In the strangest and most unprecedented times, we were tasked with hosting an Open Event with the most extraordinary challenge yet; without ever opening our doors to the public!
Ordinarily, an Open Evening at Southport College sees hundreds of visitors welcomed in, where they see our incredible facilities, talk to our fabulous staff and find out everything they need to know about our courses. Coming into college gives a real ‘feel’ for our fantastic learning environment and the great atmosphere that goes alongside it, which is something you can’t quite get by flicking through a prospectus or just browsing a website.
Our innovative staff planned a way to capture as much of that feeling as possible by creating the next best thing; a virtual tour. By taking 360° photographs of our classrooms, workshops, learning centres and more, we created a way to step inside and explore all around our diverse departments. Reading about it is one thing but seeing it first-hand is so much better. You can now ‘walk’ around our workshops, enjoy a short performance in our Theatre and even ‘pick-up’ a prospectus whilst exploring our University Centre.
Ordinarily you would get the opportunity to talk to our staff at an Open Evening, so in place of this, we asked them to record videos from the safety of their own homes. When visiting the different rooms in the tour, you will find these messages so you can still see and hear from our lecturers and staff, but now at a time that suits you.
With virtual tours emerging as the most on-trend ways to explore in the comfort of your own home, Kuula has become one of the leading social media platforms for hosting them. Several days after the launch of our tour, Southport College has now become a Featured Tour on their site, in pride of place amongst locations such as New York City’s Grand Central Terminal and the National Museum of Natural History!
Our Virtual Open Event launched on the 10th June and will be available throughout the month. Everyone is of course welcome to ‘visit’ as many times as they like – ideal if you want to have a look first and then share the great course you’ve found with others.
Please enjoy a visit and let us know how you get on during your tour; send us a DM on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or email us.
Our First Virtual Open Event
We welcomed over 5000 virtual visitors through our ‘doors’ in our landmark Open Event.
