The Southwest Athletic Trainers' Association (SWATA) brings together a diverse community of professionals in the athletic training field. Their annual event, held from July 16th to July 19th, 2024, served as a hub for athletic trainers, industry experts, and healthcare professionals. This event provided a platform for attendees to participate in educational sessions, network with peers, and engage in discussions on the latest trends in athletic health and injury prevention. A key focus of the event was to support professional development by offering Continuing Education Units (CEUs), fostering growth, and encouraging collaboration within the athletic training community.
The SWATA Annual Event faced significant hurdles in delivering a seamless experience for over 600 athletic trainers, healthcare professionals, and industry experts. Their previous platform was complicated and left organizers to act as developers, figuring out technical issues on their own. This made it challenging to manage the multi-day program, which included numerous sessions, speakers, and activities. Ensuring smooth coordination and maintaining high engagement was crucial, especially in a hands-on field like athletic training.
Facilitating meaningful networking opportunities was also a priority, as SWATA aimed to foster professional connections and community-building. Additionally, there was a need to simplify the CEU tracking and certification process, ensuring participants could easily access and manage their Continuing Education Units throughout the event.
To overcome the challenges of hosting a large-scale, multi-day event, SWATA turned to a platform that could provide tailored solutions designed to enhance the overall event experience. These solutions addressed key areas of engagement, networking, professional development, and operational support, ensuring that both organizers and attendees enjoyed a seamless, interactive, and valuable event.
The event utilized a fully customizable and interactive environment where attendees could navigate between sessions, participate in live discussions, and engage with speakers , ensuring that engagement remained high throughout the multi-day event. The fully customized mobile app also enabled attendees to view schedules, maps, attendee communications and information related to SWATA 2024. This user-friendly setup ensured continuous participation, making the educational experience immersive and enjoyable.
The event’s networking features enabled attendees to effortlessly connect with peers, join group discussions, and share ideas. These opportunities for interaction allowed professionals to foster meaningful relationships and collaborate on shared interests. The focus on community-building ensured that connections made at the event could extend into ongoing partnerships and professional growth within the athletic training community.
One of the key objectives for SWATA was to provide Continuing Education Units (CEUs) to attendees, and download certificates after meeting the necessary requirements. The platform allowed event organizers to monitor participation in specific sessions and ensured that attendees met the requirements necessary to earn their CEUs. Post-event, attendees could quickly access and download their certificates, simplifying the certification process.
The event's ability to adapt to last-minute changes and resolve technical issues promptly ensured a smooth flow from start to finish. Participants experienced minimal disruptions, allowing them to fully engage with the sessions and discussions with 24/7 customer support available to them at all times. This flexibility helped maintain a high-quality experience, regardless of any unexpected challenges.
SWATA will build on the event's success by refining agendas based on attendee feedback , enhancing networking features, and improving logistics. Ongoing staff training will ensure smooth operations, allowing future events to deliver even greater value and engagement for the athletic training community.
The platform made everything so easy. As healthcare professionals, not tech experts, we appreciated having a functional, user-friendly interface that required virtually no effort on our part. It was exactly what we needed. Sara Nuechterlein, On-Site Supervisor @ SWATA
