Virtual CPNP 2020 By The Numbers

The 2020 CPNP Annual Meeting will no doubt go down in the history books. For the first time in 23 annual meetings, the event was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In just 4 weeks, CPNP staff worked with the Program and Recertification Committees and speakers to transition the event from 3.5 days to 5 days of live programming and 13 hours of on-demand content.

One attendee commented: “I was incredibly impressed with how smooth the transition to a virtual meeting was. There were so few technical difficulties and they got addressed in such a quick fashion they did not impact my learning or the experience. While I enjoy the live meetings, this was effective and affordable. Thank you to everyone who made this event happen!”

With the transition to virtual, the CPNP Foundation acted to convert their traditional 25 student grants to sponsor student attendance to the virtual event. Students turned out in droves with 825 students taking advantage of the complimentary registration. Many students expressed their gratitude to the CPNP Foundation and its donors, and a few students created thank you videos to share what attending Virtual CPNP 2020 meant to them.

Another major shift involved moving the poster sessions (now available in MHC) to a virtual format. CPNP’s Director of Technology Greg Payne created a number of enhancements including the addition of electronic posters by authors and inclusion of a comment feature allowing authors and attendees to dialogue real-time about the completed research. During the two virtual poster sessions, 1,970 comments were posted, and poster pages were hit 18,916 times. These amazing numbers contributed to some of the highest statistics that CPNP has ever seen! Here is a recap of Virtual CPNP 2020 by the numbers:

• 1403 total registrations consisting of 464 non-trainees, 114 residents, and 825 students
• Up to 835 unique daily participants during the virtual event
• 356 unique users who contributed comments during the poster session
• 6,130 courses bookmarked by 475 users
• 4,129 posters bookmarked by 405 users
• 284,000 pageviews to the CPNP.org website by over 51,000 users in the month of April
• Over 1 million pageviews to the CPNP 2020 website in the past 6 months

We are overwhelmed by the support of the CPNP membership as this event was converted to a virtual format as evidenced by some of the summary evaluation comments:

• “After attending several CPNP meetings in person and now attending via this virtual format, I honestly prefer to virtual format. The scheduling made it very easy and convenient to watch all presentations relevant to my practice. I was not forced to pick between two sessions which were occurring at the same time and miss an educational opportunity.”
• “Outstanding job to the CPNP staff, planning committee, presenters and everyone involved in pivoting the event from a live conference to a virtual one. Great work! I really enjoyed the virtual format and would be interested in having this format be available as an option for future meetings.”
• “CPNP did a wonderful job getting everything together, especially so last minute! I really enjoyed the talks, and how they were all accessible via one zoom link. I believe that simplified things. The poster sessions were creatively done and I am very happy to have an electronic copy of the wonderful posters that folks put in so much of their time and hard work.”
• “Great Job! I really enjoyed the distance learning opportunity. It certainly removed any fear of it and encouraged me to continue with the BCPP Prep series. The only thing I really missed was the face to face interaction and networking opportunities. It saddens me that the award winners did not have direct congratulations, however you made it as great and rewarding as possible in these conditions!! Kudos to all.”

Thank you all for your support of Virtual CPNP 2020. Looking ahead, CPNP is actively planning a hybrid event for 2021 with the live offering in Florida along with at least some content presented virtually. CPNP is actively monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications for the 2021 Annual Meeting to be held April 18-21 in ChampionsGate, FL (Orlando) and will continue to keep you apprised.

The virtual event format didn’t stop many groups from seeing their colleagues and friends! Enjoy some of the group meet-up photos submitted to CPNP, including a student chapter that hosted their officer elections, USC Alums and Friends, and “Ladies Night” for a group of friends.