PDT Expo: Making Digital Transformation in Public Health a Reality

Accessible design and smooth onboarding

Accessibility is a top priority for both the organisers and MEETYOO. Thanks to funding from the NextGenerationEU initiative, participation is completely free of charge — a deliberate decision to democratise knowledge exchange across the entire public health sector.

To ensure a stress-free start, the platform opens a full week before the official keynotes. This pre-login phase gives attendees time to test their access and sort out any firewall issues with their internal IT departments. Particularly important for organisations in the public sector, where security requirements are strict. When the event finally kicks off, technical problems are the exception rather than the rule.

Interactive show floors

The core of the Expo is the exchange between attendees and digital solution providers. Instead of passively browsing a catalogue, participants join speed-pitching sessions to get a quick overview of the tools on show. From there, they move directly to the virtual booths that interest them most.

At each stand, attendees can download resources, chat with representatives, or jump straight into a one-on-one video call. This turns a simple website visit into a genuine conversation at eye level.

To make navigation easier, the platform uses intelligent matchmaking: attendees indicate their areas of interest, exhibitors list their key topics, and the system generates personalised recommendations. The most relevant stands appear at the top of the overview — so participants find the right contacts without having to search through every hall. A photobooth with exhibitor logo walls rounds off the experience: photos taken there end up on LinkedIn, extending the event's visibility well beyond the day itself.

Driving engagement with smart gamification

Keeping a digital audience focused throughout a full day requires more than a good programme. The PDT Expo uses gamification to encourage continuous exploration across the platform.

Attendees earn badges for concrete actions: attending a session, chatting with an exhibitor, or completing a feedback form. In a more recent edition, this was taken a step further with a custom escape game titled A Time Travel Through Digitalisation — participants solved interactive puzzles around topics like AI and public health, guided by the event mascot Ölaf. Hidden somewhere on the platform was a digital goodie bag: whoever found it could register for gifts from the exhibitors. A small detail, but one that kept people exploring long after they'd found what they originally came for.

AI support at every step

Navigating a large virtual trade show can be overwhelming. To help attendees find exactly what they were looking for, the event features a custom AI assistant known as the EXPO Guru.

Active across all three phases of the event — before, during, and after — the EXPO Guru guides attendees through the programme, recommends relevant sessions, and answers technical questions on the spot. During the pre-login week, it already handles questions about content and schedule. Once the event is over, it supports the on-demand phase: attendees can interact directly with recorded sessions, request summaries, or ask about specific speakers.

One feature that proved particularly popular: the EXPO Guru generates ready-to-publish LinkedIn posts on request — before, during, and after the event. Attendees and exhibitors alike used it to share their takeaways with their professional networks without having to write a single word themselves.

A growing partnership

The PDT Expo is not a one-off project. Each edition feeds directly into the next: what works is kept, what can be improved gets flagged. That feedback loop runs in both directions — insights from the PDT team on accessibility have made their way back into the MEETYOO platform itself, leading to concrete improvements that benefit every event running on it.

The result is an event that gets sharper every year — and a working model for how the public sector can embrace digital transformation without losing the things that make a good event good: real dialogue, genuine connections, and content worth coming back for.