Welcome to the APHA 2020 Annual Meeting and Expo. Our first all virtual Annual Meeting.
Just like our in-person meetings this virtual meeting is a mix of poster,
roundtable and oral scientific sessions plus networking and engagement events.
To make sure that you don't miss a minute of the action,
let's go over some of the basics of our easy-to-use Annual Meeting platform.
Right now, we're looking at the meeting homepage.
You should bookmark this page for the week for quick access.
Be sure to read the important information on this page.
First we need to sign in. You can sign in by clicking the 'Sign In' button.
It appears at both the top and left side of this page.
In order to sign in you need your Registration ID and the email address
associated with your registration. If you've already registered,
but don't know where to find this information,
you can send yourself a copy of your confirmation. And if you haven't registered yet, you can do so
by clicking 'Register Now' in the box. Enter the information and click sign in.
Before we show you around, let's talk about something very important: time zones.
Because everyone is joining the meeting from the safety of their homes,
it is critical that you keep time zones in mind when planning your schedule.
By default all sessions and events are scheduled in U.S. Mountain Time.
But you don't need to change your clocks. By selecting 'My Time' on the bottom left
of the navigation panel, the program will be changed to reflect your local time.
Your account will remember and display your choice throughout the meeting.
But when you're talking to friends and colleagues about joining a session or networking event or
you see something promoted on social media, make sure you double check that time zone.
But with that important choice made let's go over some of the other important information
found at the banner at the top of your screen. First, when you're logged in, you should see
your initials in a circle here. You can click this to sign out of the Annual Meeting platform.
Next is your time zone preference it either says 'My Time' or 'Mountain Time.'
On the right side of the banner are important icons for managing your Annual Meeting experience.
Clicking the star will take you to sessions events and papers
that you have favorited as you browse the program.
The calendar icon will take you to items that you've put on your schedule.
The people icon will take you to people that you have connected
with through the Annual Meeting platform. The rest of the icons will navigate you to
your notifications; a tool for sharing the page that you're viewing; and the search function.
On the left side of your screen is the navigation bar.
This is your doorway to all of the Annual Meeting content.
At the top you find your home and search buttons and here's how you can find
sessions to attend throughout the week. You can browse by day to fill out your
schedule or you can browse by program to find sessions sorted by a variety of topics.
We've also highlighted sessions on Violence Prevention — the theme of
the conference this year — and sessions on COVID-19.
Let's go over making our schedule and joining a session.
First, I'm going to click Browse by Day. Here you see a list of sessions
sorted in chronological order. You can add them to your favorites to
review later by clicking the star or you can add them to your schedule by clicking the plus sign.
You can also leave notes for yourself. We have a mock session set up for
this video. I'm going to find it. You can see that if a session is live you can join
it from here, but let's take a look at the page first to make sure that we're in the right place.
When you click on 'Join Now' for any session you receive a pop-up for Zoom.
Make sure that you have Zoom installed in all of
the devices you're planning on using for the Annual Meeting.
You don't want to miss a minute of that important session you've been looking forward to.
Next up is the Virtual Expo. The Virtual Expo provides the chance
for attendees to meet with hundreds of public health organizations from across the country.
To get the most out of the Annual Meeting, you should log into the Virtual Expo to access all
of the features in the system and to participate in Industry Expert Theater
presentations to get a sneak peek of new products and services from select exhibitors.
The Virtual Expo can be accessed 24 hours a day,
but plan to visit the Expo during dedicated hours for live engagement with exhibitors
and to participate in APHA Play social scavenger hunt to win prizes.
Let's take a look at the Virtual Expo hall. After you log in you will see the Expo hall
home page. Here, you can find different ways to explore the hall and connect with presenters.
To browse the hall you can either look at a list of booths or visit the interactive floor plan.
Let's go to the floor you can click on different booths for
information — don't worry we can zoom in. You can also find a list of booths on the
left hand side of your screen. Let's take a look at a booth.
On this page you can find information on the booth including videos and fliers.
You can interact with people working the booths. You can send messages to the booth
by clicking the envelope or you can click the calendar to schedule an appointment.
You can go back to attending sessions and social events instead of waiting in line.
Speaking of social events, let's take a look at some of those now.
Just because we've gone virtual doesn't mean
there aren't ways to schmooze and connect with your peers.
Just click 'Networking and Engagement' on the navigation bar.
Here, you can find our Mix and Mingle Lounge where there are live activities to meet your peers;
the Wellness Center, which features a mix of live and on-demand fitness and wellness sessions;
the social media lab, a collaborative environment that focuses on incorporating social media into
public health work; and this corner of the annual meeting platform is also home to Geeks Meet,
rooms where public health geeks can meet and have topic-focused discussions.
Click 'View Networking and Engagement' activities
for a calendar of events so you can add them to your schedule.
Now it wouldn't be a conference if we didn't have poster sessions — those have gone virtual too.
On the navigation bar you can click on 'Poster Sessions' and then on 'View Poster Sessions'
for a directory of presentations. Let's look at one of those now.
Once you've found something you're interested in,
you can read information and watch the presentation.
PRESENTER: "Hi, everyone! Thank you very much for tuning in!"
You can leave questions for the presenter below. Remember. you can also network with presenters
by clicking on their name and hitting the 'Connect' button.
That just about covers the basics. Don't forget that APHA is very
active on social media follow APHA and #APHA2020 on your favorite platforms.
Include the hashtag in your posts to be part of the conversation.
And if you run into any trouble during the meeting don't hesitate to drop by our Help Desk.
We hope you enjoy your stay at the APHA 2020 Annual Meeting and Expo!