In March 2018, UW Botanic Gardens and the Burke Herbarium co-hosted the second annual Washington Botanical Symposium with an exciting new, lower-carbon way to attend: via livestream.
UW EDGE, a co-sponsor of the livestream event along with UW Sustainability, set up a conference livestream, brought in all the necessary equipment, and managed online access for about twenty (out of 158 total registrants) remote attendees from Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. Participants were able to view and hear speakers and presentations from all four sessions. The symposium was recorded as well, giving Botanic Gardens the option to re-watch key presentations.
“Our committee and attendees were really happy about this (livestream) offering and think it would be a great thing to continue,” said Jessica Farmer, Adult Education Supervisor at UW Botanic Gardens.
All livestream attendees surveyed after the symposium said that they would attend via livestream again. Attendees saved an average 324 miles of driving, or a combined estimated 1.18 metric tons of CO2.
Interested in offering a livestream for your conference, symposium or event? Timothy McCabe, Supervisor of Learning Technologies for UW EDGE, says his team is eager for new partnerships and would be very interested in supporting additional green initiatives at the UW. To learn more, contact the EDGE team at edgeweb@uw.edu.
