2020 ACUA Virtual Conferences in Review
November 12, 2020
2020 has been a year of unprecedented change for ACUA’s educational events, pivoting from in-person to virtual conferences for the first time in ACUA history. This was only possible due to the hard work and dedication from a team of volunteers and Kellen staff.
In planning the transition to a virtual format, we hoped to take the same values that are important to the in-person conference experience and incorporate these into the virtual educational events. These values include:
- Providing high quality training on higher education topics
- Offering speaker and attendee collaboration and interaction during training sessions
- Creating space and time for networking outside of training sessions
- Including ACUA strategic partners and vendors in events
ACUA’s Virtual Event (The AVE)
In March 2020, the ACUA Board came to the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 Audit Interactive conference scheduled for April 5-8, 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee. The decision was made due to public safety concerns in light of COVID-19, as well as budget cuts and travel restrictions imposed by ACUA members’ institutions.
Once 2020 Audit Interactive was cancelled, a team of volunteers and staff worked to develop ACUA’s inaugural virtual conference in just eight weeks. The new event was named and branded as ACUA’s Virtual Event (The AVE): the Avenue to the Most Relevant Higher Education Continuing Professional Education (CPE). ACUA headquarters identified and purchased a one-year subscription to an event platform called Cadmium to host the virtual event. Cadmium integrates with Zoom, which many of speakers and conference attendees have used, and prefer. Simultaneously, the volunteer committee contacted speakers originally scheduled for Audit Interactive, who graciously agreed to convert their sessions and content to fit a 75-minute virtual format. Two groups of Chief Audit Executives (CAEs), one for small shops and one for large shops, also came together to design brand new panel discussions on COVID-19 risks and challenges faced by institutions.
The AVE took place from May 11-15, 2020 and over 250 attendees joined from their homes and offices all over the nation, as well as some international locations. The AVE offered two tracks with back-to-back 75-minute breakout sessions each day. This gave attendees the option to choose between two tracks for each educational session. Attendees networked and interacted with ACUA colleagues during coffee breaks between sessions, which lifted spirits and let everyone catch-up.
The post-event survey indicated attendee responses to The AVE was overwhelmingly positive and this feedback was used to build upon and improve the virtual conference experience for AuditCon.
AuditCon: Virtual Edition
In June 2020, the Board made another difficult decision to transition AuditCon from an in-person conference planned for San Antonio, Texas to a virtual event. This was based on feedback from scheduled AuditCon speakers as well as institutional representatives regarding their shop’s ability to attend an in-person conference with current budget and travel restrictions.
A dedicated group of volunteers and staff, again, came together to plan for the transition to a virtual environment. This committee began meeting twice a month in July and then weekly leading up to the conference to plan the virtual activities. The original AuditCon program had to be revised and updated to fit the new online format, with educational sessions slotted into three tracks and scheduled at times that worked for the majority of ACUA members based on different time zones. Speakers who had originally agreed to present their session in-person at AuditCon adjusted their content to fit the virtual format and attended training sessions on Zoom to become familiar with the online platform.
AuditCon: Virtual Edition was held from September 14-17, 2020 and over 350 attendees participated in the event. Each day the conference started with a keynote session or general session for all attendees to listen in. This was followed by two breakout sessions in three tracks that attendees could select from to meet their training needs. In addition to the keynote sessions and educational breakout sessions, a group of moderators created and hosted virtual roundtable discussions on Tuesday and Thursday morning on topics for CAEs, diversity and inclusion, ACUA resources, small audit shops, information technology (IT), and COVID-19. The roundtables were optional, but each provided attendees with one additional CPE credit for their participation. Many of the roundtables utilized the breakout room function in Zoom to encourage small group discussions. All of the sessions were accessible via the Cadmium event platform, where attendees could also download presentation slides. During the breaks, attendees could interact with vendors in the virtual exhibitor hall and hang out with ACUA volunteers in a chatroom at the virtual ACUA booth.
The AuditCon Virtual Committee also coordinated with other ACUA volunteer committees to organize additional networking events. On Wednesday morning, the ACUA Mentorship Program led an optional CPE-eligible session to share information about the program and begin to match mentors and mentees for the 2020-2021 year. On Wednesday evening, the Awards Committee put together a celebration to honor the 2020 ACUA award winners at the ACUAdemy Awards. After toasting the award winners with an signature ACUA cocktail (or mocktail), attendees participated in speed networking and spent some time getting to know a few other colleagues in small group breakout rooms.
Although ACUA could not go to San Antonio, San Antonio came to ACUA virtually! The AuditCon Host Committee organized a virtual line dancing event for Monday evening, where an instructor led two line dances for ACUA members to boot, scoot, and boogie! The committee was also able to continue the “ACUA Gives Back” program, providing attendees with the option to donate to local San Antonio charities—Church Under the Bridge, Family Service Association of San Antonio, and/or Meals on Wheels. Attendees could shop these charities’ Amazon wish lists and select a donated item to ship directly to the organization.
At the time of writing this article, the gathering of post-event survey evaluations is still in process. The preliminary feedback received to-date about the virtual conference experience has again been positive and we plan to incorporate the lessons learned in future virtual offerings.
One message came through loud and clear from both The AVE and AuditCon: Virtual Edition—ACUA members want to see more virtual educational offerings!
Lessons Learned from Virtual Events
One message came through loud and clear from both The AVE and AuditCon: Virtual Edition—ACUA members want to see more virtual educational offerings! In the post-event surveys, 96% of The AVE attendees and 90% of AuditCon: Virtual Edition attendees stated they would like to see more virtual conference events from ACUA in the future.
Attendees at the two conferences noted several benefits from attending a virtual event, including:
- Convenience of attending the sessions from anywhere
- Lower cost of attendance for the same high quality CPE
- No travel required to participate in the conference
- Ability to keep up with work and personal obligations with half-day training sessions
- Easy to use and navigate the online platform
- Access to download presentation slides and handouts
Feedback from attendees at these two conferences will also help ACUA to explore improvements for future virtual offerings, including:
- Additional opportunities to network and interact with other attendees
- Increased use of breakout rooms to allow for more small group discussions
- Recorded sessions for registered attendees to watch at any time post-conference
- Ways to streamline polling questions and the CPE certificate process
- Access to complete session evaluations immediately following each session
- Live-stream sessions that can be attended virtually at future in-person conferences
In closing, we would like to recognize all of the volunteers who were involved with the Professional Education Committee in 2020, including the 2020 Audit Interactive Conference Program Committee, the 2020 AuditCon Conference Program Committee, and the 2020 AuditCon Virtual Edition Committee. This large group of volunteers worked closely with the Kellen staff team to ensure ACUA could continue to provide the same high quality higher education internal audit content that the ACUA membership relies on, especially during such unprecedented times. We would not have been able to provide such successful virtual educational events without these volunteers.
On behalf of the ACUA Professional Education Committee, we look forward to seeing you at a future ACUA conference in 2021.
About the Authors
Meaghan Smith
Meaghan Smith, CPA, CIA, MBA, has over 10 years of higher education internal audit experience. She is currently the Director for Audit & Advisory Services at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), where she has worked since 2014...
Read Full Author Bio
Meaghan Smith
Meaghan Smith, CPA, CIA, MBA, has over 10 years of higher education internal audit experience. She is currently the Director for Audit & Advisory Services at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), where she has worked since 2014. Prior to OHSU, she worked for the Oregon University System Internal Audit Division providing internal audit services at Oregon’s seven public universities. Meaghan received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Oregon State University and a Master of Business Administration at Portland State University. She is currently serving as ACUA’s Professional Education Committee Chair and was the 2020 recipient of the Member Excellence in Service Award.
Articles
2020 ACUA Virtual Conferences in Review
Nichole Pittman
Nichole Pittman, CIA, CISA, CFE is the Chief Audit Executive at the University of Alaska System. Nichole has worked in governmental and university environments since 1998, with the last 15 years in internal audit for the University of Alaska...
Read Full Author Bio