Dear ISNR Members,
About 30 days ago, our organization took a step forward and hosted our first virtual conference. Instead of shying away from the challenge that 2020 brought us, our board of directors doubled down on our community and we pivoted. We all had reservations, no one could say for sure how well received this pivot would be by our sponsors, our presenters and most of all, our conference attendees. To say the least, it felt risky. We all would have understood if ISNR decided not to host an annual conference given the context of COVID-19. Yet, we all know that real leaders don’t back down from challenges; they focus on solutions and keep moving forward. Real leadership is often most apparent during difficult seasons, not the best of times. I want to personally thank the Board of Directors for showing grit and bringing our community closer during what can only be described as an unprecedentedly difficult season.
The virtual event was a smashing success. We were able to leverage a 3-D platform called 6Connex to make the conference feel cohesive and professional. The number of compliments from attendees on the quality and ease of the conference was only surpassed by the actual engagement of our presenters. I was pleasantly surprised with the number of submissions; we were able to host 22 plenary sessions, 6 keynote speakers, and 22 workshops. Our total number of attendees rivaled our in-person conference at 402 and we now feel more confident in implementing a hybrid option to grow the international engagement in the coming years. In 2020, almost 20% of our attendees were from outside the United States and we had 22 different countries represented overall.
I’d like to congratulate our community on taking a risk on each other and pursuing excellence in the face of many great challenges.
I believe our community really enjoyed connecting, thus we are planning an ISNR Social Hour. Look for further communications via our Facebook page or the website: isnr-conference.org.
We couldn’t have had this conference without the support of our sponsors. We would like to mention our Platinum Sponsor, BrainMaster Technologies; our Gold Sponsor, Applied Neuroscience; and, our Silver Sponsors: BioMedical, Ronan Medical, Thought Technology, and VieLight.
Noel Ford
Conference Planning Committee
Chairperson
