When we first realized that we would have to abandon the in person AERO conference that was planned for Minneapolis and create a virtual conference, we were skeptical that it could measure up to the face to face one.
When it became obvious that we couldn’t have a regular AERO conference this year, we had to suddenly switch gears in March a start to create our first remote conference. We’d never done a full conference this way before, but we were determined to try to incorporate key aspects of the AERO conference: A wide spectrum of attendees, extensive networking, opportunities to create spontaneous pop-up workshops, etc.
For a long time it looked like our network was also skeptical. We stagnated at about 100 registrants for a long time. Then, at a member’s suggestion, we threw it open to everyone by offering to let people name their own conference fee for a week. This led to an explosion of registrations. Many still paid the regular price and we ended up with a record 500 registrants.
The conferences itself was a continuous revelation. We were surprised at almost every turn. For example, we did introductions with 90 people in the virtual room. It was not chaotic! Everyone took their turn to make a brief introduction with no moderation necessary.
As the conference grew and evolved it suddenly occurred to us that the conference was like a giant learner-centered child, learning and developing as it went along.Stephanie Sewell said “I felt like I jumped into doing a doctorate!”
Eventually we had over 45 regular workshops, 8 keynotes, 4 panels, 4 mini-talks, 4 school visits and 4 documentaries. We also had our first online AERO auction that raised $1450, a continuously open main room, operated overnight by people from Sri Aria School in Malaysia, 15 spontaneous pop-up workshops including one inspired by Jaki Armstrong about systemic racism.
As often happens, this year we received many unsolicited workshop proposals and didn’t reject any. Anyone who attended was able to host a popup session or discussion topic. We had more leeway because it was online. Also, for the same reason we had a record 30 countries 35 states, and 7 Canadian provinces participating, from such places as Burkina Faso and South Africa to Egypt, Russia and China.
Riverstone Village students singing conference theme song
There we so many things created at this conference! For example, there was a collaboration between Carl Rust in Indiana and students and teachers at Riverstone Village in South Africa that produced this song. It became our conference theme song and was played throughout the conference. It is a really catchy tune sung by a well known African singer. Let us know how we can spread the tune further.
There were many student activities, including three student panels on student rights and other topics, some student-led workshops, and even a conference Minecraft server.
The AERO Conference website was elegantly created by our conference webmaster, Anthony Umina. It was set so people only needed to click on the website they wanted to attend and it would go right to a Zoom link. Now it wall be revamped so that you can use the same website to go to the over 50 videos of the conference if you were an attendee. If you did not attend you can purchase the video package HERE .
We used a special app called Whova so attendees could communicate with each other, to the organizers, network or create popup workshops. According to our records, at least 250 attendees downloaded the app and have sent nearly 5,000 messages and continue to use it now, after the conference.
By all measures this first online AERO conference was quite successful, surprisingly so for us. It may have appeared seamless, but there were lots of little fires being put out in the background. Luckily we had Anthony as our web expert. We are considering doing another virtual one, maybe next February in an expanded virtual AEROx.
Some Conference Feedback
It was extremely well done and the pivot to a virtual conference seemed clean and easy on the participant end! I am still catching up the conversations and looking forward to a lot of video replays. KT
Jerry this has been the most unbelievable experience!! I’m the most technologically challenged person on earth, and I’m cruising through. It’s so well organized. Well done! TR
I think that the organization you and Peter have done shows the amount of time you have put into it. It is the best run Zoom meeting I have been involved in. CN
Much better than taking part in a conference in person as I have obstacle of language. Now I can follow it much better by text and oral together.
The conference energy has been great to observe. Tell Peter he is doing a great job with all of the reminders and coordination – and when he did the interviews, too.
I can honestly say, from the bottom of my heart, my life will never be the same.
This conference was one of the most meaningful, inspiring experiences I’ve ever had.Not only from an educational point of view, but also from a human perspective.
I think that you are undercharging. Strongly recommend raising the price, but having a pay-what-you-can option as well. This establishes it as a valuable conference and continues to allow people who need a price break to take it. I would also add the option of paying extra to support those who can’t pay full.
No words can describe how amazing it was!Great conference and an eye-opener for saving travel, motel, variety of participants, and meal experience. Prepare for an even larger participant virtual conference in the future. WJ
Some parts were excellent; some parts were average, and everything in between.
Thanks for putting this together and providing so much support with the prices to make it super affordable
I started a discussion because of the deafening silence around anti racism. It seemed that AERO had its blinders firmly in place. On second thought, nothing before its time! So perhaps AERO’s reluctance forced me to ‘go brave’.
Thanks so much for still forging ahead with the conference. I think it was a beacon of light in a dark time, and so heart warming to see the energy and enthusiasm everyone has for keeping this approach to education alive and growing. I think it was especially important for my team to be involved as up til now I was the only one that had been to a conference (APDEC). I think this will have helped to inspire them and solidify the what, why and how of the philosophies behind our school at a pivotal time for us (we’re launching our first one day nature programme in term 3 this year).
Of course, given the choice, I’d prefer to attend an in-person conference, but this one surpassed my expectations. There were even perks that the online offered that are not possible in person, such as the wonderful international spectrum of attendees. The main room offered opportunities for networking that I was concerned were not possible online, so even that was a happy success. All in all, this stands up very well to the in-person conferences and was a wonderful and inspiring experience.
I am still feeling the excitement of the conference. It far exceeded my expectations of what a virtual conference could provide. The international piece was great. I felt like globally no one thought education should or would go back to prior to the pandemic. Lots of exciting work going on globally. CF
