The 2020 CPNP Annual Meeting will no doubt go down in the history books. For the first time in 23 annual meetings, the event was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In just 4 weeks, CPNP staff worked with the Program and Recertification Committees and speakers to transition the event from 3.5 days to 5 days of live programming and 13 hours of on-demand content.
One attendee commented: “I was incredibly impressed with how smooth the transition to a virtual meeting was. There were so few technical difficulties and they got addressed in such a quick fashion they did not impact my learning or the experience. While I enjoy the live meetings, this was effective and affordable. Thank you to everyone who made this event happen!”
With the transition to virtual, the CPNP Foundation acted to convert their traditional 25 student grants to sponsor student attendance to the virtual event. Students turned out in droves with 825 students taking advantage of the complimentary registration. Many students expressed their gratitude to the CPNP Foundation and its donors, and a few students created thank you videos to share what attending Virtual CPNP 2020 meant to them.
Another major shift involved moving the poster sessions (now available in MHC) to a virtual format. CPNP’s Director of Technology Greg Payne created a number of enhancements including the addition of electronic posters by authors and inclusion of a comment feature allowing authors and attendees to dialogue real-time about the completed research. During the two virtual poster sessions, 1,970 comments were posted, and poster pages were hit 18,916 times. These amazing numbers contributed to some of the highest statistics that CPNP has ever seen! Here is a recap of Virtual CPNP 2020 by the numbers:
We are overwhelmed by the support of the CPNP membership as this event was converted to a virtual format as evidenced by some of the summary evaluation comments:
Thank you all for your support of Virtual CPNP 2020. Looking ahead, CPNP is actively planning a hybrid event for 2021 with the live offering in Florida along with at least some content presented virtually. CPNP is actively monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications for the 2021 Annual Meeting to be held April 18-21 in ChampionsGate, FL (Orlando) and will continue to keep you apprised.
The virtual event format didn’t stop many groups from seeing their colleagues and friends! Enjoy some of the group meet-up photos submitted to CPNP, including a student chapter that hosted their officer elections, USC Alums and Friends, and “Ladies Night” for a group of friends.