Transforming a traditional awards ceremony into a global hybrid event
Client Brief
In 2024, the British Council undertook a review of the English Language and Teaching Innovation Awards (ELTons), a long-established initiative that celebrates innovators and experts shaping the future of English language teaching worldwide. Recognising the need to adapt the traditional London awards ceremony to a hybrid model, the British Council aimed to better serve their global community by creating a more engaging experience for winners, finalists, and attendees.
To support this transformation, the British Council partnered with Assemble Events and Worktime TV to introduce the ELTons Festival of Innovation.
Our Approach
Acting as an integral part of the ELTons team, the partnership provided comprehensive, end-to-end services, including:
Strategic Event Consultation: we offered expert advice to guide the transition from an in-person event to a global virtual event
Event Management:
- Creating a comprehensive project plan and timeline
- Holding regular check-in meetings with event stakeholders
- Design of creative assets
- Managing speakers and their content
- Post-event reporting
Virtual Event Coordination – we managed all aspects of the online event experience, including:
- Recommending the appropriate platform to deliver the event and achieve the British Council’s ambition to better serve their global community
- Creating the virtual event platform including sessions and descriptions, speaker information, exhibitors
Attendee Engagement:
- Mapping out attendee journeys
- Drafting and managing pre-event, during-event and post-event communications
- Creating a PDF festival guide to complement the virtual platform
Event Production:
- Overseeing rehearsals and pre-event preparations
- Producing video and digital assets for the event
- On-the-day event production, streaming and platform management
- Concurrent streaming to social media
- Managing polls and audience engagement
Event Impact
This collaboration successfully redefined the ELTons, bringing a fresh, innovative approach to celebrating excellence in English language teaching. Highlights include
- 7.6k registrants
- 47% turnout rate
- Participants from over 141 countries
- 99% Participants rated the overall experience as Good or Excellent
Participant Feedback
“The ELTons is one of the best examples to have the positive side of Online Learning“
“A wonderful learning experience and sharing of ideas”“Very smoothly put together. A great job by the participants and editors”
Client Feedback
“Emma and her team at Assemble Events supported us in transitioning from an in-person event programme for around 300 attendees to a global online event programme with over 3,500 attendees. This was a major undertaking for a team with limited experience of delivering online events at scale and Emma helped us manage the transition smoothly from the earliest planning stages right through to event delivery and evaluation. In one day we delivered 18 interactive online sessions with over 50 speakers. Emma’s team were integral not only to the management of our event platform, but also to immense amount of preparation that went into briefing and onboarding speakers based around the world in multiple time zones. I highly recommend Assemble Events to anyone seeking expert support in delivering successful, seamless events.”
Jenny Woodman, Head of Marketing, British Council
