ATD’s 2020 Virtual Conference Brings Virtual Event Learning to a New Level
ATD’s Virtual Conference 2020 was a five-day event created for training and learning professionals, all delivered on Social27 Virtual Event Platform. Their event included dozens of sponsors, hundreds of speaker sessions, and thousands of attendees.
Let’s Get Learning
Average Days Attended per attendee: 3.5
Average Time Spent per Day per attendee: 01h:56m:15s
Days of event: 5 days
Number of attendees: 12,562
Number of Live Sessions: 35
Number of On-Demand Sessions: Over 100 hours
Overall Platform Feature Uses: 69,889 uses
From Face-to-Face to Virtual
ATD’s main focus at every event is the attendee experience – and a virtual event like ATD Virtual Conference is no exception. ATD Virtual Conference went above and beyond to educate attendees despite current challenges. Expert materials, content, and resources were provided to an audience that was eager to educate and better themselves and their career.
Educators, learners, and attendees were provided with conversation features such as:
- Attendee Roundtables
- Sharing an intro video via Hello World!
- Happy hour chat rooms
- One-on-one messaging during live and on-demand sessions
- Live interactive Q&A sessions with keynote speakers
Underlying AI in the virtual events platform helps surface not only like-minded users to help attendees connect with others, but it also surfaces relevant content and provides attendees with specific areas of interest using the content Recommendation Engine.
The Recommendation Engine
- Guides attendees to content that is most relevant to them
- Suggests sessions based on one’s attendees have already enjoyed
- Connects attendees with similar interests
- Surfaces sponsors most relevant to individual attendees
ATD Virtual Conference was specifically created to maximize the attendee networking and learning experience in the virtual world.
During the Virtual Conference
- On-Demand Sessions: Overall, there were 17,565 uses for On-Demand sessions over the 5-day event period.
- Roundtables: With 6 participants max to a Roundtable, there were 1,037 uses for Roundtable sessions, with 451 Roundtables created.
- Hello World!: There were 822 attendee uses for recording an intro video via Hello World!.
- Happy Hour: There were 95 Happy Hour chat room uses from attendees all around the globe.
- Sessions Started (includes live interactive Q&A sessions with keynote speakers): There were 8,522 uses for attendees hitting the “Play” button over the 5-day event period.
Social27 Virtual Event Platform hosted 12,562 attendees during the 5-day ATD Virtual Conference on June 1st through June 5th, 2020.
Over the 5-day event, attendees used many of the features that were integrated on the platform to interact with others and provided content that included best practices, tools, and programs.
Findings
Overall, ATD Virtual Conference successfully connected thousands of attendees from around the world (accessed in over 5 different languages: English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Spanish.)
With the ability to network in groups or individually, the most popular form of connection was the Roundtable feature. During the event, Roundtables allowed up to 5 attendees per table to chat extensively about a desired topic related to the event. Because Roundtables allowed for a more intimate interaction with other attendees, users were comfortable and more inclined to chat and connect with other users.
Out of all of the features available during the event, the most popular form of learning and interacting were the On-Demand sessions. On-Demand sessions allowed attendees to watch videos and download content or resources at any time of their choosing. Because attendees were not confined to a space or time for these actions, On-Demand allowed users to come back to sessions they enjoyed, as well as provided more freedom to browse the platform as desired.
Both of these features not only provided greater value to the virtual event, but they also allowed attendees to have a more connected, interactive experience.
After the Virtual Conference
While usually an in-person event, the annual ATD Conference was successfully made virtual all while still focusing on attendee growth and development.
Filled with first-class speakers whom are experts in their respective fields, ATD Virtual Conference has provided thousands of attendees with hours of useful educational content, resources and connections.
ATD has also given attendees 90-day access after the event officially ended, further showcasing their dedication to providing top notch educational resources for all of their customers to enjoy.
Overcoming current hardships to connect attendees with likeminded people has helped talent development professionals to continue to build their skillsets and increase their impact in the business world.
