BCND's Annual Conference: An Immersive Virtual Medical Gathering

The British Columbia Naturopathic Doctors (BCND) hosts one of the most important annual gatherings for naturopathic medicine in the province. As a leading professional association, BCND's annual conference is a critical touchpoint for member engagement, continuing education, and organizational governance. For their hallmark event, the BCND leadership had a clear, non-negotiable mandate: the virtual medical conference experience needed to deliver unparalleled engagement, participation, and trust, surpassing the limitations often associated with online formats.

The Challenge: Translating Trust and Participation to a Virtual Space

BCND's annual conference is more than just a series of lectures; it is a vital forum for peer-to-peer networking and democratic decision-making. With over 500 attendees joining for a half-day program, the challenge was two-fold:

1. Maintain Engagement: How to keep a large professional audience engaged and connected in a virtual setting for immersive continuing education.

2. Enable Governance: How to facilitate critical, real-time member participation, specifically online voting at conferences, to shape the organization's future agenda.

The goal was to create an online experience that felt structured for formal learning yet dynamic enough to foster the human connections and participatory governance essential to a thriving professional association.

The Gatherly Solution: Seamless Integration of Education, Discovery, and Democracy

BCND partnered with Gatherly to transform their event from a passive broadcast into a truly participatory experience. Gatherly’s platform was deployed to support both the formal and human sides of the professional conference, creating a fluid and intuitive environment for all 500+ attendees.

Key Features Deployed:

• Interactive Digital Booths: Clinics and exhibitors showcased their work through dedicated, interactive digital booths. This feature enabled crucial peer discovery and professional networking, mimicking the organic flow of a physical exhibit hall.

• Central Main Stage and Fluid Movement: Board members delivered key updates and educational content from a central main stage. Attendees could move fluidly between these main sessions and the exhibit areas, ensuring they could tailor their experience and maximize their time.

• Real-Time Member Voting: Most importantly, Gatherly enabled live, secure online voting at conferences on the 2026 agenda priorities. This feature transformed the event from a one-way communication channel into a participatory governance experience, allowing members to directly shape the future of their organization in real time.

  
  

The Outcome: High Engagement and Official Partnership

The results of the BCND Annual Conference were immediate and impactful. The virtual medical conference achieved a highly engaged professional audience, validating the decision to prioritize an immersive continuing education experience.

The platform successfully delivered a seamless balance of education, discovery, and decision-making. By facilitating critical governance functions like online voting at conferences, Gatherly proved its capability to handle the high-stakes requirements of a major professional association event.

BCND was so pleased with the experience and the demonstrable increase in member participation that they officially named Gatherly their exclusive event partner.

Gatherly’s platform successfully supported the dual mandate of the BCND: to provide high-quality immersive continuing education and to facilitate the democratic processes of a professional association. By enabling members to learn, connect, and, most critically, shape the future of their organization through secure online voting at conferences, Gatherly delivered a model for the next generation of virtual medical conference experiences.