If your annual conference is going to have to go virtual:
What ideas could be implemented in order to try to get some of the fellowship opportunities that come from attending conference?
What things could be done to try to provide exhibitors an opportunity to still get their names out?
I attempted to join a conference ceu meeting and the invite with the specific download to attend would never show up in my inbox.?ÿ
Tried it several times and it would not work on my computer.
Junk folder?
I'm not a fan.
I had 2 annual online conventions last weeks, my expectations were low but they were both very good and just good.?ÿ
First had very interesting subjects and speakers that were used to give classes. There was a good session from Beuckie about scanning.
Second was organised by the Flemish goverment and gave more the look and feel from a real convention. They used the Thola platform, where all particpants can chat or video call with each other to network. There were different rooms with all kind of sessions, the exhibition hall and a library.?ÿ
once in the exhibition hall you could find all brands of survey instruments, watch videos and have video calls in MS Teams. You could see who was busy and who was free to call with. Felt very natural.
After all not bad, but hope we can join live again next year.
It's a challenge to present in a 100% virtual situation. I take cues from the crowd and wouldn't enjoy not having them in the room.
I presented "virtually" at the 2019 NGS Geospatial Summit. It is very difficult to talk to a computer screen for 20 minutes and not be able to see or hear the audience. You lose all connectivity and I often improvise my presentations on the fly depending on how the audience is reacting. It certainly is well below optimal, but in these current times, sort of the only option.
I attended AU virtually two weeks ago and it was pretty great and all the classes I attended went smoothly (after the first one anyway, link was broken). Make sure your links work and that testing has been performed prior to the conference.?ÿ
I always liked that the KAPS conferences allowed for one to attend multiple sessions and not have a room full of 200 sleeping surveyors. I like how most are short and you can move around.?ÿ
I would suggest keep them all short. Use a solid platform like Cisco Webex and have them stream live and offered recorded afterwards. I would think folks would still attend. Live sessions would allow for interactions and the short durations would also be good to keep. Vendors could also offer live demos - there are tons of live stream social media platforms that they can use and have as many folks as they want to drop "in".
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If your annual conference is going to have to go virtual:
What ideas could be implemented in order to try to get some of the fellowship opportunities that come from attending conference?
What things could be done to try to provide exhibitors an opportunity to still get their names out?
Great Questions Jon, and all question myself and others on our annual conference committee were faced with when we began researching and developing this year's upcoming Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon annual conference.
We have for many years prided ourselves on the number of classes we could provide to an in-person attendee of an Oregon conference. Usually each seminar session we offered 5-7 class options over three days for a total of 18 PDH hours. (6 hours per day). This year we knew about July we would have to go online for our January conference.
We realized really quickly that we needed to go with a proven platform for online conferencing and after lots of research, demos, sales meetings, and comparisons, we decided on the Whova Platform. They offer a collective Hub for everyone to go for classes, an exhibitor area that allows vendors to provide whatever content they desire, and sponsors areas through the site. They also have a Mobile Platform.
A few takeaways that we look at for this year.
1. There is no replacing an in-person conference. It is the best medium for presenters trying to engage an audience and present their facts and opinions on a particular topic. We realized we can not replace this but need to adapt to provide virtually what an in-person conference CAN NOT!
2. Flexible Schedule and limited "Time in front of a computer" We reduced the conference hours to 4.5 per day and split them over two weeks, Th-Fr.
3. Record Classes, (Not all national speaks will allow classes to be recorded and in that case they are live, one time only. BUT if a class can be recorded, then an attendee no longer has to juggle what classes they want to see during each block, because they can go back and watch them (for a limited time) AFTER the conference, on a Saturday, or Monday, or evening, etc.
3.1 This recording of sessions all of the sudden opens the schedule to those individuals that may not be able to "get off work to attend" or be "paid for their time to attend" a traditional in person conference.
3.2 Recording of classes all of the sudden changes our traditional PDH totals an attendee can get from 18 to over 50 if you/they want to watch all of the content.
3.3 Recording of classes also affords the attendee to break away from the traditional class time and block and allows them more time to go in and investigate the exhibitors, sponsors etc.
4.?ÿ Exhibitors can push content that gets in from of EVERY single attendee, not just the ones who make eye contact as they stroll by a booth in a traditional format.?ÿ I believe the success of a great virtual exhibit event relies heavily on what content an exhibitor can create and entertain an attendee who stops by their online booth area.
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I've been on our conference committee for just under 10 years so I get a bit chatty on the matter.
If you want to check it out. I believe you have to provide an email to do a quick registration on the Whova Site.
https://whova.com/portal/webapp/plsoc_202012/
