About the Client
The International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) is the global home for the science and practice of positive psychology. For more than two decades, it has brought together researchers, practitioners, educators and students across more than 70 countries, all united by a shared commitment to evidence-based wellbeing.
IPPA’s biennial World Congress has always been the association’s headline event. It gives the global positive psychology community a place to meet, learn and connect in person.
However, not everyone can travel to an international event. IPPA saw this as an opportunity to create a new way for the community to connect globally, bringing timely innovation to the field through a major virtual event focused on AI and wellbeing.
Could a virtual summit be just as popular and just as valuable, without anyone leaving their desk?
Client: International Positive Psychology Association
Category: Event Marketing & Promotion
Date: March 2026
The Challenge
Overcoming virtual event fatigue
After years of Zoom meetings, webinars and online conferences during COVID-19, many people assumed it had become too difficult to hold an audience’s attention online.
IPPA saw it differently.
The organisation set out to create a high-quality, five-day virtual summit that would make global participation easier, extend member value beyond its major face-to-face gatherings, reach a the broader community and explore one of the field’s most important emerging topics: the role of artificial intelligence in wellbeing and human flourishing.
Core Issues
- Keeping people engaged online
- A global audience to reach
- Limited promotional reach
- A new, untested event
The opportunity was significant, but so were the challenges.
Sustaining attention: A five-day virtual event needed to continually earn the audience’s attention without the energy of a shared room, informal conversations or the natural momentum of an in-person experience.
Appealing to a broad global audience: The Summit needed to engage people across countries, time zones and professional backgrounds. It had to feel relevant to researchers, clinicians, coaches, educators, students and wellbeing professionals without becoming so broad that it lost focus or value.
Reaching beyond the existing community: IPPA needed to promote the event beyond its own database and social channels, reaching new and relevant audiences through trusted partners, professional networks and aligned communities.
Most importantly, the Summit needed to create value beyond the live program. It had to strengthen engagement, identify prospective members and establish a repeatable model for future virtual events.
In Their Own Words
In this short video, Andrew Soren, Executive Director of International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA), shares his experience of working with MemberBoat on the Summit, reflecting on what the event meant for IPPA and how the partnership brought it to life.
A big thank you to Kintell, our remote interview and filming partner, for capturing this video case study through a fully remote process that felt both authentic and seamless. Visit https://kintell.com/remote-interview-filming to learn more.
Our Approach
MemberBoat worked with the IPPA team across the full life of the Summit, from early planning through to promotion, event delivery and post-event follow-up. The aim was to make the Summit more than a one-off event. It needed to be a meaningful member experience, a way to reach new global audiences, and a pathway into deeper engagement with IPPA.
Mapping the Campaign
We began by developing a tailored promotion strategy and campaign roadmap for the Summit. This involved working closely with IPPA stakeholders to align on the campaign goals, priority audiences, core messaging and overall approach.
Together, we also agreed on indicative measures of success, including registrations, engagement and potential member conversion. These measures gave the campaign a clear direction while allowing enough flexibility to adapt as the event gained momentum.
A Consistent Brand Across Every Channel
Using a new, purpose-built event brand as the foundation, MemberBoat created a complete suite of campaign assets to ensure the Summit looked and felt consistent wherever members and prospects encountered it.
This included digital banners, website graphics, eDMs, speaker and attendee templates, and promotional and sponsorship collateral.
The result was a cohesive, professional identity carried consistently across every channel.
Promotion With a Purpose
This is where the partnership-led approach earned its keep. We designed and rolled out a multi-channel campaign across email, social media and partner outreach, and wrote all of the promotional content and copy behind it, from website text and eDMs to social captions, partnership kits and press releases.
We built and managed the full event website in vFairs, and created a dedicated landing page on ippanetwork.org so IPPA could direct traffic to its own site and make use of its Google Grant.
Instead of buying broad, less relevant traffic, we focused acquisition on partnerships with universities and local associations, reaching the exact audiences IPPA wanted with the trust that comes from a peer endorsement.
Turning Attendees Into Members
Engagement campaigns drove registrations and live participation, and a post-event nurture sequence offered highlights and replay access to non-members, turning attendees into new and renewing IPPA members once the Summit closed.
The Results
700+ Attendees
The Summit drew 745 registrations, comfortably past the target we set out to achieve together, and a clear sign that virtual events still command attention when there is real value on offer.
Reaching 50+ Countries
Attendees joined from 53 countries, reaching members and prospective members well outside IPPA’s traditional hubs.
40+ Thought Leaders
Internationally recognised voices spanning research, clinical practice, coaching and education.
A Funnel That Outlives the Event
With segmented registration data and an automated post-Summit nurture sequence, the Summit keeps working after it ends, converting attendees into members.
A Blueprint for What’s Next
The branding, partnership playbook and conversion funnel are all reusable, giving IPPA a template for future virtual events rather than a one-time effort.
While much of the sector has written off virtual events, IPPA’s AI and the Future of Wellbeing Summit shows there is still strong demand for them. Going virtual was never going to be easy. What made it work was a timely theme, a credible program and promotion built around partnerships, which together brought hundreds of the right people from across the world and gave IPPA a genuine driver of growth.