If you are in the midst of planning your 2021 conference, you might be feeling a mix of pressures and emotions. It’s hard to predict what the world will look like months in advance and what will make your members feel engaged, safe, and interested. As you look down the road of 2021, there are a few things to consider while planning.
You have to provide your members with options. As vaccines roll out, everyone is going to be at different stages of comfort when it comes to gathering. If you are hosting an in-person meeting, you NEED to include a virtual option. Sessions can be streamed to those that cannot make it. This will allow for everyone to be included. In order to keep those at home engaged, you will need to think about how to include them in social options. Will you still have a virtual happy hour? How will the speaker hear their questions? Moving into a hybrid event will come with some new territory. It is important to think everything through with both options in mind.
In-person meetings will require some new elements. Safety should be top of mind for those attending the conference in person. Start considering how you can limit the amount of exposure people will have to COVID. Include hand sanitizer stations, branded masks, plexiglass barriers, temperature checks and anything else you can think of that will keep your event COVID-free. You should also consider how things you have done in the past, might now work the same now. If you have always given out paper programs, maybe it is time to switch to an app to cut down on the amount of physical touch.
Make the most of your event’s content throughout the year. This is something associations may never have considered before because events in person were simply over after the conference came to an end. With virtual attendees in tow, we now have the option to promote the recordings in the months to follow. This is also a great way to market your upcoming year’s conference. Here is what we offered at last year’s conference, so don’t miss the next!
This year is not going to be easy but it is going to offer opportunities that we may have never otherwise considered. This new normal allows more people access to your association and the content that it has to offer.