The Challenge
In the past, Mathews Dinsdale had hosted their National Labour Arbitration Competition at a conference centre for viewers and participants to attend in person. But as a consequence of COVID-19 and the social distancing requirements that came with it, our clients needed to adapt and host their event online. To simulate their annual competition, our team facilitated a Zoom meeting with multiple breakout rooms. These breakout rooms, each with a live-stream managed by one of our technicians, represented the private competition rooms Mathews Dinsdale used in the past.
The Solution
The process was simple on the first day. The only thing required was a 1-hour livestream to introduce the event and prepare everyone for the next two days. One facilitator was present to spotlight the speaker and broadcast the meeting to the live event viewing page. And a technician was on standby to answer any potential questions from the live chat.
The second day is where the majority of the work took place. We set up 5 facilitators: one for each of the 4 competition rooms, and one in the main room to manage the backend, the live chat, and to be readily available for technical support. The facilitators in the competition rooms provided immediate tech support for the panelists & competitors, and worked to ensure the live-streams to the event viewing page were of the highest quality.
For the final competition round on the last day, a single facilitator was required to broadcast the meeting, manage the breakout rooms, and continue to provide immediate tech support. We still leveraged a backend support technician to monitor the livestream and answer questions in the live chat.
The Results
Throughout the 3-day event, all streams were conducted at the highest quality with little to no stability issues. Our tech team supported any viewers who were having connectivity issues, and anyone having difficulties accessing the stream. It was our main objective to ensure the audience had a smooth and positive viewing experience, and that the competitors and panelists remained undistracted and undisturbed. We’re pleased to say our client enjoyed working with our team. They commended us for how seamless and effective the event turned out, and for us, that’s what matters the most.
About Mathews, Dinsdale & Clark LLP
Uniquely positioned to represent employers across Canada, Mathews Dinsdale’s sole focus is workplace law, and we have a depth of experience across the country that is unmatched. We were Canada’s first law firm to devote its practice to this area, more than sixty years ago. Today, we are the only workplace law firm with offices from coast-to-coast.
A Word From The Client
Our firm engaged First Class Facilitation to assist in the running of the 2021 National Labour Arbitration Competition (“NLAC”). Eight law schools from across Canada participate in the NLAC and 2021 was the 23rd annual running of the competition. With the pandemic, our firm faced many challenges in continuing the tradition of hosting the competition. We felt that it was important that our firm continued hosting the competition in order to provide law students with the experience competing in a competitive moot.
The logistical challenges our firm faced were significant. We needed to have multiple competition rooms open with participants, adjudicators, and hosts entering and exiting throughout the weekend. Also, we needed to be able to live stream the competition to the public. First Class Facilitation was engaged and they immediately provided our firm with an elegant solution to our various challenges. During the competition weekend, the team from First Class Facilitation provided excellent support throughout the day and the competition occurred without a hitch. We were very impressed with the dedication and customer service provided by First Class Facilitation’s team and would engage them in the future.