The corona pandemic nearly put a stop to the annual advertising competition “Best of International” arranged by agency network E3 – a physical event meant to take place in castle Schloss Mainau in Germany. But due to Covid-19 the initiators had to re-think it all and with help from Wizitory they could create a virtual event that worked exactly like the real yearly event. What’s more, the event attracted participants from all over the world and resulted in over three times more participants than an average year.

Wizitory helps companies design and build virtual events in 3D. Interest has been great, and since October 2020 ten large trade fairs, exhibitions and events have been carried out all over the world. One of these events was the “Best of International” advertising competition for E3 Network.

“Every autumn E3 Network arranges a big physical event and a competition for its member agencies. Last time the event was planned to be held at Schloss Mainau but Covid-19 put a stop to that. So, we built an almost identical virtual replica of the famous building, the outside as well as the inside. Then we filled the castle with content and crated activities that engaged the visitors,” says Mikael Stenberg at Wizitory.

The highlight of the event was the digital advertising competition, where visitors could view the various competing entries in a virtual world and vote for their favourites. The event ended with a live final where the winners gave thanks speeches and received their prizes.

“The event was a great success and a major benefit of our virtual initiative was the fact that more people than ever could attend. One big advantage of virtual events is that they allow for significantly more participants because you are not restricted by a physical site that requires travel,” says Mikael Stenberg.

E3 international Agency Network – a global network of strategy, branding and communication agencies – counts Cordovan Communication in Gothenburg as one of its members. Cordovan is the agency behind Wizitory and has long experience of fairs and events; physical as well as virtual. During the pandemic, the demand for digital events has surged. Cordovan’s digital experts and 3D designers have spent nine months developing Wizitory, a whole new platform for staging digital events in 3D.

“There is enormous interest in virtual events on the market. In just a few weeks we have made over 20 presentations of our platform and people call me and send emails daily to learn more about Wizitory. In short, it feels like perfect timing for virtual events. Not only because of Covid-19, but also with regard to digitalization. Naturally, corona has set a faster pace to this development but we are convinced that digital events are here to stay and in a post-corona future physical events will exist in symbiosis with virtual ones,” says Mikael Stenberg.