"There’s clearly an appetite for our folks to be engaged with technology, and the movement of the show [to different cities] every year makes it challenging at times for people to get to the event,” said the association’s vice president of events, C.B. Wismar.
Organizers were concerned that putting the entire program and all the exhibitors online would reduce attendance—yet more than 25,000 people, about the same number as in recent years, attended at the convention center. “I think the opportunity to be involved in the live event has a strong pull, and people will use the virtual event to go back and recreate and experience things they missed,” Wismar said.
Throughout the three days, attendees listened to speakers and attended classes on topics such as health and fitness, entertainment, relationships, technology, and finance, all geared toward people age 50 and older. A.A.R.P. streamed all 90 sessions live on its Web site, and about 60 will remain there for six months. Wismar said the speakers who did not agree to make their sessions available after the event are primarily people like headliners Whoopi Goldberg and Larry King. A.A.R.P. gave all 400 exhibitors an opportunity to create a virtual exhibit booth on the Web site as part of its fee for space on the expo floor. About 100 of the exhibitors paid an additional fee to upgrade their online presence to include things such as streaming video and the ability to receive and respond to questions from site users.
While online access to the sessions and exhibitors is free, A.A.R.P. does require users to register. This will allow the association to track which segments of the virtual event were most popular with site visitors.
