How WP Event Manager Empowered the Fish Migration Foundation Team to Host Events Globally

The Word Fish Migration Foundation has emerged as a savior for migratory fish in the rivers of the Netherlands. The main objective behind building the organization is to spread awareness among people about the fish migration issues through events.

It all started with a small step taken by the founder Herman Wanningen seventeen years ago. He organized a Fish migration day at that time in the Netherlands where surprisingly more than 1000 people showed up to raise their support. Later in 2014 he took a step further by hosting an international event on fish migration which received a huge response from the attendees. After the massive success of the event finally the Word Fish Migration Foundation was established as a non profit organization. The organization started spreading its wings with the participation of 3000 other organizations in 60 countries in celebrating migratory fish in 2018.

We had the art director of the Word Fish Migration Foundation, Bas with us during the case study interview who said  “Collectively there were 570 events, reaching more than 70 million people. Meanwhile, thanks to growing awareness, almost all barriers in the region of the Dutch authority have re-opened for migratory fish in the past 20 years. With millions of barriers worldwide, we have a lot more work to do together.”

Inspiration behind the project

According to the art director they initiate events once every two years to spread awareness about the importance of migratory fish and free flowing rivers on the World Fish Migration Day. This day is celebrated internationally with the participation of the World Fish Migration Foundation with the common theme of “CONNECTING FISH, RIVERS AND PEOPLE.”

He said “ World Fish Migration Day (WFMD) culminates every two years in a global celebration to create awareness about the importance of migratory fish and free-flowing rivers. This international day of events is coordinated by the World Fish Migration Foundation. On World Fish Migration Day, organizations from around the world coordinate their own event around the common theme of: CONNECTING FISH, RIVERS AND PEOPLE. And this year it’s all about breaking free.”

He used the term break-free as we had been locked in our houses for long during the lockdown. This year it was special because humans have finally overcome millions of barriers and the migratory fish were also not an exception. The main purpose of their celebration this year was the hundreds of dam removals to encourage the return of rivers filled with migratory fish.

“After a year of lockdowns, we all want to break free. With millions of man-made barriers littering the world’s waterways, migratory fish do too! This year we want to celebrate the hundreds of dam removals executed and planned in recent years, and encourage fish heroes far and wide to advocate for free flowing rivers, the removal of barriers, and the return of rivers full of fish! Let’s Break Free!”

Challenges

Such big events require proper preparation and the support of the right tools. The Word Fish Migration Foundation was in need of a system that would give their event organizers their own login details and the freedom to update and manage their event seamlessly.

Bas added “We needed a system that provided event organizers with their own login and means to update and manage their event. Combined with the function to have a very nice event overview this plugin was the perfect match for our wishes.”

How did the Word Fish Migration Foundation find WP Event Manager?

They came across WP Event Manager through its positive reviews and mentions on Google, after which they tried the free version of the plugin to see if it would be a good choice for them. They were thoroughly satisfied with the plugin and immediately decided to switch to the premium version with premium functions and support.

In the words of Bas “We found this plugin by reading good reviews and mentions. We did a test with the free version and liked it so much we got the premium functions and received amazing support as well.”

The plugins that Fish Migration Foundation used

Besides the core plugin, the  Fish Migration Foundation used the Google Maps addon that has helped them a lot in solving issues in this project. The company was searching for a plugin that could make it easy for organizers to showcase their events without much manual effort.

Solution

After using WP Event Manager they were satisfied and declared that they got what they have been looking for. WP Event Manager successfully handed over the power to the event organizers to manage their own data and allowed their small team to organize and handle hundreds of World wide events easily.

Bas said “As mentioned above, the option for event organizers to manage their own data was a necessary requirement for our website and it allowed our small team to host and manage hundreds of worldwide events.”

Final words

Bas concluded the interview mentioning how various options of the plugin have made it easy for their small team to initiate big events effortlessly.

The support and additional options of this plugin made it possible for our small team to manage a global campaign with over 650 smaller local event.

Bas, Art Director
Worldfishmigrationfoundation