How the University of Tsukuba Delivered a 300+ Participant Virtual Poster Hall with SpatialChat
About the University of Tsukuba — Microbiology Research Center for Sustainability
The University of Tsukuba is a leading Japanese research institution with strong programs in life and environmental sciences. The Microbiology Research Center for Sustainability regularly convenes large academic events that bring together researchers, faculty, and students for poster presentations and scientific exchange.
For this multi-day event, the university planned to host approximately 300–350 participants, including 100–150 presenters, requiring a format capable of handling both volume and depth of discussion.
The Challenge: Scaling a Virtual Poster Session Over 48 Hours
The event required a digital environment that could support concurrent poster discussions across multiple rooms while maintaining ease of navigation for attendees.
Traditional video conferencing platforms were not designed for:
- Large-scale parallel poster conversations
- Natural movement between discussion spaces
- Managing both plenary sessions and distributed networking
- Sustained engagement over a multi-day schedule
With hundreds of participants expected across a 48-hour window, the university needed a structure that felt intuitive while remaining operationally manageable.
The Solution: A Structured Yet Flexible Virtual Poster Hall
SpatialChat enabled the team to design a multi-room environment that mirrored the layout of an in-person poster session.
Organizers created poster clusters with 4–6 presenters per room, allowing attendees to move freely between discussions. A dedicated stage room was used for opening remarks, after which participants transitioned into smaller workplace rooms capped at 50 participants each.
SpatialChat also provided onboarding guidance, including recommendations for poster resolution, file sizing, and device setup. This preparation ensured presenters could share content clearly and that attendees could navigate the environment without technical friction.
The result was a system that combined centralized convening with distributed interaction.
The Results: Large-Scale Engagement with Academic Flow
The event was successfully delivered at scale, supporting more than 300 concurrent participants across multiple rooms throughout the 48-hour program.
Organizers were able to host opening plenary moments before smoothly transitioning attendees into parallel poster discussions. Compared to webinar-style poster sessions, the format enabled higher-quality Q&A exchanges, more balanced crowd distribution across rooms, and a more authentic academic poster-session atmosphere.
The virtual setup maintained both the structure required for a large research event and the fluidity expected in a scientific poster hall.
Run Multi-Day Research Events Without Compromising Interaction
Large academic communities require formats that balance scale with meaningful dialogue. SpatialChat enables universities to design virtual poster halls and research events that support concurrent discussion, structured plenaries, and natural movement, delivering a more authentic scholarly experience online.