Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1307095
THE VIRTUAL PLATFORM After a great deal of research, BICSI chose vFairs as the virtual platform for our Fall Conference & Exhibition. The vFairs platform enabled attendees to access the conference directly from their PC, laptop, or any mobile device, without the need to install additional software. The navigation was organized and easy to use, while at the same time, allowing the feel of an in-person conference experience. And fortunately, we had very few glitches during the conference. EXHIBIT HALL CHATS & VIDEO PRESENTATIONS One of our most challenging undertakings was to ensure that the virtual Exhibit Hall provided both attendees and exhibitors with a format that accommodated the demonstration of products and services, and the ability to provide and save company literature, and hold live conversations between attendees and exhibitors. Attendees had ample time to visit all the exhibit booths, which included Diamond Sponsor, AXIS Communications, and Platinum Sponsors, Corning, Hilti, and Sumitomo Electric Lightwave, plus a range of other ICT companies. Attendees utilized a virtual swag bag to collect literature and videos they wanted to review later. In addition, the BICSI Theater featured What's New, What's It Do?, an area where participating exhibitors posted videos to demon- strate their newest products and services. Attendees could view at their leisure, then head back to those exhibitor booths they wanted to learn more about. MORE TECHNICAL PRESENTATIONS The Fall Conference offered 41 technical presentations, covering a variety of well-timed topics, each delivered by experts in their field. New to this conference, BICSI introduced "ICT Field of Vision Presentations," held during the General Sessions. Sumitomo Electric Lightwave presented "Advancements and Solutions for Next-Generation Data Centers;" Corning presented "What's the Soundtrack of Your In-Building Network;" and CommScope delivered "Manage Your PoE Infrastructure with Automated Infrastructure Management (AIM)." Concurrent sessions also touched on new and emerging technologies, such as electronic safety and security (ESS), single-pair Ethernet (SPE), analytics, modern data centers, smart buildings, the Coronavirus aftermath, and upgraded industrial automation technologies. Many attendees tuned in early to view the Pre-Conference Masterclasses that addressed passive optical LAN (POL), deployment and testing of smart buildings, and other timely topics. Attendees could choose to watch General Session and concurrent videos live at the scheduled time while chatting with fellow attendees or go back to the video at a more convenient time. Because all videos remained available for 30 days post-conference, there was no reason not to view them all. "Great convention, The remote choice should be available for future BICSI conferences. I have attended more sessions than I ever had in person, and this year's keynotes are fantastic." - Suzi Puckett, RCDD, Principal, The Integrated Technologies Group, Inc., Bothell, WA, USA FEATURE Page 4