Digital Footprints, Green Impact: User Engagement Analysis of a Conference Management Platform at the 41st Annual...

Introduction: International medical conferences face evolving challenges in optimizing scientific exchange and professional networking while minimizing their environmental footprint. Digital platforms offer solutions that can enhance engagement while reducing ecological impact. This study evaluated implementation outcomes of a custom digital platform at the 41st International Fetal Medicine & Surgery Society (IFMSS) meeting.

We conducted a prospective observational study of a custom mobile application platform deployed during IFMSS 2024 (September 22-28, 2024). The system incorporated authenticated user access, real-time session management, networking capabilities, and comprehensive analytics. Primary outcomes included user engagement metrics, scientific content interaction rates, professional networking efficacy, and platform stability.

Platform adoption reached 91.9% (339/369 registrants), generating 178,873 discrete interactions. Scientific content engagement included 56,344 abstract/presentation views by 335 unique users. Networking features facilitated 182 new professional connections and 485 direct message exchanges. Search functionality received 4,310 targeted queries, while speaker profiles were examined 780 times.

Implementation of a digital conference platform demonstrated significant efficacy in supporting conference objectives with high engagement rates. These findings suggest digital platforms can effectively enhance traditional conference structures, facilitate attendee engagement and interaction, reduce paper waste, and provide a more sustainable option for scientific exchange in subspecialty meetings.