The American Astronomical Society is a professional organization made up of the top astronomers in North America. Established in 1899, their mission is to “enhance and share humanity’s scientific understanding of the universe”.
Twice a year, AAS meets to discuss the latest in science, network with other members, and present research from within their respective fields. In the past, these meetings were hosted in person. However, 2020’s COVID-19 pandemic forced the team to shift the event online. In June 2020, the first AAS virtual meeting was hosted with vFairs.
Event Highlights
The first AAS virtual meeting was hosted with vFairs from June 1-3, 2020. The second event was hosted in January 2021. Registration was open primarily to members of the AAS, but non-members, students, and affiliates from the private sector and government were able to attend as well. They wanted to ensure each group received value from this event because their attendees were a mix of audiences.
The Challenge
With in-person meetings, the team would choose venues that were easily accessible from both the East and West coasts. They looked for venues that featured good equipment and service to support all of their needs. The AAS virtual meeting also needed to be easily accessible and user-friendly, and have enough features to support all of their virtual event needs.
Why vFairs?
When searching for the best way to execute their online meetings, a colleague suggested vFairs to the rest of the team. They had previously attended a vFairs event and noted that the platform had everything they were looking for.
Their meetings aimed to create a space where people could exchange information and ideas about science. Rita Braxton, Senior Meetings Manager at AAS, notes that “it’s all about the science.”
The Solution
Interactive Exhibit Halls, Poster Halls & Community Integrations
They decided to host three separate exhibit halls: a general exhibit hall, a graduate fair hall, and a hall dedicated to the National Science Foundation. Additionally, they featured a poster hall where students and researchers could showcase their research and discuss their findings with other attendees. They also integrated Slack into the event. This allowed attendees and researchers to more easily discuss and view previous conversations about said research.
Immersive Presentations with Virtual Auditorium
Additionally, the virtual auditorium hosted presentations by invited speakers and students. Sponsors also hosted live town halls and workshops in this virtual space. Presentations were only conducted live at previous in-person events. There was no way to access the presentation once it concluded. With vFairs, webinar presentations were published 24 hours after they concluded. This meant that attendees who had missed the live presentation could revisit and watch on their own time.
Rita noted that they actually saw increased attendance when hosting their first meeting online. She noted that summer events were historically less well-attended than their winter counterparts, but this shifted with their first online event.
In the Spotlight: The Virtual Environment
One key aspect of the virtual event that made it stand out was the immersive and interactive virtual environment. Interactivity and engagement were key for the event to feel successful, and in general, they felt the vFairs platform offered that kind of functionality.
“We wanted to have an interactive exhibit hall, that was very important to us,” says Rita. “We wanted it to feel as much like an in-person meeting as possible… to give them a more personal feel to let them know that we’re not in person but we can still enjoy this experience.”
In the future, the team would like to try to drive more activity to the interactive exhibit booths within the exhibition halls.
Additionally, features within the environment — such as the help desk — were extremely valuable to Rita. This was where she spent the most time interacting with attendees. She gathered important feedback about how their experience and how the event could be improved in the future.
The Result
AAS were able to create a fully customized look and feel for their virtual event with vFairs. This elevated the experience for their attendees as they didn’t miss the in-person event. Moreover, they were able to increase event attendance and engagement by removing obvious hurdles like commute, geographical location, and transportation costs for attendees. The event content like presentations, posters, and live sessions was available even after the event ended which was a huge value add for attendees.
Plans are already underway for AAS’s next virtual event with vFairs. Rita and her team are looking forward to working with the team again. Rita noted that their experience with the vFairs team “was really good! We requested to work with the same team again for our next meeting.”
