Overview
Each spring MIT SMR, a leading publication and research platform from the MIT Sloan School of Management, brings together the world’s foremost scholars, executives, and practitioners to explore how organizations and their people can thrive in an era of accelerated technological change.
Hosted annually on BigMarker since 2023, the Work series has become a flagship digital event for senior leaders navigating the future of work.
The 2024 edition, Work/24: The Human Factor, challenged attendees to look beyond the hype of AI and automation to consider the human systems that sustain innovation. Through sessions such as “Reinventing the Organization With Generative AI” with Wharton’s Ethan Mollick, and “How to Create Good Jobs and Thrive as a Business” with MIT Sloan’s Zeynep Ton, the program highlighted how organizations can design meaningful, resilient work in an AI-fueled world.
With expert moderation and seamless virtual delivery, the summit exemplified MIT SMR’s mission to elevate management thinking through evidence-based ideas and engaging digital experiences.
The challenge
After a successful 2023 debut on BigMarker, MIT SMR set out to elevate the Work series in 2024, expanding its audience reach while preserving the editorial sophistication and polish synonymous with its brand. The MIT SMR events team needed to orchestrate a high-production-value virtual summit that would feel as dynamic and credible as an in-person academic conference.
That required a partner capable of managing large-scale live streaming, ensuring broadcast reliability across a global audience, and capturing detailed engagement data for post-event analysis. The challenge was not only to deliver exceptional content, but to build an experience that reflected the magazine’s authority in management, technology, and human performance.
The solution
Powered by BigMarker’s enterprise event platform, Work/24 was produced as a half-day, multi-session virtual summit combining live and simulive presentations for flexibility and precision. The event was hosted on a custom-branded registration and viewing experience, seamlessly integrated into MIT SMR’s digital ecosystem.
BigMarker’s team worked closely with MIT SMR to ensure a smooth end-to-end production, from rehearsals and technical checks to real-time session management and audience engagement moderation.
Studio-quality streaming, intuitive navigation, and live Q&A and polling tools kept viewers deeply engaged throughout the program.
Results
The 2024 summit drew over 4,000 live attendees from around the world, marking another record-breaking year for the Work series. Audiences spent an average of 79 minutes in session, a remarkably strong retention metric for a thought-leadership event of this scale. Across three sessions, participants averaged 25 minutes of active engagement, demonstrating sustained focus and participation throughout the day.
Interactive features further underscored audience investment: attendees submitted nearly 1,000 chat messages and 358 live Q&A questions, while the event achieved a 100% poll response rate, a testament to both the content’s relevance and the ease of participation enabled by BigMarker’s interface.
By combining editorial excellence with reliable, high-touch production, MIT Sloan Management Review and BigMarker have established a repeatable model for large-scale virtual summits. The partnership continues to expand and refine each year, setting a new benchmark for how research-driven thought leadership can be delivered and elevated through digital events.
