What did participants think about the virtual conference?
IAIA21: How did it turn out?
To be honest, we were not entirely sure what to expect from IAIA’s first-ever virtual conference. We have been running in-person conferences for 40 years, and while every conference has its own unique experiences and hiccups, we know how they work and generally how they will turn out. But virtual IAIA21? That was new territory.
The IAIA staff were pleasantly surprised at all of the engagement and comradery that happened online at IAIA21. And although there were some behind-the-scenes (and a few not-so-behind-the-scenes) glitches, overall it went pretty smoothly from our perspective. But what did the statistics show? And what did the participants themselves think?
From a numbers perspective, there were 1,201 total registrants, the most of any IAIA conference ever. Based on metrics from the Pathable platform, there were:
- 1,985 private messages sent
- 35,130 views of banner ads
- 200,060 page views from desktops
- 22,420 page views from mobile devices
In the weeks following the conference, when delegates could still view content, visits to Pathable were significantly lower than during the conference itself, as would be expected, but they continued at about 100-150 page views per day.
So those are the user numbers, but what did the participants think? We conducted an online survey a few weeks after the conference ended, while the experience was still relatively fresh. With 323 respondents, the response rate was 27%. Below are some highlights of the feedback we received from IAIA21 delegates. Of the total respondents:
- 85% felt they acquired significant new information, knowledge, and/or techniques directly applicable to their work. This was similar to the 86% reported by IAIA18 and IAIA19 respondents.
- 72% said they had already shared or planned to share information they learned at IAIA21 with colleagues.
- 64% met one or more persons at IAIA21 whom they plan to contact after the conference for something related to work.
- 88% would recommend future IAIA virtual events to colleagues.
- 88% said the value of the conference for the registration rate either met, exceeded, or far exceeded their expectations.
- 96% and 95% said the overall content of the pre-recorded and the live sessions, respectively, either met, exceeded, or far exceeded their expectations.
- 77% said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their ability to learn best practices from around the world that they can apply to their own situations.
- Of those who have attended other virtual events, 59% rated IAIA21 above average compared to other virtual events, with 35% rating it average in comparison.
- Of the 16 live sessions offered, four people watched all 16 of them live! Those four were from Myanmar, The Netherlands, Belarus, and Somalia, so some of those live sessions were certainly at odd hours for them. 22% watched at least half of them live, 60% watched 4 or more of them live, and 84% watched 2 or more live.
- In terms of when respondents wanted to see the pre-recorded sessions released, there was a pretty even split between those who wanted each day’s recordings released in a batch at the same time each day (37%) and those who wanted all recordings released in one large batch at the beginning of the conference (34%).
- A majority of the respondents thought that the amounts of pre-recorded sessions and live sessions were “about right,” at 78% and 72%, respectively.
- 61% were able to access all the recordings they wanted within the available four weeks or less, and 39% felt four weeks was not long enough.
- 44% of the respondents participated in one or more virtual coffee breaks, with 5 of the 300 respondents to that question participating in 5 or more. And of those who participated in at least one coffee break, 46% considered them either extremely or very valuable.
- Participants were not just engaged in the sessions themselves. They also visited one or more of the posters (58%), conference sponsor pages (48%), and virtual exhibit booths (47%).
- 72% found the overall Pathable platform user-friendly, indicating that it was very or somewhat easy to use, with 14% saying it was neither easy nor difficult to use.
- Just over half of the respondents were 44 or younger (51%), with 43% between ages 45 and 64, and 6% age 65 or older.
- 50% were female, 48% were male, and 2% were unspecified.
So there you have it! Conducting IAIA’s first virtual conference was certainly an adventure for us, and we appreciate your grace and patience in this new format. We are very much looking forward to seeing you all in person at IAIA22 in Vancouver!
Bridget John, IAIA Deputy Executive Director
