Two-Day Virtual Conference with New Jersey Historical Commission
About the Client:
The New Jersey Historical Commission is a state government agency dedicated to the advancement of public knowledge and preservation of New Jersey history.
About the Project:
The New Jersey Historical Commission’s Virtual Conference was held on November 12 + 13, 2021. The two-day virtual conference included keynote speakers, panel discussions, and lightning talks on Indigenous History and Persistence in New Jersey.
Primary: Project Management
Secondary: Virtual Event Planning & Day-of Management, Stakeholder Management, Landing Page Creation, Marketing Support, Vendor Management
Processes:
The initial phase began with defining the project scope, gathering information and creating the project timeline and Airtable base. This kicked off with a meeting with the New Jersey Historical Commission’s team where we clarified the project scope, gathered information and discussed the goals and objectives of the event.
After the initial meeting, the team developed the overall Event Strategy Playbook, including strategy to engage speakers, sponsors, partners and attendees. Once the timeline and strategy document was approved by the NJHC team, it was time to execute the vision.
Stakeholder management is an important phase of the event planning process, especially when it comes to virtual events. With a series of individual emails, Zoom invitations, broadcasts, calendar invitations and landing pages, we ensured that the speakers and moderators were well informed and kept on deadline.
As we started to collect speaker materials, it was time to create the landing page for the event, with a focus on the sponsors and partners the NJHC was in collaboration with to make this event a reality. To ensure everyone was on the same page and informed throughout the event, we also included Know Before You Go pages for the speakers, attendees and sponsors with links to individual sessions, and individual speaker links.
In the weeks before the event, we held Zoom trainings for individual speakers, panels and drop-in sessions so that speakers and moderators could ask questions and test tech. Simultaneously, the team created the internal run of show and timeline(s) to be shared externally; communicated all last-minute pre-event needs with panelists; ran the pre-show meetings with the internal team and speakers, and collected backups of all of the presentations.
November 12 and 13th, the team ensured that all of the sessions were going off without a hitch, moderated Q&A and served as technical moderators when needed. Finally, we worked with the client to distribute post-event surveys and collect data, presenting a final post-event report to all stakeholders.
Results:
298 people attended the conference, which was 48 more than the attendance goal.
38% of tickets sold were two day tickets, and 22% were student tickets
Students from over 40 schools and universities attended
As far as the goal of both students and teachers in attendance, teachers, professors, and assistant professors made up over 15% of the attendance