La Trobe University maintains high enrollment rates with live and on-demand webinars

Quick transition to a digital event strategy.

Australia went into lockdown in March 2020, cancelling all public events — even those in Melbourne, Victoria, the province La Trobe University calls home. Undertaking a market scan during March and April, La Trobe University signed up for ON24® Webcast Elite and Engagement Hub at the end of April to move all their sales events and public engagement events online. The university quickly realised it could use the ON24 platform to deliver its Regional and Melbourne-based “Open Day” events virtually through digital experiences.

Traditionally, “Open Day” takes place in person at each of La Trobe University’s five campuses in August each year and includes tours, presentations from professors and students, in-person Q&A sessions, and interactive activities with clubs, societies, sports partners and support services. Visitors get to tour the campus, meet the academics who will teach their course and ask plenty of questions. But in 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic, Victoria Dillon, Manager of University Events at La Trobe, and her team knew physical events were off the table.

“We wanted to be the first University to announce our Open Day would be taking place virtually, so we had to move fast and furiously,” said Dillon. “My concern was that if we went out too early, people would not yet be comfortable with the concept of attending virtually because they are used to coming on campus. So the question was how we could communicate what life is like as a student at La Trobe, our culture and expertise, yet recreate the same personal experience. How can we provide all the information and solutions for a prospective student about what life is like on-campus when we’re forced to be off-campus?”

Open Days are traditionally a day which Australian Universities depend on to generate sales leads and drive enrollment. Finding ways to get students to register with the right lead information, attend and stay engaged throughout the digital event was imperative. They would also need to find ways to coordinate and record dozens of academics from multiple departments, from five campuses, facilitate informational sessions, host live Q&A in order to meet the requirements that on campus Open Day has always featured.

La Trobe coordinated and recorded 100 sessions in eight weeks with the ON24 platform. Open Day attracted an increase of 167% over last year’s event—and maintained La Trobe’s enrollment numbers despite the shift to a learn-from-home setting.

Furthermore, because of the new virtual approach, La Trobe expanded its reach into three key markets: China, India and Vietnam. “Anecdotal feedback from our South Asia Manager is that we were one of the first Australian Universities to get into the online virtual event market with an offering that was professional, branded and NOT Zoom—so we stood out from the others,” said Dillon.

“ON24 has really worked for us. It’s so engaging and easy to use. Plus it allows us to subtly sell our courses through a variety of virtual, non-traditional sales experiences. We use it for public lectures, panel discussions, research briefings and even a live food tasting science broadcast for one of the largest events as part of National Science Week. I’m so very proud and enthusiastic about our ON24 journey to date and see enormous potential for us moving forward. We will be using the platform to broadcast our end of year Staff Awards and our online graduation ceremonies for our graduates. I’m especially keen to expand our strategic offering in the Simu-live area for our Student Success teams to help new students transition into studying with La Trobe.”