In brief

The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (The Alliance) hosted its annual meeting on Child Protection in Humanitarian Action and the theme was "Infectious Disease Outbreaks and the Protection of Children. It's an opportunity for global child protection professionals to come together, exchange knowledge and experience, while networking with other agencies, academics, policy makers and donors.

Unlike previous years, the 2020 annual meeting was fully virtual.

The Alliance wanted to provide an experience to mirror the physical meeting, networking, connections and conversations that usually take place during its annual meeting.

Guild can be used as a complementary community tool to virtual events and meeting platforms such as Hopin or Zoom.


Why did you use Guild for your event?

We spoke to Sara Lim, the Alliance's Knowledge Management Focal Point. She explained why they used Guild, Zoom and Qiqochat:

"Based on the options we had in front of us, we built a tech stack which consisted of Zoom, Qiqochat and Guild.

These platforms serve very specific purposes for a digital tech event:

  • Zoom provided a platform for our speakers and attendees
  • Qiqochat provided a way to emulate the physical space, allowing attendees to navigate between different tracks of mostly Zoom sessions
  • Guild provided a conversation interface for the community to chat and build relationships with each other

Messages are ephemeral and disappear on Zoom and Qiqochat.

So we used Guild to provide the conversational interface with the possibility for attendees to network more in the long-term."

How would describe Guild to other people?

Once people use Guild, they are able to explain why they like it and what it is.

Sara finds it different to messaging apps and feels that it's a platform more like a 'Private Twitter':

"Guild is a different animal to other messaging apps. Guild is like a private Twitter. Twitter is a place where you can have conversations and discussions but it's very public.

I think there's an opportunity with Guild to create safe spaces for professionals to connect and have thoughtful conversations."

Why not use Slack or WhatsApp for communities?

Sara highlights the importance of choosing a platform that is designed for professional conversation:

"We wanted a slick, clean, easy to use and professional solution for our communities - Guild met all our criteria. Guild is built and designed for cross-organisational communication."

The Alliance Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (The Alliance) group on Guild

The Alliance  for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (The Alliance) group on Guild

What advice would you give somebody running an event and managing a community alongside it?

Sara explains the importance of guiding attendees if your events are 100% virtual.

The Alliance created simple video guidance for the annual meeting attendees on how to use the event tech:

"We recorded a video for the event to help attendees sign up for the Guild and uploaded this on YouTube to make the onboarding process more clearer.

If you don't create a video, do handhold the community through the onboarding process by hosting open houses and producing guides (or requesting them from the Guild team) where you can."

The Alliance using YouTube for member onboarding on Guild

Sara explains the importance of signalling movement from one platform to another during events.

"I think it’s important to remind your community that different event platforms exist and to encourage them to utilise the full event tech stack where possible."


Join Guild 🤝

See for yourself how the Guild experience is different to WhatsApp, Slack, LinkedIn or Facebook Groups.

Guild is a safe space to connect, communicate and collaborate with others.

Join us on a platform that is purpose-built for creating groups, communities and networks on mobile.

Contact us if you want to know more or have any questions.