Inclusion & Diversity in Nuclear

The Background

Inclusion and Diversity in Nuclear has been active since 2019. Its aim is to support organisations with their equality, diversity and inclusion efforts by offering practical advice and sharing useful resources.

After launching the not-for-profit movement in 2019, co-founder Monica Mwanje wanted to create an event in order to bring the community together, sharing best practice around inclusion and diversity among peers and also to support businesses who were facing many of the same challenges.

The Challenge

At a time when the hybrid format was relatively unknown, Monica and her co-founder Callum decided the event should be a mixture of live in-person with a digital element to live stream the sessions in order to enable wider participation.

Monica discovered Streeem by a chance recommendation, and having met with Dominic and the team, was hugely impressed and reassured that they could deliver her vision. In particular, she liked their use of iPhones, which would capture natural footage of the event, as well as not appear an unseemly expense for the not-for-profit organisation. She was also reassured that the equipment and technology could deliver a high-quality hybrid element, allowing the event to be inclusive for attendees who could not travel.

In the subsequent years of 2020 and 2021, when guidance around live events was uncertain, the decision to move to a fully digital event was taken. Monica felt confident and happy in asking Streeem to deliver their events again.

The Approach

From the outset in 2019, Streeem supported Monica, starting with a list of questions to ask the venue about the AV equipment in order that Streeem could deliver a live stream digital event with high-quality video and sound.

Recognising that the nuclear industry is security-conscious, and the issues of inclusion and diversity can be sensitive and very personal, Streeem offered advice around IT data security and privacy. To ensure the online attendees had the best possible experience of joining, advice was also provided around using the right version of a range of recommended browsers.

Following the huge success of this first event, Monica and Callum immediately decided to replicate it the following year. However, uncertainty around large gatherings and events at the start of 2020 meant that they later decided to take the event entirely online.

For the 2020 event Streeem recommended the use of Slido, which could be streamed into, as well as allowing questions and answers to take place. It also has an engaging polling functionality for the attendees.

Prior to the fully digital 2020 event speakers on the opening panel were asked to record a short segment introducing themselves and answering topical questions. Streeem provided them with some tips around lighting and sound to ensure the clips were of a high quality and then edited them together to open the event.

Monica had total confidence in Dominic and his team to deliver this. Given the different format of the 2020 event, Monica had a host of queries that arose during the planning stages but with a complete understanding of their objectives and budget, Dominic always responded to with solutions, helping to improve the overall experience for attendees and hosts alike.

For example, as an event with inclusion at its heart, providing captions for the main talks was essential. Dominic recommended White Coat, a US based company, who delivered high-quality real-time, human powered captions for the event.

Feedback from 2020 digital conference revealed that attendees would like more networking at the next event, so Dominic suggested a platform that would facilitate this in the way the organisers wanted. Balloon allowed attendees to network 1:1 and in small groups at the 2021 digital conference.

Streeem supported this platform, building out the content pages and profiles of the speakers. Using Balloon allowed all content to be accessible in one place, with the exception of one workshop which required the use of Zoom to meet the workshop lead’s accessibility requirements.

Streeem also produced a two-minute video with highlights of the event which is available on the website. Streeem produced a highlight reel after the 2019 conference which can be viewed here:

https://vimeo.com/376226616

In 2021, the event again took place fully online. Again, feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and the organisers have already booked Streeem to help them deliver their fourth event later in 2022. As this event will be a return to hybrid but for an audience with much different expectations than they had pre-pandemic, Streeem is already advising on the delivery of various aspects, from new technology to changing trends and how to scale the digital audience as required.

The Result

The 2019 hybrid event was attended by around 70 individuals in-person (the venue’s capacity) with a further 30-40 attendees joining digitally. It was a huge success with great feedback from attendees who were highly impressed with the great sound, pictures, overall quality and seamless delivery of the video content at the event.

In 2020, the number of attendees increased considerably and 500 individuals from the global nuclear industry attended the virtual event. In 2021 370 delegates registered to attend the conference.

Inclusion & Diversity in Nuclear (vimeo.com) 2021 content is available on this channel.

The Feedback

Dominic and his team have been fantastic at helping us achieve high-quality annual events, but are always considerate of our budget and fully transparent. They have helped us understand what we need and been honest with us around what we don’t, without compromising the end result.

Whenever we have given Dominic challenges, he has come back to us with solutions, he understands what we are trying to do and always has fresh ideas, right down to the smallest of details that can improve the overall experience for our attendees.

From the preparation, planning and organisation of our event, working with Streeem has given us exactly the event we wanted.

– Monica Mwanje, co-founder, Inclusion & Diversity in Nuclear

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