How the University of Skövde Successfully Ran Large-Scale Digital Poster Seminars with SpatialChat
About the University of Skövde — School of Health Sciences
The School of Health Sciences at the University of Skövde delivers programs in Public Health and related disciplines, where student poster seminars play an important role in academic assessment and peer learning. These sessions are designed to encourage dialogue—students present their work, respond to questions, and engage in discussions with classmates, faculty, and invited guests. Maintaining this interactive dynamic in a digital environment was essential.
The Challenge: Replicating Informal Poster Interaction Online
The department needed to host large digital poster sessions with 50–100 participants while preserving the informal, interactive nature of in-person seminars.
Traditional video conferencing tools created limitations:
- No natural “walk-up” conversations
- Restricted parallel discussions
- Limited networking between students, faculty, and external guests
Sequential presentations reduced spontaneity and made it harder for attendees to explore posters freely or engage in smaller discussion groups.
The team required a solution that allowed movement, simultaneous conversations, and accessible participation at scale.
The Solution: A Reusable Virtual Poster Environment
SpatialChat provided a dedicated virtual space that the department could reuse year-over-year for its digital poster seminars.
The spatial layout enabled attendees to:
- Move freely between student posters
- Join small-group discussions around specific projects
- Interact directly with presenters using proximity audio
Organizers also valued the operational simplicity: guests could join via a single link, and host/admin roles allowed faculty to manage the session smoothly without technical complexity. The format combined flexibility for participants with structure for facilitators.
The Results: A Repeatable, Scalable Poster Model
The digital poster session was described by organizers as having “gone really well.”
The format successfully supported 50–100 participants engaging in parallel conversations, enabling more natural Q&A exchanges and higher interaction than webinar-style poster sessions.
The department chose to repeat the format in subsequent years, demonstrating strong satisfaction and confirming SpatialChat as a reliable solution for recurring academic events.
Build a Repeatable Format for Digital Poster Seminars
For institutions running large student poster sessions, interaction and ease of facilitation are critical. SpatialChat enables departments to create scalable, reusable virtual environments that preserve discussion and engagement, year after year.