Mobilising student talent for AbbVie’s Healthcare Heroes Hackathon

Healthcare Heroes Hackathon brings together students and healthcare professionals to develop solutions to real-world healthcare challenges.

November 2025
Client:
AbbVie
Sector:
Pharmaceutical
mission:
Securing subscriptions to the event and ensure actual attendance
Healthcare Heroes

The challenge

Healthcare Heroes Hackathon is an initiative that brings together students, healthcare professionals and innovators to develop solutions to real-world challenges in the healthcare sector.

To ensure the success of the event, the organisers needed to attract and secure the participation of motivated students from relevant disciplines such as healthcare, engineering, and business.

The key challenge was not only to reach students through the right channels, but also to convert registrations into actual attendance on the day of the event.

what we did

Sounds Good focused on strengthening the student recruitment pipeline and participation rate.

Key actions included:

  • Activating student-focused channels
    Identifying and leveraging communication channels relevant to students (student associations, academic networks, student communities).

  • Tailoring recruitment messaging
    Ensuring the opportunity was clearly framed for students: learning experience, real-life impact, networking with healthcare professionals.

  • One-to-one engagement with registered participants
    Following up with students individually to confirm their participation, answer questions, and reduce drop-offs between registration and attendance.

the results

The approach helped to:

  • Strengthen the visibility of the event within student communities

  • Secure subscriptions, with a high number of subscribers

  • Improve the conversion from registration to actual attendance, by reducing strongly the proportion of no-shows

“Perrine is highly adaptable and quickly operational. She plugs into complex, fast-moving projects and brings solutions even in high-pressure situations.”
gregory willocq
Grégory Willocq, External Affairs Director, AbbVie
“Perrine is highly adaptable and quickly operational. She plugs into complex, fast-moving projects and brings solutions even in high-pressure situations.”
gregory willocq
Grégory Willocq, External Affairs Director, AbbVie