Association Online Community Advice & Tips | Breezio

Part 1 - Live Peer Review in Our Online Community

Written by Laura Dress | Apr 25, 2018 3:48:23 PM

In this four part series, I am going to share with you some of our unique experiences using Breezio for live online community peer review and collaborative note-taking at conferences. You will hear from our customers about how using Breezio has changed their perspectives and enhanced collaboration in their organization.

I’ll never forget my very first live event in Breezio where there were 8 high schools spread across 3 countries with a total of 73 high school students, mentors and judges. The event was scheduled on a Saturday for a few hours together online at the same time to review the manuscripts the students wrote about their science research. No one knew what to expect. It began with a discussion of 11 research papers by commenting on each others work in the body of the article.  The goal that all would be published in a first-of-its-kind synthetic biology online journal created and reviewed by high school students.

BioTreks had a huge challenge prior to finding Breezio, an impossible one really: How could they get high school students from all over the world together to peer-review their scientific research with limited time, varying schedules and very limited resources? Breezio's online community platform was the perfect solution. Their unique live chat feature, allowed the students to meet online together at the same time-- no traveling, no extra fundraising. Just login at the same time for a few hours and review each other’s work, in real-time.

The first ever, online BioTreks event was productive and fun for all! The member engagement of the students broke the wi-fi at their local coffee house, they were dashing into McDonald's to get the final comments in. When it was all typed and done, over 500 comments were made during the event, 98% of participants actively engaged in the event and 84% of the participants returned the next day!

BioTrek credits their online community success to Breezio's innovative community platform. Three years since their first live event, they boast incredible member engagement. BioTreks founder David Rozakfounder, speaks to the impact of these events,  “Live events are the heartbeat of our Breezio community! The events allow us to bring students together from around the world for online and face-to-face discussions about their synthetic biology projects. Live online manuscript review events, more than anything else, drive community engagement for our members.”