In November 2023, Sydney will host the 23rd World Congress in partnership with the International Labour Organization, the International Social Security Association and SafeWork NSW.
With the uncertainty still surrounding international travel in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Congress team decided to host a hybrid event in 2023. Organisers at the NSW Department of Customer Service Centre for Work Health and Safety knew they required an event website developed with a digital-first mindset.
The Being Group needed to create a sophisticated, polished website that was dynamic and interactive yet easily accessible from around the world.
Inspired by the 23rd World Congress logomark and the key theme of Shaping Change, website design makes strong use of the event branding’s visual language. In both still images and animated video hero banners, shapes come together in a variety of formations to represent different key topics.
As a hybrid event, with delegates expected to be accessing the website from developing nations (with low bandwidth internet connections), speed optimisation and accessibility was a key priority from the early stages of content planning and wireframe development.
Simplicity in design ensures load times are minimal and the responsive website caters to audiences on a range of devices and networks, while still being dynamic, interactive and engaging.
Website design and build is compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA requirements.
With a long lead time before the event takes place, the website needed to serve a variety of functions, including generating interest, promoting early bird ticket registrations, inviting sponsorship applications and, finally, integrating with the hybrid events platform that will present virtual sessions.
The custom Drupal content management system (CMS) website allows for versatility in content type and the World Congress team can easily make their own changes as scheduling, sponsors and presenters are confirmed closer to the event dates.
Modular section design offers the flexibility to upload new content in different layouts, while remaining consistent in style. Sponsor logos can easily be published from a spreadsheet using a CSV upload feature.
An automated translation feature uses Google Translate to present the website’s content in different languages, with the ability to manually edit translated copy as required.
BEING engaged a trusted CREST cyber security expert to conduct a web application penetration test of the World Congress staging and production websites. Testing determined that the World Congress website was at a low risk of compromise by an attacker with a high level of skill, resources and time. Best practice recommendation of quirks or bugs with no impact to the website were actioned by BEING to further improve security posture.
Ongoing technical support includes training in the use of the CMS, a website guide document and additional hours for maintenance and updates, ensuring ongoing sophistication and versatility in a dynamic website for a global event.
