With a multitude of audiences in mind, we initially wanted to specifically serve audiences within the State of Louisiana. After much deliberation, we decided not to place geographical limitations on attendees, as we acknowledged that every location in the world has experienced an emergency of some sort. Therefore, we decided to expand our reach by soliciting other states, community constituents, Extension professionals, teachers, farmers, faith-based organizations, and emergency response teams. We discussed presenting a hybrid conference as COVID-19 cases decreased during the planning phase. We planned to host the conference at our Maurice A. Edmond Livestock Arena Multipurpose Building. However, in January 2021 COVID-19 cases began to rise again. We determined that a 100% virtual conference for 2021 would help prevent the spread of the virus. A virtual conference would also enable us to meet people where they were, by bringing the conference to them in the comfort of their homes, offices, organizations, or farms. We chose the first week of June for our virtual conference because June 1 is the start of the Atlantic hurricane season (which continues until November 30). The conference would last for three days, with each day serving a separate audience. The conference would begin on June 1 and conclude on June 3 and run from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m daily, Central Standard Time. Then came the task of deciding which online meeting platforms to use. We assessed what Microsoft Teams and Zoom platforms could offer during a webinar. We decided to use Zoom. As we outlined the conference, we decided to have only webinar-based sessions with question-and-answer sessions throughout. Using what we learned about instructional design and audience engagement, we decided to break up the monotony and base the delivery method on the audience. For the first day, we decided to present an evacuation exercise called “Time to Geaux” for an audience of community members and Extension professionals. Tha t activity required some hands-on work, so we decided to use breakout rooms. Since we knew farmers might have internet connectivity issues and time limitations, we felt they would more than likely prefer a question and answer-based session.
Breakout rooms also enabled participants to network and have dialogue. When using Zoom for webinars, we learned that we would be unable to use breakout rooms.
We determined that each session should last approximately 45-50 minutes with 10- to 15-minute bio breaks between sessions. Below is an outline of our conference sessions.
Day 1 Topics: Emergency Preparedness (Audience: Community members and Extension professionals)
“Building and Strengthening Sustainable/Resilient Communities
Preventing and Mitigating Emergencies an d Current Threats (Decision Science)”
“Resources and Tools Available to the Community to Promote Preparedness”
“Time to Geaux” (an evacuation exercise)
“Business and Organization Preparedness”
Engagement activity: Assessing existing knowledge of best practices
Day 2 Topics: Emergency Response (Audience: Second Responders/Extension Professionals)
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