The Basics: For more than six years, the WNORTH Conference has been a leadership development event for women throughout North America. Typically held in Whistler, Canada, last year's gathering shifted online, taking place on the Bizzabo platform on Oct. 29, 2020.
Steal-Worthy Innovations: Conference organizers took a number of smart steps to make the event more relevant to its 600 attendees during the pandemic. Organizers opened up free attendance to a number of workshops and events in advance of the conference to support women through the early part of the pandemic. The team also mailed out the WNORTH Experience Box, which incorporated over $250 worth of products from female-run small businesses.
But organizers didn’t want the engagement to be contained to a single event. As part of their tickets, all attendees were given access to an exclusive online portal where they could watch replays of all conference sessions for one year—as well as the opportunity to purchase a one-year membership to The Members Club at WNORTH, a virtual networking and training platform.
This type of year-round engagement has been a part of the Members Club at WNORTH, offering personal and professional development workshops and in-person and virtual networking events. “During the pandemic, our community of women in leadership needed our platform more than ever,” explained WNORTH co-founder and CEO Heather Odendaal. “We opened up spots in our community to provide the year-round support that women needed. We wanted our virtual conference to be accessible to our attendees—and offering membership, replays and platform access was one of the most favorite perks of WNORTH.”
Photo: Courtesy of WNORTH
Lessons Learned: Odendaal thinks that moving forward, WNORTH will likely focus on networking and creating authentic connections with in-person events but keep its development workshops, trainings and learning experiences online. “We recognize that as in-person events and conferences return, attendees will no longer want to spend the majority of their time in a stuffy ballroom,” she pointed out. “We will increase the number of outdoor events, activities and networking receptions at our conference to satisfy everyone's eagerness to develop new connections in the post-pandemic world.”
BizBash's 10 Most Innovative Meetings 2021 is sponsored by Bevy, a community event engine fueling virtual, hybrid and in-person events.
