Transitioning a Live Annual Conference into a Virtual Meeting During a Pandemic: Lessons Learned

The news was changing rapidly every day in early March 2020. One day, the coronavirus was halfway across the world, and the next it had made its way to Italy, and then it was right on our doorstep. Event planning is an incredibly stressful job without the threat of a pandemic. Many organizations rely on annual conferences and other events to support their bottom line – it’s their bread and butter, and it’s important that these things go off without a hitch. As someone who has spent years planning large medical conferences attended by over 3,000 healthcare professionals annually, as well as many smaller meetings, the fear of the unknown and loss of control over a situation is the worst feeling professionally. We pride ourselves in planning for the unexpected, coming up with a plan A, B and C just in case. We troubleshoot situations before they even arise. We attempt to predict the future to avoid unhappy attendees, speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors.   

The National Kidney Foundation’s 2020 Spring Clinical Meetings was scheduled to take place March 25-29 in New Orleans.  I remember the weekend of March 7th I was sitting in my apartment watching the news and scrolling through my Twitter feed realizing with dread that we’d have to cancel the conference. A year’s worth of planning would go down the drain. We’d lose millions in revenue and even more in cancellation fees with the convention center, hotels, and other vendors. So many healthcare professionals relied on this conference to obtain their yearly continuing education credits to maintain their licenses. That’s when I realized that we’d have to get creative, step into unfamiliar territory, and go virtual. Having no roadmap and only two weeks to turn a live in-person meeting into a live virtual meeting, all while having to stay home and prepare myself personally for war-like times in NYC, is something I hope to never have to navigate again. But I learned so much about the power of teamwork, the importance of adaptability, and the significance of persistence. The following are some of the most important lessons learned, which I hope other event professionals will find useful as we all try to navigate these unprecedented times. 

Time waits for no one

Planning a virtual conference for the first time within two weeks is not something I’d recommend. So, if you have an annual conference coming up within the next several months (or even year), make the decision now to go virtual (or at least offer a hybrid option). The more time you have, the better! This will give you the ability to:

• Think through new sponsorship opportunities. 
• Plan for communicating options and fees appropriately to your attendees. 
• Work with your vendors to pivot software and web platform functionality to a virtual or hybrid environment.
• Communicate the appropriate information to your speakers and ensure they feel comfortable with the format and technology. 
• Test out the features and functionality of your web conferencing platform.

Flexibility is key

It’s important to be flexible in extraordinary circumstances. Rethink your meeting policies and adapt as needed. Remember that everyone is coping with so many new and scary situations. Talk to your sponsors, attendees, and speakers to better understand their needs and goals. Here are some suggestions as you move ahead with planning:

• Consider capturing your content for on-demand use after the conference. This offers flexibility to attendees who may be dealing with childcare issues, extraordinary work circumstances, or sick loved ones. And it also positions you to reap the benefits of the conference long after it ends. 
• If a speaker doesn’t feel comfortable presenting virtually, or doesn’t have the time, that’s ok – offer to pre-record their presentation or let them off the hook completely. These are extraordinary times and every session or presentation doesn’t have to happen as originally planned. 
• Talk to your sponsors about pivoting to virtual sponsorship options – virtual product theaters, conference mobile app, etc. Already printed those tote bags, notebooks and other meeting SWAG? Mail them to your attendees as a virtual meeting care package. Ask the sponsor to include a note to add to the care package for an extra touch point. 
• Don’t cancel your poster presentations. Work with your mobile app and e-poster vendors to bring an interactive experience to your attendees. Consider creating a feedback option through the conference app so attendees can provide poster presenters with feedback on their research and e-posters. Make a fun game out of it – give Amazon gift cards to the top-rated poster authors; encourage attendee participation by giving those who participate the most complimentary meeting registration for next year. 
• Make sure you contract with vendors who can adapt to your changing needs without breaking your budget. I was only able to pull off a major format change with the support of vendors who stepped up to the challenge and provided ideas and solutions that enhanced the attendee experience (a special shout out to CaseHippo, EventRay, ExpoBadge, Cogent Global Solutions, and CadmiumCD). 
• Ensure your team is all in and willing to roll up their sleeves to make the meeting happen. Ask your CEO for additional staff support from other departments as needed. 

Approach your challenges head on

Dealing with personal preparations for the virtual conference during a stay at home order in NYC had its own challenges. It was all very stressful and tenuous, but I got through it by literally going through it. There was no way around it. So, besides my lack of grocery delivery options and failure to find paper products, here are some of the main challenges I had to face: 

• An Ethernet cord is my new best friend. When we originally announced our transition to a virtual meeting, the plan was to coordinate it from our office in Manhattan, which has stable internet and good bandwidth. That changed within a week when the stay at home order was put in place in New York. I had to make sure each of my staff had stable internet connection and any other equipment to ensure they could support several live webinars a day from their homes. It’s important to consider the tech logistics of pulling off a conference from your kitchen table. Stable internet is the most important lesson learned, and I want to thank Amazon for getting me my 50-foot Ethernet cable in the nick of time!
• All speakers’ tech skills are not created equal. Ensuring that your speakers can properly use their computer, webcam, and your conferencing platform is an obvious but essential issue. I was pleasantly surprised by the percentage of our speakers that were comfortable using Zoom (you will all probably be in even better shape than me since your speakers and attendees will have had much more practice while they remotely connect to friends, family, school, and work). However, it’s important to carve out enough time to coordinate small group or one-on-one trainings with the individuals who request it. You want your speakers focused on presenting good content, not stressing about how to share their screen or find the Q&A chat box.    
• Never mind the cynics. I had to face people who thought it was the wrong thing to do, people who thought it couldn’t be done, and people who didn’t see the value or importance in what we were trying to accomplish. I tried to approach each of them directly and honestly, and it was the best decision I made. There will always be cynics when you are charting new territory - board members, senior staff, speakers. Be positive, confident, and direct when presenting your case. You are re-imagining and redesigning the future of your conference…you got this!    

So, did we succeed? 

As the saying goes, every cloud has its silver lining. Participation in our first-ever live virtual conference was up 11% from last year’s in-person conference. And because we were able to save on so many large expenses while also maintaining many of our larger sponsorship and program support line items, we were able to increase our net profit by 25%. The feedback from attendees, speakers, and sponsors has been overwhelmingly positive. My team and I have all grown and learned so much from this experience. We took on a challenge, charted our own path, and succeeded because of the support and dedication of our staff, volunteers, and vendors.    

Acknowledgments

A special thanks to Kevin Longino, NKF’s CEO, and the rest of the NKF senior team who provided the right balance of space and support needed to get through it all. The virtual Spring Clinical Meetings would not have been possible without the support of our friends at Zoom – thank you for jumping on those late-night conference calls and being there to answer all our questions. Finally, thank you to all of the healthcare professionals who participated as speakers, program committee members and attendees. During a global crisis you still supported our organization, our members, and the patients we serve. Thank you for everything you do to care for and protect kidney patients - you have my endless gratitude and respect.