The Advancing Research Conference will take place virtually

Hi all, I know you’re concerned about the status of AR2020. The pandemic is, to say the least, frightening, and we’re doing our best to navigate a difficult, uncertain, and extremely fluid situation that changes by the minute. Here’s our plan:

• The main conference is being converted to a virtual conference (and will continue to take place as planned on March 30-31). We are reducing its price to $995, and it can be accessed by as many as five people per location. More on the virtual conference below.

• If you attend the virtual conference, we’ll issue you a credit for the difference that can be used toward any future Rosenfeld Media conference (we now offer three per year) or one of our many workshops (at conferences or stand-alone) for the next three years.

• If you opt not to attend the virtual conference, we’ll issue you a 100% credit that can be used toward any future Rosenfeld Media conference or workshops for the next three years.

• If you’d registered for a workshop, we’ll issue you a 100% credit to be used toward any future Rosenfeld Media conference or workshops for the next three years. We are investigating with instructors how their workshops—all designed to be taught in person—can be modified for remote access, but this won’t happen overnight. Please bear with us; we’ll communicate with you as we learn more.

If you decide not to attend the virtual version of AR2020, we need you to let us know by EOD Thursday, March 26. Otherwise we will send you virtual conference login credentials on March 27.

We know how excited you—and our speakers and sponsors—are about this conference, which is nearly two years in the making. Many of you have been involved directly in the research we used to develop the program. Our speakers and curators have been preparing for months. For many reasons, moving forward with AR2020 is the right thing to do. We hope you will join us as planned—albeit remotely—on March 30-31.

Thanks for your kindness and support.

HOW THE AR2020 VIRTUAL CONFERENCE WILL WORK

• Virtual or not, AR2020 remains a carefully-curated Rosenfeld Media conference. That means our speakers, emcees, and moderators will be extensively prepared, and that our team will provide you with the information and customer service you need to enjoy the event.

• We’ll use Zoom, a highly functional, familiar group communication tool. We’re also exploring the use of other tools, such as those supporting remote collaboration.

• You’ll be able to ask questions; as speakers won’t likely be able to answer all of them live, we’re exploring follow-up Q&A sessions and other approaches to connect you with speakers.

• As a registered attendee, you’ll receive exclusive access to session recordings, as well as tripnotes, sketchnotes, and decks.

• Upon request, we’ll provide you with closed captioned access to the presentations. If you have other accessibility-related needs or questions, please reply to this email to let us know.

• We know that the social and networking aspects of conferences are critical, and we’re working on a variety of ideas to enable you to meet and even collaborate with other conference participants, as well as speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors.

• We also know how important it is to learn about sponsors’ offerings; we’re working with sponsors to ensure you have opportunities to “meet” with them and take advantage of their swag and offers.

While Rosenfeld Media has extensive experience with hosting virtual conferences, there are certainly challenges in switching from in-person to remote so rapidly. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for how we can provide you with the best possible virtual conference experience (you can reply to this email). Thank you, and love and good health to you all.

Sincerely,
Lou Rosenfeld and the AR2020 Team