Meeting in a Pandemic, Part Two: Back to Face-to-Face

The Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin’s business conference returns to an in-person format — and keeps the benefits of digital.

When Cassandra Strupp and her team converted the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin (PDPW) 2020 Business Conference to an online-only meeting last March, it was the first time the organization had offered a digital education component at a meeting, Strupp, PDPW’s program manager, told Convene. After tiptoeing around the idea of virtual for many years, she said, “we ripped the Band-Aid off.”

In the weeks following the conference, PDPW’s staff continued its full-throttle approach to digital, launching a free, livestreamed, hour-long program, “The Dairy Signal,” three days a week. Over the course of the past year, the organization has transformed itself from one that offered a few webinars a year to one “operating at a completely different altitude” digitally, Strupp said. So, as the conference returned to an in-person event in March, the challenge became, she said, to offer a digital option for participants alongside the face-to face event.

Strupp spoke with Convene about PDPW’s conference and how it fits into its overall education program.