KLCC goes digital to ensure major conference can still run

The Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (the Centre) hosted a key conference from Canada under altered circumstances, due to the coronavirus outbreak. The Ottawa Conference on the Assessment of Competence in Medicine and the Healthcare Professions took place in early March. It was forced to adapt to make use of last-minute remote technology, as well as changes to the event format. Consistent, factual, transparent communication was the crucial factor that kept delegates committed to attending the conference, despite growing uncertainty about travel restrictions. The Centre’s General Manager, Alan Pryor, said: “A flexible and engaged partnership approach with the organiser was critical in order for them to feel assured and not alone in a volatile changing landscape. We constantly were looking at ways to make the conference remain viable and to ensure anyone who wanted to be a part of it could attend in person or participate remotely. “It really did provide us with a very good opportunity to fully utilize our technologically advanced IT backbone to support flawless remote access and create a safe environment for the Ottawa Conference.” Ottawa Conference Operations Director Pat Lilley added: “This particular conference was a lot more challenging than usual due to the Covid-19 outbreak. We came for our last site meeting in January 2020 and everything was wonderful and going according to plan, with large numbers of participants registered. However, we ended up facing the challenge of trying to maintain a full programme, while recognizing that many participants from around the world could no longer attend the conference.”