Interview! Ask Stacy! Online Cat Conference Review "I'm passionate about the idea of having a dedicated annual cat conference nationally and this was a great way to work towards providing access to everyone." Stacy is back to discuss all of the in's and out's of how the first Online Cat Conference went this past January! She always wanted to do an online cat conference and it was a great way to provide access to people who wouldn't be able to afford an in-person conference. She was determined to make it something that was extremely accessible worldwide. When the thought began, Stacy wasn't working with specific themes in mind, but she knew she wanted to have the ability to have international exposure. Luckily, she knew that the online component was there, with her Cat Tech Guru, Kristen, by her side. The main challenge Stacy faced was placing her faith in the technology at hand. While she felt sure it would all work out well, she had visions of her computer melting down and was nervous about things crashing. It was more a fear of the unknown than anything specific. There was preparation beforehand, though. All of the speakers were able to test things out with a dry-run the week before the conference and main issues were addressed before they became a bigger problem. It also allowed Kirsten to be more present during the actual conference, so she could grab pictures of people watching the webinars with their fur-babies and make it a little more entertaining. Another highlight of the weekend were the raffles that were presented. Thanks to some fun cat trivia, the raffles turned out to be extremely successful and many prizes were contributed from different organizations. There were 114 attendees from all over the country, as well as from Europe, Australia and Canada. Sponsors for the event were the International Cat Association and Feline Fix by Five, which Stacy can't thank enough for taking a chance on a first year online event! After the event, Stacy sent out a form to all of the attendees to see what could be done better next year, and to find out what the highlights of the conference were for different people. She was pleased to learn that many organizations used the webinar as a chance to highlight these different topics! For example, the San Francisco SPCA had the entire conference streaming all weekend in their community room. Snacks and drinks were provided and people could come and go as they pleased to check out the different webinars. What a great way to bring the community together within their own organization! Hot topics that have already come up for next year: Allowing different attendees to chat with each other to give more of a sense of community, along with having a little bit more capability with videos. Overall, it was a huge success and if anyone has any ideas, thoughts or ways that we can improve for next year's conference, please don't hesitate to email Stacy! Also, hear about Taco's story, which was a result of the Online Cat Conference!