VDAB organised an interactive online event focused on a current hot topic. VDAB wants to support people who want to go back to work after COVID-19. With the theme ‘Working Post-Virus’, leading experts responded live in the studio to questions from the audience. Push To Talk stimulated the conversation with tight direction and thorough content preparation. The 350 participants responded enthusiastically and stayed to watch from start to finish.
Push To Talk was commissioned to organise an online debate about returning to work after COVID-19. The event was not to be a series of lectures by specialists. It had to be a substantively strong and relevant debate between specialists and target audience: professionals, employers, employees, and jobseekers.
For 30 years now, VDAB’s employees have been working strongly together for work. Every day, they help employers and jobseekers find each other. They encourage jobseekers to develop their talents and skills to the maximum. But few people know that VDAB also supports people with health problems in this respect. That’s why VDAB organised a digital event about this.
VDAB wanted this interactive, online event to show where employees, job seekers, and employers can go with questions about working with and after health problems. Everyone who is willing and able to work should be given that opportunity at their own pace. This is important in the aftermath of COVID-19. Former COVID-19 patients suffer long-term physical and psychological consequences. Others experience psychological effects from working at home and from the uncertainties that COVID-19 brings.
VDAB and Push To Talk invited some leading individuals, representing all relevant stakeholders (VDAB, NIHDI, GTB, the Flemish Patients’ Platform, the Flemish Department of Work and Social Economy, the CM health service), to the studio. Minister of Employment, Hilde Crevits, had the final word. Thanks to the debate format, there was no room for speeches from an ivory tower. Frederik Gullink, VDAB, moderated the debate with input from a live poll and live questions from the audience.
Push To Talk is a specialist in live communication. For us, the audience is not a sounding board, but a partner in the story. We created as many opportunities for dialogue with the audience as possible in a live debate. With a few well-prepared questions and an online poll, the focus was immediately on the content. The audience asked questions, responded, doubted, believed… The experts responded to what really matters with clear answers, great empathy, and expertise. This led to a substantive debate with great depth. Moreover, VDAB promised that every question would be answered during or after the broadcast. This is how we encourage conversations and build change together.
Thanks to strong direction, the digital event remained captivating from start to finish. A well-timed script was written in advance with varied guests. The line of content, the moderator’s introduction and questions, and the content of the polls were scripted and timed. Pre-recorded animations and videos enlivened the debates. Moreover, they ensured a smooth transition between the guests and topics. The incoming polls enhanced the live experience and supported the storyline of the debate. They stimulated the audience to react, to ask questions, and to listen to the various perspectives. And, above all, to be spellbound from beginning to end.
VDAB managed to bring the right guests together for an interactive online webinar. For an hour and a half, 350 participants followed the fascinating live broadcast from start to finish. They participated in the polls and the questions flooded in.
This created real live communication and conversation to work together to better support everyone with health problems who wants and is able to work.
We are Push To Talk. You have a good story, we’re great storytellers: that’s a perfect match.
