Getting Back to In-Person Events at DRJ Fall 2021

By Bob Arnold, president of Disaster Recovery Journal

In-person events drive the kinds of encounters conducive to creating collaborations building communities and establishing friendships. Aspects that many attendees appear to have missed most during the pandemic include the conference atmosphere, extensive feedback opportunities, and in-depth conversations during coffee breaks sessions and networking events for which DRJ is well-known.

Travel to events is worth the investment as many repeat DRJ attendees agree, providing an energizing change of scenery, new inspiration for robust resiliency programs, minds that are fully immersed in the conference topics, and an invigorating mixing of minds and cultures. Some also report the in-person conference experience minimizes distractions from work and home life, eliminates screen fatigue, and allows attendees to make lasting connections.

Event organizers such as DRJ have a lot of food for thought: should conferences return solely in-person after the pandemic? DRJ’s decision to return to our traditional format came down to our ability to hold an in-person conference that is as safe as possible for our physical attendees while offering a full virtual experience to all, three weeks following our in-person event. DRJ has seen growing travel willingness from speakers, attendees, and exhibitors, and we will be polling them to get a pulse check leading up to the event.

At the same time we are respecting everyone’s individual choice and comfort level with a physical event. That is why we’re boosting DRJs virtual offering this fall. No one should feel left out if they would rather have a digital conference experience.

Here are the current plans for DRJ Fall 2021:

We will be running a full in-person DRJ Fall 2021 event at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge in Phoenix AZ Sept 19-22 2021. The in-person event will consist of four full days of keynote sessions, breakout tracks, workshop sessions, panel discussions, active exhibit hall and more. As a bonus all in-person attendees will also receive access to the virtual event scheduled three weeks later.

We are also running DRJ Fall 2021 A Virtual Experience on Oct 11-14 2021. This will include live keynote sessions, live panel and town hall discussions, live workshops, live speed networking events, and more than 45 on-demand breakout and solution track sessions.

For more information visit https://drj.com/fall2021.