{"id":2764,"date":"2020-07-10T12:08:56","date_gmt":"2020-07-10T12:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.airmeet.com\/hub\/?post_type=case_study&p=2764"},"modified":"2025-01-02T11:49:54","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T11:49:54","slug":"bark","status":"publish","type":"case_study","link":"https:\/\/dev-hub.airmeet.com\/hub\/case-study\/bark\/","title":{"rendered":"BARK globalizes its startup community via Airmeet"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\n\t\t\tOverview<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\tUse Case:<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\tStartup community meet-up<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\tEvent Name:<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\tIRORI Online<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\tCommunity Name:<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\tBARK<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\tEvent Attendees:<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t80+<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Executive summary\n<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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BARK is a non-profit startup-community based in Tokyo, Japan. It is committed to help startups grow by resolving their issues and building an ecosystem with a synergy between dreamers and builders. BARK helps startups reach global audiences through its diverse community and learning sessions.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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In the pre-COVID era, they hosted in-person networking conferences and community events to help connect both entrepreneurs and budding entrepreneurs to the right people and provide them with more business opportunities. They started looking for an event platform to help accelerate startup growth and reach the other side of the world.\u00a0<\/p>

Powered by Airmeet, BARK launched its IRORI online sessions and are now reaping the benefits of virtual events<\/a>. Let\u2019s take a look at their strategy and implementation details. Hopefully, these takeaways will help you with your community efforts.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Challenges (and solutions)\n\n<\/h3>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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IRORI Online session is based on the Japanese concept \u201cIRORI\u201d which is a sunken fireplace in traditional homes. Irori is a place for not only cooking but also for family interaction and shared time.\u00a0 This concept which stimulates uninhibited communication among people inspired IRORI Online sessions. The focus of these sessions is to dive deeper into practical subjects with expert speakers who inspire the community.<\/p>

Haruka Furukawa, CEO, BARK, says, \u201cMeeting face-to-face and getting inspired by each other is the fastest way to build a better life and business. Even the smallest of conversations in serendipitous meetings and random encounters between two people can make a big difference.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>

Our community enables such meetings based on entrepreneurial topics on scaling globally. A large number of companies and leaders are interested in going global but are unable to do so due to a globally perceived Japanese cultural and language barrier. To overcome that, we bring together multicultural people to learn, network and grow together.<\/em> \u201d<\/p>

To be able to reach these goals of interacting and going global, BARK recognised that these challenges needed to be solved using an event technology partner.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Challenge 1: Bridging the communication gap in remote events via 'Raise Hand'\n\n<\/h3>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Haruka mentions, \u201cWe have three guiding principles for our community to diversify and connect effectively:<\/p>

  1. To provide a platform for non-Japanese speakers and host a global community. A basic rule is that the mode of communication should be English.<\/li>
  2. We ensure that the atmosphere is casual, with no hierarchy or bullying. No VIP culture and a flat community keep the interactions going comfortably.<\/li>
  3. Our diverse and multicultural community is open to all.\u201d<\/li><\/ol>

    To bring all these principles into practice through a virtual platform<\/a> and help make better connections was a major challenge.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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    Solution:\n\n\n<\/h3>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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    Airmeet enabled them to host knowledge-sharing sessions followed by effective networking<\/a>.<\/p>

    In a typical broadcast event scenario where attendees passively consume content with zero engagement, one is likely to get distracted and tune-out after some time. Engagement features are, therefore, necessary along with an excellent viewing experience and ease-of-use to retain focus.<\/p>

    Airmeet’s ‘Raise Hand’<\/b>\u00a0feature allows attendees to interact with speakers face-to-face by coming live on stage. Once the host accepts your ‘Raise Hand’ request, you can share your live feed along with other speakers. Post your discussion on-stage you can return the mic and live feed, quite like an in-person event<\/a>.<\/p>

    It can be your chance to come up on the stage, ask some cool questions and impress the audience as well as the speakers. It is a unique way of engaging the audience and maintaining focus.<\/p>

    Haruka says, \u201cEngagement is otherwise a concern as in an in-person event you can judge the engagement level. But given the virtual event nature, it is difficult to understand how engaged your audience is. To boost this engagement, we started doing events in a very interactive and exciting way through the ‘Raise Hand’<\/b>\u00a0feature. The atmosphere is now genuinely fun, and focus retention is higher.<\/em><\/p>

    We also split the meetings into smaller sessions like 30 minutes speaker presentation, followed by a 30 minutes Q&A session, and end with networking sessions. It is easier to break meetings into sessions with Airmeet.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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    Challenge 2: Networking through 'Social Lounge' feature & scaling\n<\/h3>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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    To meet their goal of going global, the event technology should offer features to scale better. Networking features was a primary requisite, as well, to allow random encounters and make real connections.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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    Solution:\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/h3>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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