SE Regional Fruit and Vegetable Conference

Tradeshows and Conferences in 2020 might have looked a little different thanks to COVID-19, but quick thinking and great technology has lead to the rise in popularity of virtual conferences. All the benefits and resources of a conference, just minus the traveling. On such event, The Southeast Regional Fruit and Vegetable Conference, kicked off this week that is looking a little different than years past. Here is Chris Butts from the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association

"This is the first virtual event we've done. We were fortunate enough we started looking at that option in late summer, early fall. Made the move to virtual. Fortunately we had enough time to investigate platforms and different options so that we could try to bring the best experience to our attendees. And really try to emulate what we do at a live conference as best we could in a virtual setting."

Although the conference might be virtual, it is still offering all the bells and whistles of a typical conference like virtual vendor booths, tradeshows, and even morning coffee chats and evening networking events. Feedback for the conference has been very positive so far. Highlighting all the hard work that went on behind the scenes to

"[On feedback] So far so good. We went to a lot of effort to duplicate that environment. Everything from including pictures of the Savannah skyline to some of the avatars are pictures of attendees from past conferences. A lot of attention to detail and again trying to provide a level of programming that would be similar to what we would be doing in-person, both on the education side and then for our exhibitors and sponsors as well."