Public Funding for Realisemeuk Limited

**Vision** Conferences and meetings generate £18.3B annually for the UK economy (BVEP). COVID-19 has been catastrophic. In conferences and meetings breakout groups are a core part of the agenda. The project will deliver a new Broadsword proposition, underpinned by unique UK-developed technology (Axis) to enable engaging, inclusive and high-impact break-out sessions for virtual and hybrid conferences and meetings. This will: \*Reduce the carbon footprint associated with conferences and meetings by enabling full or partial virtualisation and hence avoided travel \*Address latent demand for meetings and conferences not met by the high cost structure of live events \*Increase event accessibility to those living with a disability, without detracting from the critical need to increase accessibility within physical venues \*Increase event inclusion and reduce the impact of bias -- gender, ethnicity -- in breakout events \*Substantially increase the quality and quantity of outputs generated driving a bigger impact and return on the investment of attendees' time \*Help drive economic recovery for business following COVID-19 Current state of the art for virtual breakouts as part of a conference is the use of video calling / event hosting technology to provide breakout rooms with the ability to share content, discuss ideas and poll, collaborate visually with a digital whiteboard (Miro, Mural, Teams) vote and score (Slido, Mentimeter). There are three key limitations: \*The impact of dominant voices and bias and fragmented experience across content creation (digital whiteboard) and voting undermines the depth and quality of the output and prevents every voice from being heard \*Manual and tricky process to aggregate the individual breakout outputs into a single useful output that can be shared and disseminated in the plenary following the breakout and after the conference. And hard to understand levels of engagement and participation to inform continuous improvement \*Variable quality in facilitation within each breakout group -- highly dependent upon the skills and experience of the facilitator, which impacts output quality and participant experience. Technical limitations are compounded by the challenge of establishing an appropriate commercial and business model that addresses the near-term virtual need and creates a sustainable engine for growth by addressing latent demand with innovative propositions. **Innovation** This project will define the characteristics of effective virtual and hybrid break-out sessions, define a compelling client proposition and commercial model and extend the existing Axis platform for digital collaboration -- creating an events version of the platform -- to make the proposition viable, scalable and differentiated. To deliver the innovative technical solution will involve applying React Hooks, GSAP and canvases on the existing web-based Axis platform to deliver the enhanced functionality specific to virtual and hybrid break-out groups. To ensure that the solution fully embodies sustainability and inclusion partners include Private Goodness (sustainability and CSR) Purple Goat (disability) and DICE (inclusion and diversity in events). And to ensure market fit and engagement as key to driving profitable growth the EMA (represent the buyers of virtual / hybrid events with 1,400 members) and Realise (specialists in events consulting and growth).