CANA's Virtual Convention: Lessons Learned

We are all virtual now. In addition to conducting virtual funerals and celebrations of life, you may find yourself attending birthday parties or toasting at Happy Hours online. The global pandemic and local gathering rules have forced us all to plan events within new limitations and with a whole new set of considerations.

CANA followed suit by converting our 102nd Annual Cremation Innovation Convention to a virtual event. It turned out well, but it involved a lot of careful planning. Once our leaders and staff decided to go virtual, we found we had a short four months to make a lot of decisions.

CANA’s may have been the profession’s first virtual convention, but it won’t be the last. Below I’ve shared some thoughts about our process and the lessons we learned. I hope it helps you as you plan your own events—whether it’s taking your next graveside service online or gathering family and friends for a virtual game night.

Start with WHY

As a longtime devoted fan of Simon Sinek, I looked to his recommendations for guidance on moving forward with a virtual meeting. In both his viral TED Talk and subsequent book, Start with Why, Sinek encourages us to look at what we do (hold an Annual Convention) and examine the heart of it (why do we hold it?).

CANA started our planning process by posing the difficult question “Why should we have a virtual convention?” Other associations within the profession and around the world had cancelled their events, so why should CANA move forward? The immediate answer to the why question was, essentially, why not? We had four months to plan and a compelling desire to re-envision our 102nd annual event to a virtual platform, so we met the challenge. We are an association known for a progressive response to disruptions, so our leadership and staff were eager to uphold that reputation.

Closely related to WHY is HOW – how will we be able to successfully translate the CANA convention experience to a virtual platform? An in-person CANA convention takes place in one large room. Everyone is in that room together, meaning attendees and exhibitors are learning, eating, drinking and networking seamlessly throughout the event. A virtual platform supports the same integration, also bringing everyone together into one space—an easy adaptation.

We had already established a strong virtual link to the cremation and death care professionals. From the beginning of the pandemic, CANA has convened its members to share information, hear from experts and formulate solutions together. Networking and education have never been more closely linked. So for us, a final WHY to hold the virtual convention was our charge to advance CANA’s mission and serve members and the broader profession.

Having identified WHY a virtual convention has value, we identified three key elements to its success:

1. Networking
2. Trade Show
3. Education

This list is absolutely in priority order. By August 2020, many of us were craving connection, even if it was only available via a screen. Networking was the top priority, as it is with in-person conventions, so we sought a platform that supported networking in multiple ways.

While the CANA Convention prioritized networking over other elements, every event is different. It is incumbent on the host to identify and market the event’s value proposition – jargon for the WHY. Your event may prioritize education, community engagement or gathering together. Once you know that, you can then market the event and attract key audiences. However, just as with in-person events, you’d better be able to deliver what you promise.

Below are some of the questions we posed that informed our planning, our decision-making—and even our marketing—with our answers.

Why is preparing for a virtual event so different?

One important lesson we learned is that very few attendees planned to completely pull themselves away from the office or work during the convention time. Of course, because the rituals of packing and flying or driving to the convention and the respite of a hotel stay  were not a factor, I am not sure it would have occurred to me to stay away from work either. I came home from the CANA office and slept in my bed at the end of each day.

The etiquette of an in-person event is familiar. Advance preparation is helpful, but an attendee or exhibitor can grab a program at the registration desk and make snap decisions about how to plan their experience without much of a learning curve. We know what to do, and we can take cues from the other people in the event.

A virtual event has a steeper learning curve. There are layers of technology to navigate just to conduct a group chat, or simply to identify who is currently available on the platform. For our Convention, the platform required a computer (not a tablet or phone) in order to get the optimal networking experience. So even if attendees and exhibitors were able to run their business on the go, they couldn’t get the full convention experience from a phone or tablet. Since CANA members do not spend large portions of their day in front of computers, many struggled with internet access or finding a compatible browser. Many discovered that they didn’t have an accessible camera on their computer.

We could not have predicted these challenges, but we created and offered a lot of advance education and technical support to help attendees and exhibitors understand and use the specific platform tools. We did this on YouTube with walkthroughs, emails with images and instructions, and on this very blog. And it was effective! Most of the attendees planned ahead and knew how to use the platform and therefore learned quickly.

Unfortunately, many of the exhibitor staff who set up the booths and attended the CANA training were not the same people who staffed the actual booth during the Convention. 90% of technical support questions came from exhibitors on Day One of the event.

​Why is networking during a virtual event so different?

Many registrants apologized in the post-event evaluation survey, explaining that they successfully attended the education sessions, but were pulled away afterward to serve families and help staff and thus were unable to follow up and network with their colleagues. That split attention had another consequence—no break from their regular duties. This is especially unfortunate at a time when our profession is working so hard, possibly harder than ever before. A Convention provides that intangible benefit—getting away to spend time with CANA friends and getting the opportunity to play as hard as you work. That may seem inappropriate during a global pandemic, but it is important for our physical and mental well-being.

In a virtual meeting, networking is a bit more difficult than simply walking up to an individual or a group and joining in the conversation. “Seeing” people on a virtual platform doesn’t have the immediacy of seeing their faces, but rather checking a participant list or patiently waiting for a response to a text. Just as you text first to arrange a Facetime conversation, the video chat on the platform worked much the same way.

Additionally, there was quite a bit of uncertainty as to the etiquette of a virtual convention. How should we behave? What comes across as pushy? I am confident we will get better at this with time.

This uncertainty often meant that attending the convention was, at least initially, a pretty isolated and individual experience. It took effort to find people and text chat or video chat. There was no walking into a giant room abuzz with voices and full of people.

Most in-person attendees are owners or managers and often come solo or bring one employee. It is expensive to attend and in-person event, and someone has to keep the business running. Conversely for the virtual event, some members registered several people from their staff so they could have a watch party at the office, enjoy the presentations and move through the exhibit hall together to give some conversation and camaraderie to the event. Others formed their groups online and kept the conversation alive in the chat functions and caught the competitive spirit with our passport game. The hook of cheap CE became a team-building opportunity.

Why is a virtual trade show so different?

CANA Supplier Members are a crucial factor as to WHY we hold our Convention. This event was our one big annual opportunity to connect exhibitors with attendees and showcase their products, services and solutions. A virtual convention supports our funeral home, cemetery, and crematory members sharing their challenges with professional colleagues, and our supplier members putting their solutions front-and-center.

In addition to apologizing for missing networking, many registrants apologized to exhibitors in the post-event evaluation survey for not visiting the trade show or for only visiting after hours. Some attendees chose to simply enjoy watching the pre-loaded video and downloading information from the booth page rather than interact more directly with exhibit staff. Even those who attended during staffed hours would not necessarily communicate through the booth text or video chat. The average booth attracted 150 visitors with maybe 5% entering the group video chat. That is completely opposite of an in-person trade show experience and entirely out of the exhibitors’ control.

The primary challenge faced by exhibitors was they couldn’t “see” visitors to their booth. Many had set up a table-top style booths with a video feed, expecting people to click on the group video chat link and enter their booth, but only a handful of attendees did so. The surveys showed that they either didn’t notice the link or weren’t sure what they would walk into. One survey respondent specifically requested a preview to see if they wanted to enter and who was in there, before committing to clicking on the link. If seeing is believing, no wonder exhibitors questioned whether the final tally of booth visitors CANA downloaded through the platform and forwarded to each of them was accurate.

Here too, the etiquette of a virtual exhibit booth was uncertain. Was it rude to click on a link unannounced and barge in? Why were some booths empty and while others were staffed?

Why is virtual education so different?

Education is what CANA does well and is the easiest to translate to a virtual experience. CANA’s online Crematory Operations Certification Program (COCP) is wildly successful. CANA webinars are attracting crowds as well. But a convention is different. It is an event that people experience together, in one room, at an appointed time for several hours in what would otherwise be a busy workday. At least, that is what meeting planners believe and plan for accordingly, but many of our virtual meeting attendees and exhibitors were multi-tasking and not giving their full attention to the online content.

Fortunately, across the board, our presenters received rave reviews. We were very thoughtful and intentional about our selection of presenters – a virtual event is no time for a sage on a stage. A presenter needs to engage with the audience through polls, questions asked and answered in the chat, and the electric energy to keep an invisible audience focused on the content and away from their inboxes. Handouts and downloadable slidedecks are valuable, but the presentation itself needs to be the first priority.

What can we do to make it better?

We are excited to call CANA’s Convention a success:

• Largest attendance in CANA’s history with over 500 registrants
• Financially successful – net revenue in line with an in-person convention
• Great visibility for CANA – a benefit of going first

CANA enjoyed the benefits of going first, in that attendees and exhibitors were curious about a virtual platform, forgiving of technical difficulties and offered grace to those learning the new technology.

We learned that not every element of an in-person convention translates to a virtual platform. For example, I decided to hold the membership meeting the week after the Convention, which meant we didn’t have a quorum and had to reschedule again and work harder to achieve the quorum we easily obtained during the convention. I won’t repeat that mistake.

It was heartening to see how every event participant learned to be the expert, then went on to help others. That could mean that they discovered something, then posted it to share with others. CANA is made up of caring people who want to support and help each other. We were all learning the platform even as we were teaching others. For the event, CANA Staff opened the Convention early to allow for some time to familiarize with the platform. That, in addition to live tech support by phone, email, one-on-one chat, Zoom, and Convention chat meant that we were able to answer questions and get people on their virtual feet quickly. And with CANA staff on the other end of the line, we were a friendly and familiar connection to our registrants.

Bottom line, the old adage “You get out of it what you put into it” is as true with a virtual event as in life. Whether through attention, technology, or preparation, we all can improve.

What comes next?

More virtual events – for certain. A number of state, provincial and national associations are offering their own virtual conventions and trade shows in Fall 2020. Will they be the same as in-person experiences? No. They will be great, but they won’t be the same. Virtual is an alternative, but not a replacement.

CANA is planning a Hybrid Symposium on February 10-11, 2021 in Las Vegas at The Linq Hotel and Casino. That means we’ll provide the opportunity to gather in-person for live sessions and Vegas fun, with portions of the program livestreamed for online participants. I am optimistically planning for a hybrid experience, because there has to be a path forward and CANA is excited to find it.

CANA is also planning another Game Night for members. You are working hard and deserve a break and prizes. In the meantime, we’ll continuing learning together and helping one another. So until we can safely meet again, I will see you via Zoom.

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Did you miss our Virtual Convention and Trade Show? You can browse the exhibits on our event website, and we'll make the presentations available soon. Check out our full listing of Online Education and come back soon for the event recordings!

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Barbara Kemmis is Executive Director of the Cremation Association of North America.