Title: COVID-19's Impact on Event Organizing and Programming
Presenters: Courtney Campbell, Jason Fowler, Emma Muccioli
Department: Campus Life
Abstract: The Campus Life SAARC committee group conducted our research analyzing COVID-19’s Impacts on Event Organizing and Programming. Our primary focus for this research was virtual events during COVID-19. We hope to inform decision-making related to post-COVID-19 event support, as well as inform virtual event best practices. We hope this research allows event programmers to foster success through effective and engaging programming.Our research sample was student organization leaders and departmental event planners, and we reached them via qualtrics survey through email and myUMBC. We used K-Means Clustering to review who reported virtual event success. K-Means Cluster Analysis is a form of data mining which groups observations based upon their shared characteristics using the k-nearest neighbor algorithm.In light of the anticipated increase in virtual and hybrid events, this group recommends that DoSA, Campus Life, and the university as a whole investigates options to improve how virtual and blended-model (hybrid) events are supported on campus. Additionally, this group intends to continue this research over time and in greater detail to gauge how the ever-changing environment impacts event planning and hosting on campus.
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