St John’s DermAcademy Educational Webinars

What is St. Johns DermAcademy and what do you do?
St John’s DermAcademy is a post-graduate dermatology education academy run by clinicians within St John’s Institute of Dermatology, London. We provide dermatology education for healthcare professionals which is evidence-based and clinically-focused.

How do you use Virtual Events today and what’s the general format?

We are using a bespoke webinar platform designed and built by the Procreation team in order to deliver live online educational webinars. The educational content is also recorded and made available to delegates for a period of time after each event.

How did you deliver events before the pandemic?

Face to face courses.

What was the main reason for delving into the world of Virtual Events?

It was driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, which temporarily brought much of our dermatology post-graduate education (mostly small and large group face to face content) to a stand-still. Social distancing regulations contributed to this, and members of our dermatology clinical team were also redeployed to work in general medicine and intensive care.

What was your first experience of running a Virtual Event and what was the primary challenge you faced?

A live online webinar format for educational courses offered so many advantages to our busy clinician audience during the pandemic, however we were keen for a professional and customised learning platform, with on-hand technical support. We therefore approached Procreation to help us to achieve this.

How did you find Procreation and what made you decide to work with Procreation?

One of our team members attended a medical conference delivered by Procreation and was really impressed with the professional interface and seamless running of the course.

What was the solution that Procreation proposed?

Procreation started by building a bespoke webinar platform which we subsequently decided to use to deliver each of our courses. For each course we work with an IT technician and a producer in order to deliver the educational event.

What were the key benefits and advantages of working with the Procreation platform for your Virtual Events?

We really enjoy working alongside the Procreation team, who we have developed a strong working relationship with. It is fantastic to be able to deliver the courses and concentrate on the content, feeling reassured that the technology side is covered.

Can you briefly explain the support provided by the Procreation team, and how important this is for delivering your events?

The Procreation team offer short 15 minute onboarding sessions for the speakers to learn how to use the platform (eg come on/off stage) and build the bespoke elements of each course into the webinar platform for individual events (including speaker bios and programme etc). Throughout the day we maintain in close and continuous contact with the Procreation team in order to manage speakers coming on and off stage, use the platform to its full capabilities eg with polling/voting and video content, keep the course running to time, and assist delegates with any IT issues.

What has been the feedback from your presenters using the platform?

We have had excellent feedback from presenters who commented on the professional platform and smooth running of our events, as well as the organisation ahead of each event. Verbal feedback from one lecturer to our course organiser included, “(being impressed with) how well the course was organised and how smoothly…it went, in comparison to a number of other conferences that (he had) lectured on recently.”

What has been the feedback from attendees of your Virtual Events?

Very positive indeed
Professional interface
It is good to see the video of the speaker adjacent to the slide, not in front of it.
Polling has been well received.
Would you describe the shift to virtual as a positive experience and are there key opportunities that didn’t exist before, that do now, which resulted from this change?

Indeed, face to face courses are by nature limited by their location, however, the virtual platform has allowed us to expand our international delegates and reach more healthcare professionals.

Looking to the future, will you continue to use Virtual Events in the post-pandemic world, and if so why?

We are currently weighing up the pros and cons or face to face, hybrid, and virtual courses, and our current plan is to continue to deliver courses virtually through 2025 and 2026 to retain the wider reach of our courses.