Alison McCandlish was the IHBC’s social media support at the IHBC’s 2020 Virtual School, and here she explores the parallel and overlapping public twitter experience, at #IHBCVirtualSchool2020, which boasted an ‘overall reach of… over 1 million users, with 359 tweets… and 90 different contributors’ and ‘the lunchtime exhibition… 
showcasing the principal sponsor’ HCUK Group: Heritage Collective.’
Alison McCandlish writes:
This year our Annual School was a little different as we organised an IHBC Virtual School for the first time, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We also gave a preview of next year at Brighton 2021, but did so virtually with presentations and panels. We still wanted to encourage delegate interaction, so how did we do this? We were adhering to social distancing, but very socially connected!
Just like a ‘normal’ conference we encouraged discussion among delegates and interaction with our panel, but instead of in person questions with a roving mic, those who attended could post questions in the GoToWebinar chat facility, and also via Twitter on the dedicated conference hashtag #IHBCVirtualSchool2020. We also set up polls within the conference, where delegates could let us know their views on current issues and future priorities.
Behind the scenes we had a team of hardworking IHBC staff all working together to ensure a smooth delegate and panellist experience, including dedicated IT troubleshooting and support.
We had a lunchtime exhibition on Twitter, showcasing the principal sponsor HCUK Group: Heritage Collective and our eight company friends of the Annual School. Some delegates took the opportunity to invite their pets and children to take part… we have some lovely family household views on #IHBCVirtualSchool2020!
The overall reach of the school on Twitter – over 1 million users, with 359 tweets on our designated hashtag and 90 different contributors. We have compiled the Tweets into a ‘Wakelet’ which allows you to see an annotated, edited version of the chat on the day, without any need to have a Twitter account, or connect to any social media. IHBC on Wakelet
In Brighton, and for future IHBC events, we hope to build on the experience at the Virtual Annual School. Do let us know your views.
See more on twitter at #IHBCVirtualSchool2020
See more background links and updates from the NewsBlog
See more interim feedback
See more on the IHBC Schools
For the IHBC’s original Brighton 2020 School plans – and inspiration for Brighton 2021, see brighton2020.ihbc.org.uk
See more on Virtual School Sponsors HCUK Group: Heritage Collective, and its IHBC HESPR membership webpage
For more background to the Virtual School see the IHBC NewsBlogs
For ongoing updates see #IHBCBrighton2021 and our NewsBlogs
See more Virtual School background
See more updates
