Executive Summary
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) held its bi-annual Adult Protective Services (APS) Conference with the assistance of Whova’s all-in-one event management platform.
The training event successfully distributed continuing education hours (CEHs) by the National Associate of Social Workers, Wisconsin Chapter, with the help of Whova’s session attendance feature. Social workers joined remotely from all across the state to hear from notable speakers in the Wisconsin DHS, Walworth County Court, County District Attorney’s Office, and the Wisconsin Department of Justice.
Given the success of their virtual event, they plan to make future in-person events hybrid to provide alternatives for attendees that can’t travel and offer the many online networking benefits available on Whova’s app.
Interview with the Organizers
About Wisconsin Adult Protective Services Conference
DHS is one of the largest state agencies in Wisconsin, with over 6,000 employees. They oversee all programs and services throughout the county, including Medicaid, to protect and ensure the health of their citizens.
The APS conference brings social workers and government officials together to discuss current opportunities and challenges in multi-disciplined approaches to aid elders or adults that have been abused, neglected, or exploited.
Using Whova’s event management platform, they successfully coordinated the information of over 30 speakers and facilitated plenty of networking opportunities.
1,100+
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94%
App adoption
600+
Private messages
Challenges
- Track attendance for training credits
The organizers needed to track viewing activity to ensure attendees were staying in sessions so they could distribute CHE credits.
- Upload documents in one space
The organizers wanted to distribute the numerous agenda handouts in one place instead of individually emailing attendees.
- Engage attendees during speaker sessions
With many valued speakers from the Wisconsin Department of Justice, County District Attorney’s Office, and more, the organizers wanted attendees to actively participate during sessions.
- Inspire attendee networking
Many more attendees could join as a first-time virtual event because they no longer had to travel. The APS organizers wanted them to get the most out of the event and connect or meet up with fellow social workers in their state.
- Effectively communicate with attendees
With almost 400 remote attendees, they needed to effectively contact them before, after, and during the event.
Solutions
- Recording virtual session attendance
The organizers easily gathered session viewing information through Whova’s automatically generated session lists.
Whova records the name, email, and session viewing time when attendees enter a live session. Using these comprehensive lists, the APS organizers simply emailed CHE credits to the correct recipients.
Organizers could view how long each attendee viewed a session
Attendees could like or post their own questions- Easily access event documents
The APS organizers uploaded all of their documents into the resources section of the web and mobile apps. Attendees had easy access to the uploaded PDFs during and up to 3 months after the event. To find what they needed quickly, they could also search for titles or descriptions of documents.
- Capturing attention with session Q&A and live polls
Whova’s Q&A feature helped speakers directly engage with their audience. Attendees could post and like questions on the live Q&A chat, and the most liked question would move to the top of the list. Speakers could then efficiently respond to attendee questions in real-time.
The speakers also took advantage of Whova’s live polls to gauge audience reactions and direct the discussion. Attendees effortlessly answered and viewed live poll results on their web or mobiles apps.
“Our keynote speaker was really good at noticing comments and questions in the chat and responding to them. It made it seem like we were all in the same space together.”
- Networking on Whova’s Community Board
Whova’s Community Board, an online chat forum, inspired much more attendee engagement and interaction than was usual for this event. Attendees suggested coffee or cocktail meet-ups and posted discussion topics about job openings or legal considerations.
Attendees also interacted online by posting and liking photos on Whova’s app. They could even upload their pictures to Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn directly from the app.
“We were floored that there was so much engagement and conversation on the app. It was great!”
- Quickly reaching attendees through Whova’s announcements
The organizers utilized Whova’s announcement feature to remind attendees to complete surveys and help them find recorded videos. Instead of emailing attendees their CHE credits, the organizers sent a link through the announcements to obtain their certificates.
All the announcements remained under the “Organizer Announcements” discussion topic in the Community Board, making it easy for attendees to find them.
They could even send announcements after the event ended, reminding attendees that the videos and surveys were still accessible within the app.
Attendees could access all organizer announcements in the Community Board