Behind the Scenes: Virtual Conference Breakdown

Join Sarah Putt, MA, OTR/L, and Jayson Davies, MA, OTR/L, as they take you behind the scenes of hosting a virtual conference in the latest episode of OTPreneur. In this revealing discussion, Jayson shares his experiences and insights from running multiple online conferences, including the 2023 OT Schoolhouse Conference. From the challenges of multitasking to the importance of incorporating diversity and personal touches, Jayson and Sarah explore the intricacies of planning and executing a successful virtual conference. If you have a desire to bring people together online or in person, this is a must listen.

Episode Objectives:

• Gain insight into the behind-the-scenes of hosting a virtual conference, including the challenges and considerations involved.
  
  
• Understand the importance of diversity and inclusion in conference planning and execution.
  
  
• Learn strategies for injecting personal touches and unique elements into your conference to create a memorable and engaging experience for attendees.

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Transcript

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Have you been thinking about developing an online conference? Today, we are getting a sneak peek into what it actually looks like to run an online conference from my co host who has run not 1, not 2, but 3 online conferences. So get ready because we are going to peel back the curtain today and give you a front row seat to the online the beautiful online conference world. Are you thinking about starting an occupational therapy business, but don't even know where to begin? Whether you're starting something on the side Or going full time in your business, the OTpreneur podcast is what you need. This show will help you get in the right mindset and give you actionable tips to go from just an idea to OTpreneur. I'm Sarah Putt, and with me is my awesome cohost, Jason Davies, not to be confused with the country singer, Jordan Davis. How are you, Jason? I'm doing very well. I really like Jordan Davis, but I don't know I don't know if someone would confuse us, but who knows? I am guilty because every single time I can't tell you how many times this has happened. Every time that I go to request from my device that starts with an a, and I'm like, Can you play? And I literally have to, like, sit there and think about it because I have I have I have confused it many Times and sometimes I will say Jordan Davies or I will say Jason Davis. And then I'm like, wait a second. No. Hold on a second. So, I mean, maybe I'm the only one, but I have that issue multiple times a week. Let's just say That's hilarious. So wait. Has it ever, like, started playing the OT for Neuro podcast when you accidentally said Jason Davies? Not yet. But you know what? When we reach that status one day, then then we'll know. We we know we've made it. Awesome. I can't wait. Okay. So both of us have been let's be honest. We both been pretty busy in kind of our own OT business worlds recently for the past few months, I'd say. And I know last episode, we kind of Did a little deep dive into what's been going on with me and talking about my hiring experiences and all of that. So if You are just tuning into this episode and you missed that 1 and you wanna hear a little bit about what I've been up to, go take a listen to episode 11 and you'll hear what I've been up to. But today, we're we're turning the tables, and we're gonna focus on what Jason has been up to. And that is his online conference extraordinaire. All of that experience. And so Yeah. I mean and I and I do wanna say that this is the 3rd one that you have run. So this is we're gonna be talking about Your kind of reflections about this past one, but then also from all of the online conferences that you have done so far. So before we kind of jump into the specific reflections and some of the things that we're going to talk about today, Maybe, Jason, if you could just kinda take a minute and explain a little bit about what your conference is. I know we've talked about in other episodes, but just in case The listener has missed that. Let's share just in a nutshell what what is your online conference. Yeah. I I love this because I just actually We got done recording an episode for the OT Schoolhouse podcast where I reflected on on the conference that we're gonna talk about today, but I did it more from the standpoint of, like, the content that came out of the conference, what the speaker said, what I really appreciated about that from a school based occupational therapy practitioner, perspective. But today, we're going to dive into kind of, like, what it is from the business standpoint. And so for those of you who don't know, I do run the OT Schoolhouse website, otschoolhouse.com, as well as the OT Schoolhouse podcast, where I support school based occupational therapy practitioners. And so now for the last 3 years, we have hosted the back to school conference, which, if you're here in America, then you know that typically happens in the fall. And so we've done it, each of the past 3 Augusts how do you say August? Plural. Augustes. I don't know. But, yeah. So over the past 3 years, I've hosted the back to school conference 3 times, and it has grown each year. We originally had About 350 participants the 1st year, and we then we had about 400. This year, we had almost 450, And this is all online. It is a 100% virtual experience, except for one thing which we'll talk about later, and that's the swag boxes. But, I'll save that for just a moment. Now that we know a little bit more about what it is and what it looks like, Let's just start this by really kicking it off. Why why should somebody consider doing an online conference? There's we talked about this in other episodes. We've talked about other business models. There's lots of different things that we could do as an OT entrepreneur, OTpreneur. Why an online conference? The main point, the main reason that really drove me to starting the online conference Was the fact that I don't know everything. Like, people come to me for knowledge about school based right? People come to me about school based occupational therapy all the time, and they ask me questions. And, you know, as a practitioner, as a business owner, there's a lot that I know, but I also realize there's a lot that I don't know. And I just simply can't know everything. Right? And I could go ahead and try and create course after course after course about topic after topic after topic, but eventually, a, either I run out of topics, or, b, I have that imposter syndrome that we talked about a lot where, Yeah. I know a little bit about this topic, but there's other people that know it better than me. And so that's why the conference came about, because I recognize, Hey. I can try and put this course together, this webinar together, but it won't be great. But because of my podcast, because of the The the people that I had that I have gotten to know over the years, I know who the best people are to teach about a specific topic. And so instead of trying to teach it myself, I reach out to them, and I say, hey. Would you be interested in coming together for this school based occupational therapy conference that we're gonna have? And you are an expert in mental health. I want you to talk about mental health. You are an expert in sensory. I want you to talk about sensory. So rather than me trying to put together a a individual course on a topic that there's other people that know better, I'd rather bring them in, let them share their expertise, And all the same, they're doing it under my umbrella. And so not only am I the person that's bringing everyone together, But I'm almost getting some of their authority by bringing them in. You know? Some people that follow them are gonna come to my conference because they wanna see them. So there's a lot of great reasons to do it, but, the big reason for me is just that I know I don't know everything, and I know there's other people that can share things better than me. First things first, I love that you brought up the fact about not knowing everything and also being Basically, being sure enough and confident enough to say, yeah, I don't know everything. Because I think, especially when we get into the business world, A lot of people feel like, oh, I don't know that. I should I need to go look into that. I need to become confident in it, competent in it. I need to get all we go back to what episode 1 or 2, whatever episode we talked about way in the beginning, of getting all these certifications that you have to be able to know absolutely everything that falls within your, you know, your your niche or anything like that. And so I love that you started that you were like, I don't know everything. I'm not gonna know everything. But there are Lots of smart people out here may know more about Mhmm. Whatever topic is it it is. And that is one of the Great things about an online conference is that you can bring them in. And and you literally, like, took the words out of my mouth. I was like, yeah, I wanted to talk about Kind of that audience building slash audience sharing. Right? So you're bringing them in and exposing your audience to them as a speaker, But then they might actually bring some people in and follow them. And so and they maybe haven't followed you before or Maybe I'd heard of you, but just really hadn't and, like, joined your atmosphere before. Yeah. You're like, I'm talking about atmosphere a lot today. And so you're you're really kind of sharing in that audience building that that, that knowledge sharing and all that kind of stuff. So there's there's a lot of things. Well, let's be honest. There's a lot of things that go into an online conference in general, but there's a lot of these things that kind of happen because of it as well. Yeah. And, you know, another day, another time, we'll go in more in-depth into, like, how this all comes together and Really deep dive into especially that audience sharing and affiliate marketing and how your speakers can also be an affiliate and whatnot, But that's probably a little more than what we need to get into today. Yep. Yeah. I know that you have a lot more that you wanna share about Just kind of thinking about having just gone through it and and really what's happened, and maybe some changes that you're in a in, you know, think about for next year and all of that. So Let me ask you this. What do you think one of the best parts of running an online conference is? For me, personally, It's been the community that has been built through the conference. You know, most of us think of especially in online conference, You think of it as, like, you get a link in the morning in the AM that's a Zoom link. You hop on Zoom, and you just sit there for 5 hours or 6 hours on a Zoom meeting. And, I mean, you never know if the people hosting a Zoom, you know, online conference are gonna turn on the chat. If they're gonna turn off the chat, Are you going to be able to see the participants? Are you not gonna be able to see the participants? Like, you never know. And something that we have put an emphasis on at the OT Schoolhouse is not just the learning aspect, but also the community aspect. You know? I I like to say that you're not coming to my conference to learn. You're coming to my conference to be able to implement what you learn, and I feel like the community aspect of that is so important because you can learn something, But it may be someone who's not a speaker, someone you've never met before, never even heard it before that says one thing in the chat that actually brings it together for you So that you can implement it the next day. And so just the community has really been, just huge. And, again, not just in the chat either. We go a little bit above and beyond in that we have our own online community platform. So people can ask questions. They can Respond to other people's questions. They can actually direct message each other. So there's just so much more to it, To an online conference than just those 4, 5, 6 speakers that you have. And I think and honestly, I I Feel like we've talked about this in other episodes, and we're probably gonna go even further in the weeds of it moving forward. But that community piece is so big. And that I mean, that's really something that we're trying to instill here at OTpreneur of, like, building that community around OT practitioners and students that wanna start a business because you can go out and learn all the stuff on your own. Literally, this morning, like, it what you just said, this Just really, really hits home. Because this morning, I'm listening to a podcast, of course, and they were talking about accountability in a community. And I was like, you know what? That's probably one of the big things I'm missing. One of the big things, I need somebody to hold me accountable 1st, my own podcast because I've been a little lackadaisical on my consistency. And I was like, yeah, I really need that, I don't know. Community or account ability or something. Like, I'm just, like, lacking there. So side note. But that community piece is huge. And, again, that's one of the things that, like, it just happens. With the right with the right implementation and the right fostering. Right? You have to have that opportunity. Mhmm. And I love that that's kind of one of the things that's on the forefront of your mind when you are setting up your and and Establishing your online conference is really allowing for that that community opportunity because sometimes it's just not there. Yeah. And you have no idea. Like, people have literally in our survey, they point out the fact that I am in the chat And actually commenting in the chat. Like, if a speaker says something like, say a speaker says, oh, I read this book. It was so and so by Mona DeLahook or whatever. I'll go on to Amazon really quickly. Grab that link and just put it right into the chat in that moment. And people appreciate those little tiny things. Like, The fact that you're actually there listening, learning with them, the fact that you're responsive, you, like, know what they're thinking at that moment, And so you just take care of it really quickly, and you put it there. Or maybe you don't put it live in the chat, but then you send out an email later later that day or put it into the community. Hey. Greg said this during his presentation. I just thought it was awesome. I wanna highlight this one point, and here's a resource related to that. Like, those are the types of things that go further than your typical conference or session. It just shows that you're invested. Right? As As a business owner, you are invested in the content that you are putting out there. So we talked about the best parts. But I know that online conferences, as with, kind of, any business model and and business component, There are hard parts about it. So spill spill the OT on this one. What are some of the hardest parts of running an online conference? I think the hardest part is just that there are so many moving pieces. So for instance, you know, I am kind of, a quote, unquote solopreneur. Right? I do have a little bit of help now, but the 1st time I ever ran the conference, it wasn't me. I I did rope 1 OT student, And, Jenny, who I think you're familiar with, Sarah, I I roped her in to help me out just a little bit. But, man, trying to host the conference, Trying to keep your eye on the chat, trying to make sure that the presenters are popping into the right Zoom room when they're supposed to be there, making sure that the community is all going well. There's a lot going on. And so now I'm very fortunate that I do have a little bit of help behind the scenes, and that came in handy. You know? I talked about finding the Amazon link and putting it into the chat. This year, I was able to have someone who I know who I trust. She was there, and she was able to help me by kinda being that extra person. And this year, instead of people thanking me for, you know, being so lively in the chat, you know what they were doing, they were saying, thank you, Chandler, so much for finding that link and putting the Into into the chat and whatnot. So it is hard just doing everything at once, But you know what? I I was able to do it 1 year, and from there, I was able to learn to grow and to now get some support. So I would say that's Probably the hardest part is just, trying to do everything, which we've talked a little bit already about on this podcast before. So that just brings me right to my next question, because I know that this is your 3rd year. And I'm sure after every single time that you do your online conference, There's a lot of things that you're like, yes. I I slammed that. That was amazing. I did a great job. And there were probably a few things that you're like, I could I I could tighten that up. I could change that. I could modify it or I could ditch it completely. So let's talk to somebody that is there. They haven't run one before. Maybe they've never even been a an attendee to an online conference before. And if you could go back to Jason 3 years ago. Mhmm. Jason, that had not had had not done an online conference before, what do you wish that you would known at that point, knowing what you know now. You know, 3 years ago, technology was a lot different. Things have changed a lot. You can get a lot more a lot more support from a lot less People are a lot less technology now. Technology actually exists for online conferences now Yeah. That didn't, you know, several years ago, so that's one thing. But if I were to go back 3 years, you know, kind of I mean, even if we had today's technology, as a first time conference goer, I I I mean, I started pretty simple, but I probably would have gone even slightly more simple. Maybe I wouldn't have sent out the swag pack that, that I sent out, which was like a physical box of items that I sent out to so many, people. One thing that I did do that I would recommend is I gave myself a long headway in the sense that I opened up registrations way back in, like, March, I think, And the conference actually was actually held in, like, the end of August, and I think that was really helpful. It gave me a lot of time to see how many people were registering. Do I need to buy a bigger subscription for Zoom, or is my current Zoom subscription enough? Do I have enough speakers? Do I have enough this and that? And so giving yourself enough time, I think, is key because, Especially in today's world, people are trying to move fast. People are often trying to hold 4 conferences in a year, and that's like a conference. Every 3 months, you're Just restarting. You're starting the whole process over and over and over again. It's just not enough time. So, definitely, I would recommend giving yourself time. You'll never know how long it takes, especially your 1st time around. So time is a value, and if you can find volunteers, Dude, that I I I mentioned swag boxes. I literally sent out a 100 swag boxes, I believe it was, the 1st year, to our first 100 registrants. And the people that helped me pack those swag boxes were myself, my wife, And, actually yeah. An adapted physical education teacher who just really supported me and continues to support me all the way. But, again, like, now I'm 3 years into this. This year, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be, reaching out to some high schoolers or something to kinda Come over and help me with packing those boxes. I'm really glad that you brought up that whole timepiece because I think we can I mean, right now, we are specifically quickly talking about online conferences? But I really think that we can generalize time to pretty much anything that we're doing as an OTpreneur Is that especially when we are doing something new for the 1st time, it takes a lot longer than we expect it to. And it you know that phrase, like, you you don't know what you don't know? You won't know it until you get there, and then you're like, oh, I need some more time to actually think about what platform, you know, what what tech platform am I gonna use, or how am I going to We'll show all the slides and the notes and this and how am I gonna send out the swag bags. Like, you will run into things that you might not even have even thought about while you were planning it. And then you're like, oh, but I have to do you know, I'm releasing in a week or something like that. Mhmm. So I think having extra time, especially in the beginning. Once you have it, like, locked and loaded, it's probably a little easier to kind of rinse and repeat. Granted, you know, you always are gonna be making changes and and doing things a little differently from the time before, but especially that first time with anything in business. Give yourself a little extra time. Like, I feel like you and I, even as we've been building OTpreneur, there are things that are taking longer for us even though we've done it before. But you and I come in together, we're doing it a little differently. And sometimes we're, like, wait. Did we talk about this? Hold on. Now we have to have a whole conversation before we can move forward because we need to hash out some of these details before we can do the rest. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's it's doing your due diligence as a business owner. Right. And it all takes time. Yep. Okay. So we talked a little bit about what you would've like, what you wished you would've known in the beginning, if you could go back and kinda tell yourself anything. But now it's been 3 years, and I think I've mentioned this already in this episode. I know things have changed. So do you care to kind of peel back the curtain a little bit and talk about what what you've changed, what maybe feedback you've gotten from past attendees, and really how you've adapted that moving forward. Yeah. And I'll I'll go superficial as well as kinda deep here. You know? A lot of things, the premise has remained the same. Right? Like, we've had a community, but we've increased the community over the years. We've had we've had those swag boxes, but we've increased it. You know? It was a 100 the 1st year, 200 the next year, and now we're doing 450 this year. Professional development. You know, we looked at how many hours of professional development do our attendees need, and They said, on average, they needed 12 for the year. So we said, okay, well, let's do 12. Right? Like, we don't wanna give people too little. We don't wanna give them too much. We wanna give them what they need, so we decided to give them 12. Some people asked for the replays longer. So I think the 1st year, I think we did 30, maybe 45 days of replays. This year, the attendees have access to the replays for over 3 months. Like, that was a big thing for them. Now going a little bit deeper here, this is something that has really I I never expected to receive this advice, but I took it to heart as soon as I did. And I didn't only apply it to the conference, but Also applied it to the, to the entire OT Schoolhouse in general, our podcast and whatnot, and that is that people were asking for more diversity among the speakers. And I will be very honest. We have had people of all orientations. We have had people, of all races present on the podcast, at the conference, or whatnot. And we do go out of our way to try and and Accommodate everyone and to try to find diverse voices, but it is tough. And so that is something that has you know, I think that came out of the very first conference that I did. People were like, I would like to see more diversity, and so we have gone out of our way to do that despite you know, it's sometimes, it's it's more difficult. Sometimes, it's easier to Fine. Diverse voices, but it's something that we definitely take into account. Yeah. And I I mean, especially as a as a podcast host, I know that That has something that I've been really very cognizant about as I'm thinking about who I wanna bring on the podcast and, you know, specifically talking about my podcast, OT For Life, right now. And, yeah, sometimes you're like, I want this person to come on and they're not available. Or maybe they're not looking to go on podcast Kaz. And you're like, but I really want you. And so then you're like, there's a big topic that I that I want to talk about. Who else can I find? And so Mhmm. It's one of those things that we, as business owners, we are always trying to think about diversity and and and have a lot of inclusion and diversity in what it is that we are doing. But, yeah, it's nice to hear that, like, that is what past attendees have wanted, and you're like, yeah, this is something, Like, I agree. I I I need to change this and and see what I can do kind of moving forward. It's hard. I mean, when you are in a profession that, let's be honest here, is 90% white for the most part, if I remember right, and even then, 90% female. We are very niche in who The OT Schoolhouse is catering to, right, school based occupational therapy practitioners. And our profession as a whole It needs to be more diverse in order for my business, per se, to be more diverse, because I need more people of diverse backgrounds to be in the field of occupational therapy. You know, it's it's not just specific to my business. It's not specific to your business. It's specific to occupational therapy as a whole, And so that's why we can't even just talk about it in relationship to just our small world of OT Schoolhouse or OT For Life, But it is something to spread the word about in all of occupational therapy. Yeah. Yeah. Great point there. That is, I think, again, with everything we talk about, I'm like, that could be an entire episode. That could be in, like, entire entire series on this podcast, where we could actually talk about diversity and entrepreneurship. And this is a great place to give a shout out to Tamiko Faison. And she has a wonderful podcast that is called Therapy Entrepreneurs and Leaders of Color. And love her podcast. Love her. Love everything that she is up to. And she also has a brand new conference herself that is coming out. We'll link to that in the show notes. So So if you're curious to hear more about that conference, since we're talking about online conferences today, we'll we'll have all the details there in the show notes for you. Okay, Jason. So after 3 years, 3 individual online conferences that you've had that you've done, Three different iterations of that conference. For somebody who is just starting out, What do you recommend? What's the one thing? If you had to boil it all down, what one thing would it be that you think that they should? On Top of everything else that they need to focus on, what's that one thing? The OT Schoolhouse Back to School Conference, it's not the only conference for school based occupational therapy practitioners. You know, the state of California has one. I believe the state of Ohio has one. O AOTA has, like, a children and youth conference. And so there are other conferences that are very similar to mine. But the way that I try to you know, I guess I I try to stand out in some way. You know, people get to know me. They're not coming to my conferences just because it's another school based occupational therapy conference. They're coming to the conference because they know I'm the one that is looking at and finding presenters, and they know what I believe. My beliefs are almost going to be kinda held by the speakers that I bring in because they trust that I'm not gonna go out and find a speaker that speaks Against what I'm saying. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that, you know, inject a little bit of you into it. Right? Like, people want To see you in your conference. And so some of the things that I mentioned, like being in the live chat and actually making conversation in the live chat and talking about What you're thinking about as the presenter's speaking, that's something that you're just adding a little bit of you into it. Be active in your community if you have one. Inject a little bit of of yourself into, like, a little something extra. Like, I really like animation. I really like art, and so we have a live artist So it actually comes, and she draws out the ideas of our presenters as they speak. And so at the end of our conference, For each speaker, we have a drawing that kind of encompasses what that presenter talked about, and then we send that out as a digital download. So Just do something a little bit a little bit extra. You know? It doesn't have to be super expensive. It doesn't have to be a swag box that, you know, is $50 a person. Just something that's a little bit extra, a little special that brings you into the fold. I love that. And there is a physical therapist that I follow. She is a podcast and she is a online business guru, basically. Shout out to doctor Chantae Cofield, the movement maestro. And her little, like, Slogan is always, like, more you, and it's it the premise behind it is be yourself. Right? 1st and foremost, be yourself, but just Be more yourself. Right? And don't be afraid to really show who you are as an OTpreneur. Right? As that business owner. I think a lot of times we're very it's easier to showcase other people. I'm like, Oh, look at them. They're the expert. They know this, especially when we're talking about online conferences. Right? But there is a there's an element of You, Jason, showing up and being like, yes. This is this is my conference. Yes. I'm bringing on all these these wonderful speakers. But that essence of you is The the really, that main reason of how you can stand out against all the others in the school based niche or, you know, if if it's somebody that's looking into a different area to do an online conference. So, yeah, be you and and be more of you. Right? Yep. Yep. Be you. Exactly. Alright. So today, we talked a lot about online conferences and really getting a behind the scenes look about what it's been like for Jason over the past 3 years that he has been running his online conference. I want to take a minute and just Say thank you for listening to this episode, listening to the OTpreneur podcast. We are Really, we are here to support you. And so if you have a question, if you have a topic of something that you want to hear us talk about, please Feel free to shoot us a voice mail or you can email us. All of that is on our website. If you just go to 0tepreneur.com, You can you can find the links to the voice mail or to our email. And, yeah, we would love to be able to have a podcast episode about whatever topic, whatever question it is that you have on your mind right now. Yeah. And before, before Sarah hits that stop recording button, I wanna say thank you because we just hit 1,000 downloads. And so to every single person listening out there, Just wanna say thank you whether you listen to 1 episode or all 12 episodes now. Thank you so much. We look forward to doing this, with you many, many more times. I'm so glad you brought that up, Jason, because I I saw it yesterday, and then I totally forgot. You know, we just got down to business and started recording today, and I hadn't even thought about it. So yeah. Yay. 1,000 downloads. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for listening and tuning in. Of course, your support means the world to us. And be sure to, if you haven't yet, to grab our free guide to 7 business models. And, again, that's also on our website. Basically, go to our website. You'll find everything that we're talking about right now. And spoiler alert, online conferences is one of those business models. Also, one more thing, we got a lot of lot of announcements here. If you happen to be in California. And you are attending their OT Association conference is in the beginning of November of 2023. And so if you happen to be attending, Come to Jason and my presentation. We would love to meet you in person. And, yeah, it's gonna be a fun time. We've got some really fun things planned up our sleeve. So we'd love to meet you. And remember, wherever you are on your 0Tpreneur journey, we are here to support you. Thanks for listening to this episode of the OTpreneur podcast. For links or resources mentioned in the show, head on over to OTpreneur dot Calm. It's OTpreneur, where occupational therapy means business. And that's why we have all that stuff at the bottom. Okay. Go take a listen to What episode is it? 11th. Remember what episode. 11th. Oh, yeah. We're on 12. Hold on. I was doing something. You're fine. I was trying to take a boomerang. Oh, noises. Sorry. Oh, I couldn't hear anything, but I was also talking. Yeah. Alright. Let me I'll I'll wrap that up then. So that way, it's a nice, easy Hold on. I lost my thought. This is just gonna be me today. What did you say before the swag boxes? What was your point? Oh, the time. Time. And I went off script, and now I don't know how to