Northwest Aerospace News PNAA 2021 ADVANCE | Page 74

OVERCOMING TURBULENCE , ENTERING THE VIRTUAL

CONVERGENCE ZONE

BRIAN CANFIELD PNAA CEO and Executive Director
PNAA Advance 2020 may have been the first and the last in-person major aerospace conference held in North America in the year 2020 . Shortly thereafter , as COVID-19 spread , in-person events began to be cancelled and postponed . As the world reeled in shock over how society had to cease business as usual , we all began searching how to continue to conduct business . This was especially true in organizations like PNAA and others whose focus is creating valuable in-person events . We all paused to consider what the future held and how we would adapt .
Living through a pandemic has been a first for us all . It seemed like every few weeks , there was a new theme of how to deal with the extensive changes in our lives . First there was shock , then fear and upset , and finally we moved past these responses with the realization that we need to adjust our flight plan and find a way to continue conducting business .
Thankfully we live in an era with technology that enables us to span the isolating chasm of such an event ; something not available in previous times . Virtual conferencing went from a novel communication tool to a necessity in the span of weeks , and organizations that normally rely on in-person events had to invent creative ways to achieve their objectives in the virtual domain . PNAA created topical webinars and virtual factory tours to help connect and educate the aerospace community in the Pacific Northwest and beyond . Initially , we assumed COVID-19 would pass in a number of weeks and life would quickly return to normal . It seems there is one thing on which we can all agree : its impact has more longevity than most imagined .
Although it has been relatively straight forward to pivot smaller networking and training events to virtual platforms , converting a larger conference is far more complex and there are many challenges in maintaining the look and feel of an in-person event with similar experience and results . In the scramble to quickly adapt , companies and organizations were challenged in accessing solutions that offered great user experiences , including user interface , key features and ease of use . After all , there were not many well-known virtual software providers prior to the pandemic , and of those , few were equipped to deliver a reference experience . As the pandemic ’ s level of significance became clear , current providers as well as startups scrambled to create and increase functionality and support . The results have included a rapidlychanging software landscape and development of feature enhancements .
74 NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS
PNAA ADVANCE / 2021