students sharing photos from homes wearing their gowns and celebrating with loved ones.

Our client Cristina Dietmann, Events Manager, University of Sydney was delighted with the result commenting,

“We were all very concerned about changing the event to virtual. Graduations have been delivered in a similar way at the University for 140 years. Graduation is such a special time for our students and we didn’t want to delay it.”

“The Encore team were terrific! They were so knowledgeable about the technology and made me feel totally at ease. The event went without a hitch and we were delighted. Feedback from both Academics and attendees was really positive.”

“Whilst we look forward to being able to do live, in-person graduations in the future, this was a great way to ensure our students could celebrate and not have to wait even longer.”