The World Business Council for Sustainable Development evolve the conference world with a full hybrid experience.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) is a global community of leading businesses driving systems transformation for a better world in which 9+ billion people can live well, within planetary boundaries, by mid-century. Together with its members, WBCSD seeks to accelerate the required transformation of businesses, their value chains, and the systems in which they operate to tackle the three pressing, interconnected challenges of climate emergency, the loss of nature and mounting inequality.

To drive this transformative agenda, WBCSD’s community of sustainable leaders come together at the organization’s flagship events, one of which takes place in Montreux every year.

The Brief | Changing Up Conferences

2Heads was delighted to be invited to create WBCSD’s first-ever hybrid Liaison Delegate (LD) Meeting in 2022. The award-winning forum held a series of live and virtual sessions over three days.

In 2023, WBCSD wanted to forge forward with the inclusive format and briefed 2Heads to push the boundaries with a content-rich and hybrid-experienced conference that attracted senior decision-makers from the world’s leading businesses and created the best possible platform for them to address the ever-pressing sustainability challenges.

The Liaison Delegate Meeting served as the launch pad for WBCSD’s new brand framework and all engagement needed to place their new look front and central.

The Solution | A Fully Hybrid Experience

Whether delegates were in Montreux or attending from elsewhere in the world, WBCSD and 2Heads created a meeting experience that offered the same benefits to discover, debate and solve challenges collectively.

The WBCSD conference featured top sustainability experts who spoke over three days. The schedule was carefully crafted to deliver a seamless, informative, and captivating program.

The daily plan prioritized delegate enjoyment and interaction through hybrid breakout sessions. These sessions were designed to guide guests to the most suitable session for their business needs. The plan also included networking and hospitality opportunities to bring the conference together. Mindfulness was also placed on the agenda, with a morning session of meditation and yoga offered to all guests and a conference structure that encouraged participation and interaction to stop event fatigue.

We partnered with award-winning virtual platform Gther to build a ‘twinned’ event that was 100% embedded in the DNA of the Liaison Delegate Meeting. As opposed to just streaming a live conference, special consideration was given to roundtable structures so online audiences could interact with live audiences. Mentimeter polling and live chat systems were used for engagement and were managed by real-time curators.

The Gther-powered event App created a fully branded micro-verse that immersed audiences in the refreshed look and feel, whether registering in person or online.

Across the hybrid three days, 2Heads partnered with WBCSD on all aspects of the conference, from experience design, production, broadcasting, motion-graphics, streaming, networking, video and editing content creation to:

• Create a fully hybrid plenary conference that brought international speakers to a world-accessible stage.
• Offer guests unparalleled access to WBCSD thought leaders and break-out sessions.
• Showcase a solutions-based approach through immersive ‘moments and timelines.
• Launch WBCSD’s first thematic hybrid lunch format with four simultaneous meetings on redefining value, climate, nature action and equity.
• Redefine the hybrid event with over 48 individual hybrid sessions on offer.
• Generate conversation through fully interactive tools, including apps, polling, online chat and an event micro-verse.
• Allow guests to engage and download essential content from a fully branded media library, updated in real-time with new sessions.
• Connect guests with experts in the fields of sustainability and offer a range of roundtables to meet individual needs and questions.
• Manage over 600 delegates and VIPs from over 50 countries.

The Results | The Numbers Speak for Themselves

• 3 days of live and hybrid networking events, panel discussions and workshops
• 8 hybrid breakout sessions over two non-plenary days
• Flagship plenary day featuring six interactive plenary sessions with renowned experts and a webcast.
• 4 thematic hybrid lunch meeting and 3 Meditation sessions for inner balance
• Dedicated first timer networking event, lunch meetings and briefing sessions.
• 11 half circle debate & learning session and 29 roundtable debate & learning sessions with 4 sessions on average active every two hours
• 4 live reporting session
• 18 networking and hospitality events including the Liaison Delegate Dinner and the Gala Dinner with a keynote speech from famous Swiss explorer Bertrand Piccard
• Over 200 speakers and presenters with 20 guests minimum per session
• 600 live guests and 1,100+ online guests in attendance
• 6,500+ Online engagements
• 771 streamed hours of video
• In total, 48 hybrid sessions ensured visitors worldwide could participate in pushing the all-important sustainability agenda across global business.