2020 National Conference Was Virtual

Wednesday, November 18th, 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic progressed earlier this year, it quickly became apparent that we would have to reconstruct all of our programs to accommodate the new reality. As our Peggy Browning Fellows and mentors began preparing for the challenges of working remotely, we also started planning to shift from in-person events to virtual ones for our Fellows’ Wrap-Up Workshop and our 22nd annual National Law Students Workers’ Rights Conference.

While we have conducted numerous teleconferences and webinars for years, these two combined events, which are always our most complicated ones each year, presented special challenges. At first, we expected to scale back dramatically from our usual multiple concurrent sessions, ambitious slate of substantive topics, and significant networking opportunities throughout the conference.

Thanks to extensive help from our Conference Planning Committee, Board member Gwynne Wilcox, Alex Roe & AFL-CIO and Southern University Law Center, we were able to exceed all expectations.

To accommodate student schedules and time zone limitations, sessions were spread over the course of three days, October 16 to 18, and attracted 170 participants, one of our largest groups ever.  (To read more about our 2020 National Conference, click www.peggybrowningfund.org/news/newsletters and download our Fall/Winter newsletter.)