THINK Virtual 2020

In mid-March 2020, we’d spent months planning the annual multi-day Co-op THINK conference. Just over six weeks out, the event had to be cancelled - like every other in-person event. But for the credit union world, THINK was too important to skip. Almost immediately, one of the first ideas was to produce a virtual option.

One of the challenges was to find a studio. In an incredible turn of luck, we saw on Facebook that our long-time vendor partner Senovva had just built a studio. The next day we went to visit and learned the studio would need a few additions for our virtual event, so we provided the technology and knowledge to bridge that gap.

On the other side of the country we had our conference host Jean Chatzky, who lived outside NYC. We located a studio at the Pleasantville Cable station. However, they didn’t have the capacity for our virtual transmission, so we sent them the technology and worked closely with their staff so they would be ready to transmit Jean’s signal - a vital piece of our show.

It was a lot of work to get to that show day. We built videos and presentations; tested virtual guests’ online connections; assembled the crew, familiarized them with the new gear, and ran rehearsals.

On May 7, 2020 at 8:00am we went live. For six hours, we hosted live interviews and presentations from people all around the country. Aside from short video transitions and breaks, it was a truly live broadcast. Though we had backup plans in case Jean’s feed dropped, it never did.

It may have been the largest THINK audience ever.