A lot of the challenges that we have faced in the last year have definitely been remodelling our in-person events into an online-friendly format. It hasn’t always been an easy tasks, but the committee has always risen up and organised some wonderful events including: a careers event for students, a Wellbeing Café, and socials such as our IET@150 University Challenge.
An example of the challenges we faced would when having to adapted out events be University Challenge. This event is normally held in person, but this can be fairly limiting for far away Universities in terms of travel, costs, etc. so when creating this event virtually, we felt that it was very important to stress the accessibility of the event so that we could get Universities from further away than local. However, the event did have some teething problems: sometimes there were connectivity issues with the virtual buzzers, and it was a difficult event to time due to holding it virtually; experiencing these kinds of challenges directly has created some really good lessons learned, that we can take and only make any virtual event we hold that much stronger.
Some of the events fit the virtual format very well, which made them much easier to organise and host. One event that lended very well was a new one that we created: the Virtual Wellbeing Café. We decided to hold this to create a space for students and young professionals to take a break from University/Working Life. As it was in a virtual space, attendees could come to the event from the comfort of their own home and even attend anonymously. They could learn more about mental health and share their stories which opened up the conversation. We see this is such an important event to keep on the roster for not only awareness and health, but keeping it virtual means that everyone who attends can feel safe but also interact with others potentially go through the same things.
Virtual events have allowed us to collaborate in an easier way with other IET groups and Coventry University Student’s Union Societies, as no travel or expenses were required to create an event with them. This included out Halloween and Christmas Socials which we ran with the Coventry University Women in Engineering Society.
I also asked some of the main committee what they thought of this year and the events we planned. Here are some of their reflections:
Calvin Chan – Treasurer: “Despite being confined to quarters, conducting meetings and events entirely online, the IET Coventry and Warwickshire Young Professionals have managed to gain more committee members. Through adversity we keep marching on, as we keep our goals and aims high, to the stars.”
Cyrus Javillo - Secretary: “I would sum up this year as difficult but a time of learning and willingness to adapt for the committee. We went digital, with few technology hiccups but we make do with what we got and still have fun when hosting and participating in events and meetings.”
Hannah Harper – Media Officer: “I would say that our events have gone well, considering technological and social challenges; we have successfully thought outside of the box. I’ve enjoyed the social aspect, the mental health focus more and I loved the joint Halloween event. It’s been great to connect with other societies like WES and hope we can do an in-person event with them and other societies - so we can help promote and learn from each other to help our own committee.”
Overall this year has definitely made collaborations with the Local Network, other IET Young Professionals networks, OnCampus groups and Coventry University Societies a lot easier. Having some of these virtual events can open up so much for the committee in terms of creativity and collaboration; as we keep learning and developing our events for Zoom, we will keep a mixture of in-person and virtual events.
We all hope that you have enjoyed the year’s events, and will join us again for the next. We can’t wait to get together and start planning again! Stay safe.
Interested in keeping up with our latest events and activities? You can follow us on the following Social Media platforms:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ietypcovwarks
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ietypcovwarks
If you would like to join the committee for next year or find out more about what we do, you can message us on Social Media, or email at: ietypcovwarks@outlook.com
- Vanessa Stanley
Publicity Officer for IET Young Professionals Coventry and Warwickshire