Professional Associations, Overcome COVID with Virtual Events!!

I have been a volunteer chapter leader for about 20 years. My first experiences were with APICS and ASQ back in the early 2000s. I then jumped into PMI a few years later and have been very involved ever since. Throughout that time while volunteering for my particular chapter, I also attended and collaborated with many other organizations' volunteer leaders.

COVID has changed my life drastically. All of my kids are grown and have been out on their own for at least a decade. My wife and I moved to Florida to get away from the cold and get into an economic environment that was thriving. My kids and now their kids all moved down to Florida as well. My typical week's evenings were spent either doing something with kids and grandkids or going to professional association/organization meetings. I typically attended two or three professional association/organization meetings each week. COVID shut that down completely.

About a year and a half ago, I came to the conclusion that I needed to pursue something more fulfilling than the job I had at a cloud-hosting spin-off from a software development and implementation services company after it had been acquired by the largest end-to-end IT services firm in the world. I had culture shock and that became my catalyst to find something new. I went through the iPEC coaching program. I am now an Energy Leadership Institute Master Practitioner (ELI-MP).

My goal in 2020 was to transition out of my job and into my new coaching business. My niche is focused on project managers, project teams, and organizations with project teams. My plan was to go to PMI chapter meetings and put on my topical introductory presentation, then follow-up with those who it had resonated with. I did the presentation at two PMI chapters, but all the rest were cancelled due to COVID.

My chapter as well as many other professional association/organization chapters have pivoted to chapter virtual meetings as a result of COVID. Our folks have fumbled through the process. And although we have done them, I have expectations of delivering something better than we have. I also attended some other virtual meetings by PMI chapters and other professional association/organization chapters. I realized that there is an opportunity to help all of them by doing some research and learning some "better" or possibly "best" practices that any of them could employ.

Over the past six weeks, I have been reaching out to a variety of people and inquired about what they are doing and how it is working for them. Based upon what I've learned, the following are my recommendations and suggestions:

1. Pick a Technology - There are a lot of tools that are being used out there. Zoom is very popular. However, Remo, Webex, Teams, and Hopin were all discussed along with the social media streaming options of Facebook Live, Instagram Live, YouTube Live, and LinkedIn Live. The real key is to have a someone on the team that understands the options of that particular technology and is willing to "produce" the events. Typically, this person also moderates the events, but that could be a separate person altogether as long as the two of them know how to work together effectively. (Sidebar recommendation, have a backup to that technology guru in case something happens to the moderator like losing connection.) I have also attended major online events that used Bizzabo and Engagez, which seem much more sophisticated.
2. Pick your Topic(s) - I don't know about you, but I have seen a plethora of "COVID" and "Post COVID" focused topics as of late. Heck, I'm even on a panel this evening talking about the future of work. Topics drive interest and initial attendance. What is relevant and interesting should be the factors driving this. But I know that subject matter expert availability is what makes topics available. Now that chapter meetings are virtual, though, the subject matter expert does not need to travel to your in-person location to deliver his or her relevant and interesting topic.
3. Pick your Format - Most chapters are still continuing to provide education-based presenter/speaker formats. However, some chapters have figured out how to put together comfortable panel discussions with attendees Q&A, mixers and networking, workshops, and even study groups. I was really impressed with some chapters doing breakfast and lunch 'n' learns. One group did a two-meetings in one format with one breakout room doing a "career services" portion and one breakout room doing a typical education portion. The real key to making a format work is the producer that is involved in working the event and ensuring that the event is moderated according to the vision of that event.
4. Engage Your Attendees - Several chapters used technology to help with this, whether that be with Chat, a "Raise Hand" function, or possibly with polling or word mapping. Depending upon the technology selected (maybe even more than one in conjunction with one another). The key is to again make it worth the attendees' time and energy. I attended one virtual meeting where a poll drove the rest of the content of the meeting. That was really cool. Also, I attended a virtual meeting where the poll and subsequent attendee Q&A were not used during the presentation or for the responses.

As I continue to have discussions with chapter volunteer leadership, I add their responses to a Microsoft Excel file. That Microsoft Excel file will be placed on my web site for those of you who are interested in gaining access to it. Please send me an e-mail message ([email protected]) if you want to download it in its current state.