"PMI UK members/volunteers design and deliver many high-quality digital events which help project practitioners share knowledge and experience and learn and develop. Sometimes it is not possible to attend a particular event. In 2020 we tackled this issue."

Our response to Covid-19

2020 was a particularly demanding year; the Covid-19 pandemic brought drastic changes and challenges socially, economically, and personally for everyone. It was a year for exploration, re-invention and thinking outside of the box.

The Digital Events team responded by increasing the team to eight volunteers, boosting event frequency from one per month to one per week and mastering new skills, tools, and techniques, such as Mentimeter. All with the aim of creating rewarding online learning experiences accessible to everyone - anyplace and anywhere.Numbers climbed throughout the year to a total of more than 5,000 attendees and an impressive 60% participation via the interactive Mentimeter platform.

Improving audience experience

The team created a post-event survey, seeking attendee's feedback to understand how the Digital Events experience could be improved and what topics would be of most interest to members.

This is helping the Digital Events Team to develop a forward programme based on shared experience that closely matches audience expectations. In other instances, we have observed dismal response rates of less than 10%. However, in our case, spurred on by the promise of a PDU code to register professional development, we are proud to report a completion rate of more than 50%!

The Digital Events team take great pride in delivering a positive experience to participants, before, during and after each webinar. We meet after every event to review feedback and reflect on what went well and what could be improved and prepare for the webinar.

PMI UK webinar library

Shortly after each webinar we share an on-demand recording (Vimeo), presentation slides (SlideShare) and Mentimeter results, along with any additional resources via PMI UK chapter webinar library. Our library is a single repository that enables us to organise, store, and provide easy access to valuable webinar content.

Due to popular demand, the Digital Events team have worked hard to streamline the post-production publishing process. We reduced the time interval between the end of the webinar to publication of the completed new page in our library from around two days to just a few hours. This means we can notify attendees and absentees promptly, so they can catch up on their professional development, and claim a PDU the same day.

In Summary

2020 was a year steep learning curve for everyone involved in the production of online events. We met the challenge and raised the bar high.

In 2021, we intend to do even better. If you would like to be part of a fast-learning and fast-adapting team, have a passion for giving back to the profession, then come and join us! You can reach me at webinars@pmi.org.uk

Carla Miranda 

Carla is an industrial engineer with over 8 years of project management and planning & strategic management experience, in the oil and gas, consulting and IT sectors. She is currently providing support on the Business Development of Amplify-now and active volunteer of PMI UK Chapter.

She is passionate about energy and has attained a Master of Science in Oil and Gas Management from Coventry University, UK and a post-graduate qualification in Petroleum Engineering from New South Wales University, Australia.