SPE’s virtual Antec draws more than 3,300 participants

SPE’s “Antec 2020: The Virtual Edition” seems to have been a hit, drawing over 3,300 participants from over seven countries during a six-week period.

The event ran from March 30 to May 5. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for the first five weeks and Monday and Tuesday on the sixth week, attendees logged into day-long keynote presentations and technical sessions focused on plastics used in a range of industries from medical to automotive to aerospace and more. The 3,300 participants viewed 14 keynote speakers and 167 technical presentations facilitated by over 58 session moderators. Over the six-week period comprised of 17 days in total, SPE clocked in more than 93 hours of air-time.

Over 20 presentations, podcasts and demonstrations were live-streamed on YouTube and are currently accessible to everyone.

“While moving our annual conference from an in-person three-day event to a virtual offering was not an easy decision to make, we decided our only option was to change our course of action rather than postpone or cancel,” said Patrick Farrey, SPE’s CEO. “We are extremely happy with the level of success that was achieved by our virtual offering during these past six weeks. One of the most gratifying aspects of all was how multiple teams of people – from our executive board and technical committees, keynote speakers and technical presenters, to the SPE staff – came together to pull this off quickly and seamlessly.”

The success of SPE’s virtual edition of Antec 2020 has led the society to offer more virtual events in the future. SPE is currently developing a virtual “Plastics In…” series, which will kick off on May 18 with a one and a half day virtual conference called Plastics in Aerospace: The Virtual Edition. This event will focus on plastics used in the aerospace industry.

“It’s a different world now,” said Farrey. “But that doesn’t mean fade away into obscurity. For SPE, we saw an opportunity. An opportunity to not only contribute to the growth of the organization but an opportunity to serve plastics professionals around the world with educational and networking programs that are accessible whether you are in North America or Europe or Asia or all points in between.”

For more information about “Antec 2020: The Virtual Edition”, visit www.4spe.org/ANTEC.