The Challenge
Before COVID-19 put the Greater Toronto Area in lockdown, SOAR would host their Front Line Adjudication Training in-person at a conference center. There, speakers would present their material on stage to the trainees. With social distancing and capacity limitations, doing this training in person was no longer a viable option. The challenge then became – how can our client conduct their training virtually, and how do we make it as engaging and as seamless as an in-person event.
The Solution
It became immediately clear to us that our objective was to keep technical disturbances to a minimum, ensure speaker presentations ran smoothly, and to help facilitate breakout discussions to keep participants engaged. Our facilitator coordinated with the Executive Director of SOAR, Daphne Simon, to organize the distribution of meeting invitations.
Two rounds of invitations were sent, both of which were equipped with an embedded digital calendar. Speakers also received a separate email invitation for a pre-event dry-run. The purpose of the dry-run was to develop an effective flow of events, to ensure each presenter had the necessary equipment to be successful, and to establish a plan for utilizing breakout rooms and polling throughout the presentations.
Our facilitator executed the plan to a tee. Recording was enabled, breakout rooms were pre-assigned, polls were prepared, presentations shared, and the backend support line was ready to rectify any potential tech problems. After the event, our facilitator circulated a post-training email with a link to a private shared drive that held all of the presenter’s resources, a survey link to review the training, and a link to a custom expo where the recordings of each day could be re-watched.
The Results
Feedback from the trainees showed overwhelmingly positive experiences. Everyone who attended the training session left feeling much more informed on front line adjudication, expressing how amazing each speaker was and how smooth and seamless the event ran. SOAR was extremely impressed with how well everything panned out and continues to work with us to this day.
SOAR
About the clientSOAR is an organization of Chairs, members, management and staff of administrative boards, agencies and tribunals. The mission of the Society of Ontario Adjudicators and Regulators is to advance administrative justice through education, advocacy and innovation.
SOAR has various activities, including training programs for newly appointed adjudicators and administrative staff, a major conference each year in November dealing with the latest developments in administrative justice and participation in policy initiatives of relevance to the direction and integrity of the administrative justice system.
A Word From The Client
We contacted First Class in the planning stages of Front Line Adjudication Training (FLAT), an interactive two-day training for Front Line Adjudicators. We needed assistance to launch this program in a virtually effective manner. 12 speakers from across the administrative justice sector presented during the training and were able to do so seamlessly while maintaining the interactive nature of the training. We required customized breakout rooms for small group discussions, which were scattered throughout the two days of training. First Class also assisted us in distributing multiple documents and made this process much easier by managing the breakout sessions and sending documents through both the Zoom chat and via email.
They hosted multiple test sessions for the our speakers before the actual event to ensure the actual day would run smoothly with no technical glitches. They even customized materials to accommodate presenters’ preferences. The event was recorded & edited by the First Class team; then conveniently shared on an online expo to reach the trainees. After the event concluded, FCCF provided us with survey results of the satisfaction of the event, all of the presenter resources, and a chat transcript, which was easily accessible from a single OneDrive link. Working with First Class is truly a one-of-a-kind experience that makes any online event possible and successful!
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