Eventus Virtual Solutions McGill Adapts to COVID-19 Reality

Making essential events possible during the pandemic

12,500+

Registrations

300,000+

Impressions

5,000+

Student Sessions

750+

Booths

Background

McGill University is one of Canada's most well-known institutions and is internationally recognized for the quality of its teaching and research programs. Boasting 12 schools and faculties, McGill attracts much diverse talent from around the world.

With such a large student body, school-wide fairs and events are essential components of the local community fabric to help students meet their job searching needs. However, with the sudden arrival of Covid-19, McGill had little time to adapt their event programming for the 2020-2021 school year.

The Need to Adapt

Out of well-placed concern for spreading the virus, social distancing and new safety guidelines made events such as career fairs, orientation, and open house impossible to host in the typical fashion. McGill needed a virtual solution to make such events possible again.

McGill wanted foster and build important relationships and connections for their student body in an acceptable way during the pandemic, so they reached out to Eventus.

Transitioning to Virtual with Eventus

To adapt the university's event programming, McGill used Eventus' streamlined feature set to enable the exact digital outcomes they wanted.

Here are a few examples of events that used the Eventus.io solution:

McGill's Fall 2020 Orientation

McGill Orientation Events Overview
McGill Orientation Booths Browse
McGill Events Booth Details

Newly enrolled students needed to be introduced to faculty and staff to properly prepare for the upcoming year. The McGill Orientation was powered by several Eventus features including Digital Booths, Instant Messaging, Dynamic FAQ, Session & Workshop RSVP management, and Resources Guides

Digital Booths

McGill staff & faculty created digital booths to share information about their programs and give students an easy way to peruse the services that McGill had to offer its first years & transfer students.

Instant Messaging

To connect with someone in real time, students and staff had the ability to text chat in real-time during specified time frames of the event.

Dynamic FAQ

Students had the ability to ask questions in real time which in turn would be added to a dynamic FAQ.

RSVP management

McGill used Eventus to manage their various workshops and sessions so that students could RSVP to pertinent programs ahead of time and be given reminders to join the proper video rooms.

Resources Guides

McGill staff digitized their information into a digital resource guide for students to easily access. Such information included FAQs, maps, schedules, social media, etc.

McGill Engineering Career Fair

McGill Career Fair Events Overview
McGill Career Fair Events Browse
McGill Career Fair Events Guide Day 1 Companies
McGill Career Fair Events Guide Day 2 Companies
McGill Career Fair Events Guide Info
McGill Career Fair Events Guide FAQ
McGill Career Fair Events Guide ECC Resources

The McGill Engineering Career Fair utilized Eventus’s virtual fair product to facilitate student to recruiter connections.

Features included:

Digital Booths

Recruiters could set up digital booths to provide information on their organizations such as job application links, intro videos, company descriptions, etc. for students to access.

Custom Career Profiles

To properly connect to the right opportunities, students created custom career profiles to incorporate things like their resume, linkedin profile, career concentration, etc.

Career Prep Resources

Career prep resources such as dress etiquette, elevator pitch templates, resume tips, etc. were digitized through Eventus for students to access.

Video Chat Pre-Booking

To facilitate face-to-face video chats, students could pre-book video chats with recruiters to build an itinerary for their video chats with recruiters.

Modern Videochat Rooms

Eventus is powered with modern video chat rooms giving a smooth interface for students and recruiters to connect face-to-face.

Booking Reminders

To ensure that video chat appointments were honored, students were given notifications and email reminders for the video chats that they booked.

About

McGill University is a public, non-profit research university located in Quebec, Canada.

College TypePublic, Nonprofit, Research

Undergraduate Size27,000

Graduate Size10,000

Number of Schools10+

Programs Offered400+ Programs

The Results

Within a few months, McGill was able to fully adapt its event programming to the virtual reality with Eventus.

All major functions were successfully executed with high levels of engagement. Job seekers and employers made several meaningful connections in virtual fairs leading to jobs, mentorships, internships, and more. Similarly, Students were able to connect with professors and TA’s to learn more about programs and courses offered at McGill. Students were able to learn more about campus life and extra-curriculars by connecting with various student services staff.

Students and staff alike were able to quickly adopt the software and smoothly integrate it into their day-to-day functions.

12,500+

Registrations

5,000+

Student Sessions

300,000+

Impressions

750+

Booths

Conclusion

McGill successfully made the transition to virtual programming and executed on their programming within the short time frame caused by the pandemic. Despite not having the luxury of physical gatherings, McGill is still fostering important connections and opportunities by powering the university’s event programming through the Eventus platform.