Issue link: http://psai.uberflip.com/i/1289192
ASSOCIATIONINSIGHT Portable Sanitation Association International News BIWEEKLY EDITION SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 Page 20 How to Maximize Value from a Virtual Conference…Continued from page 19 You can connect on what you saw, experiences you had, and even compare notes on sessions and exhibitor booths. Having others involved in your conference experience can help boost your motivation, increase your attention, and provide some accountability for learning. Also, consider convening as a group by Zoom or Skype at the end of each conference day and/or after the event is over to share thoughts and key takeaways. Making this kind of effort can go a long way toward reinforcing learning and ensuring that you actually put what you learned at the conference to work. Four: Know and Use Your Tools Well before the conference starts, we will let you know how to access the conference platform and let you roam around the virtual space. Take advantage of this opportunity and don't wait until you have to show up for your first session to familiarize yourself with what you are seeing and determining if your computer works properly. Otherwise, you could wind up frustrated and distracted and may miss out on part of the content. To the extent you can, familiarize yourself with the features of the conference platform and think about how you will use them. The ability to chat is one of the most common and valuable features. Make sure you know how to communicate with other attendees and with the session speakers. This is also a good time to understand whether other capabilities, like separate Q&A functionality or "clapping" and "thumbs up" emoticons are available. You should also check to make sure your bandwidth is strong enough for the audio and video you will be consuming. It is no fun watching content drop out during the most important parts. These may sound like trivial details, but the less you have to think about the tools and the more fluent you are in using them, the more you will really be able to pay attention and engage. In a traditional face-to-face environment, very few of us have to think about how we communicate with the session leader or other attendees. Be conscious that attending virtually requires that extra bit of thought and preparation. Five: Schedule Replays and Review One of the best benefits of virtual conferences is that most everything is recorded. That means you can access sessions you weren't able to see live and you can review sessions you were able to attend. Accessing new content and reviewing past content is invaluable from a learning perspective. That said, you should make a point to catch sessions live as much as possible. As easy as it sounds to just watch it later, there is a strong chance you won't since work and life tend to get in the way. The key to making learning happen is simple: Schedule it. Make multiple appointments with yourself—or possibly your group of co-attendees—to play recordings, reflect on sessions, and identify ways to actualize key information. The value you get from attending a conference virtually will be determined most of all by how much effort you decide to put into the experience. The good news is that after so much time off from your friends and colleagues in the industry, everybody should be excited to all be together once again! v