I was a virtual meeting dropout!
Edward P. Salek, CAE, Executive Director | TLT Headquarters Report April 2021
There’s a right way and a wrong way to attend an online conference. Recent experience taught me some lessons worth sharing.
Plan for the event and block your schedule as though you were attending an in-person conference.
After more than 75 years of in-person annual meetings, STLE will hold its first Virtual Annual Meeting & Exhibition May 17-20. It’s safe to assume most TLT readers have participated in multiple live conferences and a few virtual events. However, there still might be some value in me sharing lessons learned from two recent and distinctly different virtual conference experiences.
One lesson for the virtual conference world: Plan for the event and block your schedule as though you were attending an in-person conference. If you don’t, you are likely to shortchange yourself and your employer on the benefits of attending.
Corollary to that rule: Don’t blame the virtual format for any lack of return on the registration investment. If it does happen, the cause is operator error—not system failure. Let me explain how I fell into and then escaped this trap.
My first experience attending a major virtual conference occurred this past August. I was registered for an important international gathering of association professionals. The event featured a robust three-day program with keynotes, breakout sessions and networking opportunities. There were designated times to visit with suppliers.
Although I have attended the same event in the past when it was a live event, I treated the virtual conference differently. There was so little advance planning on my part that I had to scramble to find my login information on day one and missed most of the opening session. The session was recorded for later viewing, but I never made the time to get back to it.
Looking back on the event now, I realize that this initial misfire on participation set a pattern for the next three days. My mindset was that I would keep my normal routine and periodically check in on the conference. This worked to a limited degree, but I now realize that I skipped important portions of the meeting to make phone calls, answer emails or work on projects that did not require immediate attention.
A much better approach would have been to plan each day around the event program, as one would when attending an in-person conference. You take short breaks to check emails and voicemail for anything requiring immediate attention, but you keep the focus on learning, thinking and connecting with peers and suppliers.
Fast forward to February of this year. I came away from another association executives conference with valuable insights on major issues facing technical societies: energy and climate change; long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on organizations and meetings; new opportunities for research funding and STEM; and the various ways groups are addressing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The difference between August and February was me being prepared and committed to active participation in all aspects of the event.
Three other observations about making the most of virtual meetings:
• Explore the meeting platform capabilities in advance of the conference. That way you’ll be able to take full advantage of features that are being included in the rapidly changing technology that supports virtual meetings. Watch for announcements on when the STLE Virtual Annual Meeting platform will be open for exploration.
• Connecting with suppliers and sponsors is different on a virtual platform. You obviously cannot walk through the exhibit hall or attend a reception. But there are online tools that enable you to check in with current suppliers and discover new ones. Suppliers also will be reaching out with invitations to connect with meeting participants. Make some time to respond and give them the opportunity to derive benefits as well.
• Don’t convince yourself that networking is impossible in the virtual world. If it was, why does LinkedIn have 740 million members in 200 countries? Leverage the virtual meeting tools to seek out people you know and to make some new connections.
Any virtual conference—and especially STLE’s—can be a success. The keynote talks, technical sessions, exhibits, posters as well as engaging with colleagues during networking breakout sessions will help you have an experience that’s different from an in-person conference but just as rewarding. See you on the STLE virtual platform next month!
STLE Virtual Annual Meeting & Exhibition
STLE has opened registration for the STLE Virtual Annual Meeting & Exhibition, May 17-20, 2021. The four-day conference will offer a user-friendly, virtual meeting platform that will safely provide attendees with a full conference experience, including daily keynote talks, live Q&A opportunities with academic and industry leaders, nearly 300 technical presentations, posters, virtual exhibits and networking time with colleagues. For more information, visit
www.stle.org/annualmeeting.
You can reach Certified Association Executive Ed Salek at esalek@stle.org.