A behind-the-scenes look at the National Association for Home Care & Hospice’s virtual meeting transition. As the coronavirus swept across the globe, businesses closed their doors, plans were put on hold and events were outright canceled.
But for the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC), shutting down their annual July financial conference was not an option. “Our mission is to promote, protect, and advance the highest quality of healthcare at home,” explains Scott Baum, NAHC’s Senior Director of Meetings. “The information we provide to our members is critical.” The organization had been hard at work creating content surrounding the big issues facing the industry when the lockdown occurred and felt a duty to provide COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 guidance to its members. “We decided that it is vital for us to hold the conference,” Baum explains. Here’s how the NAHC is moving forward.
Relying on An All-In-One Platform
The NAHC fully virtual conference this year was four days: two days of education and general sessions and two days of expo. In the world of event planning, things seldomly go very perfectly, but NAHC was uniquely positioned for success. The organization maximized the platform by hosting their education content on the solution, creating an interactive floor plan for exhibit sales and billing and all this information on the public-facing side so all attendees could go through and search information and exhibitors they want to meet.
For NAHC, the all-in-one setup translated to less third-party systems to try to connect, less explaining to users how and where to access information, and less chance for important things to fall through the cracks. One system allows a single change to be applied to many different places, from the website to the mobile app.
Expanding the Power of Connectivity
The NAHC team did not want to just hold some facsimile of their usual conference and expo in the virtual world. The organization decided to add the A2Z Events matchmaking suite. This powerful solution allows show organizers to collect demographic information on attendees and exhibitors to expedite and make meaningful connections among their audiences. Maximizing everyone’s efficiency was a key goal for their virtual event.
Tech That Helps You Survive and Thrive
From the existing capabilities of Personify’s products, NAHC was able to transform the attendee experience for the better. “In most emergency situations, event planners are working to find a ‘make-do’ solution—anything just to get by,” says Baum. “But with these products at our disposal, I feel like we’re able to produce an experience for the attendees, faculty members and exhibitors that was going to be as good—if not better—than what they’d get face to face.”
This NAHC profile was first published on the Associations Now blog on July 12, 2020 as part of an ongoing series profiling the COVID response strategy of Associations. Republished with permission, all rights reserved.