The Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association (PCNA) is based in Madison, Wisconsin with 37 chapters located across the country. Home to 11,000 nurses and healthcare providers in North America and around the world, PCNA provides continuing education (CE), professional development, and clinical resources.

Discover how PCNA leverages Freestone LMS to stream its annual conference and discover best practice tips to elevate your annual event to achieve similar success!  

Why PCNA chose Freestone to stream its annual conference

Since 2015, PCNA has conducted its largest annual event, the Annual Cardiovascular Symposium. In 2023, PCNA’s Annual Symposium had 275 in-person attendees and 100 virtual attendees. PCNA uses Freestone to make the Symposium hybrid to ensure that the event attracts the most possible attendees. This also boosts opportunities for learners to earn CE credits and grow professionally.   

Here are five reasons why PCNA chooses Freestone:  

1. Freestone offers professional recording options. It’s easy for PCNA to record the virtual component of its Symposium by leveraging Freestone’s onsite production services. Freestone’s team of production experts work with PCNA to offer live and on-demand content options.  
2. Freestone increases learner options. Offering a hybrid experience is a great option for busy learners (especially the nurses and health care professionals within their organization that often have unpredictable schedules.) A hybrid conference also accommodates learners who might have financial challenges and can’t attend in person. PCNA sets the virtual Symposium attendee price lower than the in-person experience (largely due to the cost of food). PCNA also offers scholarship options for registration or hotel stay for in-person attendees.
3. Freestone enhances the hybrid learning experience. PCNA has found that offering a virtual attendee option hasn’t hindered the in-person experience. The association has tracked virtual and in-person growth at its annual conference. One way in which PCNA has improved the hybrid event experience is by making the virtual experience as similar as possible to the in-person experience. For example, at its annual conference, PCNA hosts an in-person poster hall but integrates this experience in Freestone so virtual attendees can also participate.  
4. Freestone boosts learner engagement. With Freestone, PCNA stokes learner engagement to ensure all attendees get the most out of their annual conference experience. PCNA utilizes the auxiliary viewer so both virtual and in-person attendees can use polling features and see results in real-time.PCNA leverages virtual chat to foster conversation and boost networking. To increase learner engagement, PCNA has a staff member moderate the chat and uses another staff member to begin conversations.  
5. Freestone encourages customization. PCNA easily incorporates custom elements into the Symposium viewing experience to make it stand out from other events. With Freestone, PCNA can highlight sponsors within the viewing experience and create a sponsor tab to showcase event sponsorships. This feature ensures event sponsors know they are recognized throughout the annual conference.
    

How PCNA has seen success using Freestone LMS

Since using Freestone to record and broadcast its Annual Cardiovascular Symposium, PCNA has measured great success.

PCNA credits much of its success to the Freestone platform. “Freestone is super user-friendly,” said Bailey Ackerman of PCNA. “I’ve personally trained a lot of speakers on Freestone, and it only takes 5-10 minutes to teach. Most of our audience finds the platform simple to use. If they do have issues, Freestone support is readily available.”

Here’s how much PCNA has succeeded using Freestone:  

• Since 2021, PCNA’s Symposium experienced 56% attendee growth. 

• The Annual Cardiovascular Symposium has a 99% virtual attendee satisfaction score, with learners being likely to recommend the event to others. 
• During the 2023 annual event, there were more than 180 chat and Q&A interactions. 

PCNA is thrilled by the recent growth in its Annual Cardiovascular Symposium and the high satisfaction amongst virtual attendees. “I think the reason we see virtual attendee growth for our symposium and other virtual events is because people like the Freestone platform and find it easy to use. They want to keep coming back, and we love that,” said Ackerman.

Moving forward, PCNA will keep leveraging Freestone for its Symposium and other virtual events. “We plan to continue replicating the in-person experience for our virtual audience with Freestone. We hope our virtual attendees will continue to increase as we meet their learning needs,” said Ackerman.

Learn more tips to elevate your annual conference with Freestone

For more ways on how Freestone can help you stream your annual conference, connect with our team today! 

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