10 An evaluation of virtual vs in-person leadership in healthcare conferences

• Published in: BMJ leader Vol. 5; no. Suppl 1; p. A4
• Main Authors: Trippe, Holly, Kailla, Elisha, Shah, Haroon Ali, Jimulia, Devanshi T
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 01.11.2021; BMJ Publishing Group LTD
• Subjects: Abstracts; Conferences; Health care; Leadership; Medical students; User satisfaction; Video teleconferencing
• ISSN: 2398-631X; 2398-631X
• DOI: 10.1136/leader-2021-FMLM.10

During COVID, most conferences have moved to an online format, however, little data has been collected on how this shift affects conferences run by students aimed at university healthcare students. Our intervention was an online student-led, international leadership conference using the platform HopIn. The post-event survey showed that 81.8% of participants felt HopIn was an excellent or good conference platform. We looked at the main reasons participants felt that an online conference was preferable to in-person and the top 3 results by frequency were: No need to travel (85.9%), Cheaper (71.1%), and Greater range of speakers who wouldn’t have been able to attend in person (53.4%). On the other hand, our results demonstrated some disadvantages: Harder to Network (70.7%), Technical Difficulties (49.5%), and Unstable Internet (40.4%).This data shows that although there are problems unique to online conferences such as unstable internet, this method of delivery maximizes delegate participation and attendance. A virtual format also enables an international reach, without excluding people from events due to time, travel, or financial restrictions.*Holly Trippe Presenter*