How GO FAIR (ZBW) Hosted a 200-Person Research Event on SpatialChat

The Context: A Research-Driven Virtual Gathering

GO FAIR, supported by the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, is focused on advancing FAIR data principles and ensuring that research outputs are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.

The event was designed as a collaborative virtual gathering, likely aligned with initiatives such as the FAIR Festival, where researchers, practitioners, and stakeholders come together to exchange ideas, present insights, and engage in discussions. The objective was to create an environment that could support both structured sessions and open interaction, enabling participants to move beyond passive listening into active engagement.

The Challenge: Enabling Interaction at Scale in a Research Setting

Hosting a research-focused event with approximately 200 participants requires balancing scale with meaningful interaction.

For GO FAIR, the requirement was not just to present information but to facilitate discussions across a distributed audience. This meant creating a space where attendees could navigate freely, join conversations, and engage with different topics or groups within the same environment.

The platform needed to support simultaneous interactions without fragmenting the audience, ensuring that participants could explore discussions while remaining part of a cohesive event experience.

The Solution: A Scalable, Multi-Interaction Virtual Environment

SpatialChat enabled GO FAIR to host the event within a single, scalable virtual space designed to accommodate up to 200 participants simultaneously.

The environment allowed users to move freely across the space, forming smaller discussion clusters and engaging with others based on interest or topic. This spatial structure supported parallel conversations, enabling multiple discussions to take place at the same time without interference.

Participants could position themselves within listening proximity to different groups, creating a dynamic interaction model where engagement was driven by movement and choice. This approach aligned well with the exploratory nature of research events, where attendees often shift between topics and discussions.

Execution Overview: A 200-Person Interactive Event

The event was conducted as a large-scale session with approximately 200 participants joining a shared virtual environment. Attendees entered the space and distributed themselves across different areas, forming conversation clusters that reflected various discussion themes. The environment supported simultaneous interactions, allowing multiple groups to engage in parallel without disrupting one another.

The session combined structured and unstructured elements, with participants able to follow presentations while also engaging in smaller group discussions. This created a layered experience where formal content delivery and informal knowledge exchange coexisted within the same space.

Multiple purchases associated with the event indicate that the setup supported not just the primary session but also additional usage tied to the event cycle.

Participants also moved between clusters during the session, engaging with multiple topics and groups. This pattern of movement reflects active exploration within the environment, contributing to a higher level of interaction across the event.

The shared space maintained continuous activity, with participants remaining present across both structured sessions and informal discussions. This ensured that engagement was sustained throughout the event duration.

Interaction Patterns Across the Event Space

The spatial design of the environment shaped how participants interacted during the event.

Attendees formed clusters around specific discussions, with each group maintaining its own conversational flow. These clusters operated in parallel, allowing the event to support multiple simultaneous exchanges without requiring segmentation into separate rooms.

Movement across the space enabled participants to transition between discussions, creating a fluid interaction model. This resulted in a dynamic environment where conversations evolved naturally based on participant interest.

The presence of multiple active clusters ensured that the event space remained consistently engaged, with activity distributed across different areas rather than centralized in a single session.

Measurable Impact: A High-Scale, Interactive Research Event

This event demonstrated the effectiveness of hosting large-scale academic and research gatherings within a single virtual environment.

By using SpatialChat, GO FAIR enabled 200 participants to engage in both structured presentations and open discussions without compromising interaction quality. The platform supported continuous participation, parallel conversations, and participant-driven exploration within the same space.

The result was a cohesive and interactive event that facilitated knowledge exchange at scale, aligning with the collaborative goals of the research community.