Virtual Conferences
Organizing, producing, running, and archiving accessible remote events
Virtual conferences are an essential part of every organization’s professional/social communications and promotional operations. Bridge Multimedia’s accessibility expertise and experience in the burgeoning field of “virtual event technology” have set a new, inclusive standard in the development, production and co-production of large-scale accessible virtual meetings, all-day conferences, and week-long seminars.
Bridge has identified four vital components for the creation of vibrant, engaging, and smooth-running ADA, WCAG 2.1 AA, and 508-compliant accessible virtual events:
- Virtual technology infrastructure advisory and oversight is the first and most fundamental element. Every virtual conference has (1) a “home base” reservations and meeting organizer component, and (2) the presentation platform, such as Zoom or Skype. Zoom and similar presentation platforms handle the individual keynotes, plenaries, presentations, and breakout rooms. “Home base” and Zoom do not automatically “talk” to each other. Cybersecurity and firewall necessities often pose challenges to achieving full and seamless virtual conference functionality. In 2020, Bridge provided superior technology support for more than 50 virtual events.
- Virtual Conference Coordination Staffing: Managing the technology infrastructure is the first step. The second step is providing trained virtual conference professionals to coordinate all the presenters, along with their media (PowerPoints, videos, etc.) Bridge’s team of systems integrators, directors, sound engineers, video editors, and accessibility experts provide pre-event tech training for presenters. During the virtual event, Bridge provides AV support, including running slideshows, music, videos.
- Live Captions, American Sign Language, Audio Description: Bridge provides live captions, live American Sign Language (“ASL”) interpreters, live audio description as well as pre-production and post-production captions, ASL, and audio description. Bridge also provides accessible PDF document remediation, foreign language translations and dubbing services.
- Virtual content production and co-production services: Bridge’s media production team works swiftly and accurately with presenters to create Virtual Meeting-specific and ADA-compliant slides, infographics, PowerPoints, videos, voiceover recordings and music underscoring. The Bridge team also creates and co-creates disability-friendly programmatic content.
These four elements, fully realized, result in engaging, immersive experiences that capture the excitement of a live event. Bridge’s virtual conferences have included live keynote addresses, as many as six simultaneous breakout sessions, polling, live Q&A sessions, archives of streaming lectures, clips from remote theater performances, and even a virtual jazz ensemble performing in-between conference sessions.
Some recent events include:
University of Barcelona
Media for All and ARSDAD Accessible Virtual Conference
Online Seminar and Jazz Concert with ASL & Audio Description
January 27th, 2021
https://bridgemultimedia.com/media4all
The Guggenheim Museum
The World Around Summit 2021
8-Hour Virtual Symposium with Live Captioning
January 30th, 2021
https://theworldaround.com/#summit-2021
American Foundation for the Blind
Virtual Leadership Conference
Five virtual events
Between April 1, 2020 – July 16, 2020
United States Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences (“IES”) & U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (“OSEP”)
Special Education UnConference
An 8 ½ hour live/virtual symposium
May 20, 2020
https://spedunconferences2020.com/
The University of North Carolina:
Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute
STEM Innovation for Inclusion in Early Education Center
STEMIE Fest
Week-long live/virtual conference
September 14-18, 2020
https://stemie.fpg.unc.edu/stemiefest
SRI International/SRI Education
DaSy: The Center for IDEA Early Childhood Data Systems
Four-day virtual conference
October 19, 22, 2020[Produced in association with AnLar]
https://dasycenter.org/events/idio-2020/
American Foundation for the Blind
AFB Awards Celebration and three Town Hall Meetings
Four virtual events between October 23 – November 10, 2020
SRI International/SRI Education
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF)
Preschool Development Grant, B-5
Week-long live/virtual conference
December 7-11. 2020[Produced in association with AnLar]
https://web.cvent.com/event/61dadd47-b2fa-40da-94e3-06b8f2812ef1/summary
PBS KIDS
Universal Design for Virtual Meetings
Remote training seminar
December 16, 2020
Coming Up:
United States Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences (“IES”)
Ed Games Expo, 2021
May 2-4, 2021
The University of North Carolina:
Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute
STEMIEFest, 2021
STEM Innovation for Inclusion in Early Education Center
October 4-8, 2021
https://stemie.fpg.unc.edu/stemiefest
