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Annual conference a real, live, virtual success

October 14th, 2020

For the past 15-20 years, Points West Living, along with its operations company Connecting Care, has held its annual conference in person. It took place October 6-8, 2020, but unlike any previous gathering, this year’s meeting was held virtually, with participants in their workplaces, homes, and even vehicles. And it was all held together by a professional production company.

Virtual event with galleries and chats

With up to 80 people gathering every day of the three-day conference, the only way to make the meeting happen under COVID restrictions was to do it virtually. And for the most part, it went off without a hitch, thanks in large part to the expertise of Production World in Edmonton.

“Overall, I’d say it was amazing!” says Marketing and Communications Manager Mark Dixon, who was charged with smoothing the way for this year’s conference in the entirely new ‘virtual’ format. “We transformed an in-person event with gatherings and hugs to a virtual event with galleries and chats.”

Virtual highlights

“There were 25 presenters, including Connecting Care employee care partners, as well as national and international speakers, some of whom we would not have been able to have come in person,” says Mark. “There were no real workshops. So many of us are new to the virtual world and we didn’t want to get too fancy right off the top. Maybe next year.”

Highlights for Mark included presentations by Dr. Allan Power on the Eden Alternative Domains of Wellbeing, and Georg Rath’s panel discussion on End of Life and After Life Care in our communities.

Hello videos

“Another other great thing was, each community was asked to present a ‘Hello Video’ to introduce their community,” says Mark. “Some centered on their participation in the #Steps2MentalHealth challenge, some had polished presentations, and one creative community had a dog walking around to showcase the community.” These videos were shown during break times.

Production World’s spacious studio in Edmonton made it possible for co-hosts Mark and Stephanie Miller (Connecting Care’s Executive Director, Strategy) and a variety of in-person presenters to be physically distanced during the conference.

Jumbo-tron-ish

“One of the really cool things was a 20’ digital wall at the back of the stage,” adds Mark. Participants could see the speaker and the background, and so could those of us standing on stage. The Production World folks could bring up a gallery of everyone who was online. They could see us. We could see them. We were doing high-fives!”

Photo montage: (Upper left) a selection of participants ‘conferencing in’ from their COVID workspaces; the Production World control room; and CEO Linda Revel’s conference closing remarks included playing the video song “All Together Now” written and produced this past spring by California pop band OK Go. The song explores the globally shared experience of COVID-19. Band front man Damian Kulash and his young family were among the earliest in the state to be stricken with the virus.

More photos at Flickr: Annual conference a real, live, virtual success

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