The Dudley Flood Center for Educational Equity and Opportunity connects organizations, networks, and leaders to address issues of equity, access, and opportunity in education across North Carolina. The company was birthed from the findings and recommendations of the Forum’s Study Group XVI, co-chaired by Dr. Flood. More so, the Forum partners with theColor of Education, an initiative to promote racial equity in academic institutions across North Carolina. By building meaningful connections and engagement across research, policy, and practice fields, DFC has been able to spark discussions on policies and influence equity and social justice. It goes beyond advocacy, promoting, discussing, and creating policies addressing education; DFC is translating strategy into action by leveraging the InEvent platform to sensitize and engage its stakeholders.
Before using InEvent as its communications strategy platform, connectivity was their primary challenge. So, the search for a high-engagement platform began, as they needed a platform that would expand their reach and enable them to host hybrid meetings across the state and overseas.
Dr. Deanna Townsend-Smith, Senior Director at Dudley Flood Center for Educational Equity, describes their switch to InEvent as a ‘positive move.’ She adds that “ We have been pleased with the solution we found with InEvent and the support they offer to ensure that you understand the answer and that we have successful events. We have had positive feedback from our stakeholders.”
InEvent offers DFC the solution of performing multiple event activities in a single platform. They have reached a large audience in North Carolina, allowing attendees to network and connect.
For DFC, maintaining relationships formed during events is of the essence. They want attendees to keep in touch after events because it helps make their community grow bigger and stronger. “Attendees can network with each other after an event, and so that has been a welcome change for us .”
Another solution that DFC enjoys in using InEvent is the high video quality that Dr. Townsend-Smith describes as ‘stellar.’ It allows them to implement their hybrid communication strategies effectively. She revealed that most platforms couldn’t display live events simultaneously using mediated media, but InEvent has this ability as a differential. Coupled with the quality of the platform, DFC has a positive user experience on the forum. “It's been an easy tool to use. Also, the number one selling point for us, which has been phenomenal, has been the support we have received throughout this process.”
Additionally, InEvent hosts DFC’s content even after events so that they can access them at any time. “It’s the ability to have the content remain on InEvent, post an event. And those that participated can go back and say, ‘oh, I remember this part in the session; let me take a look at this.’ Beyond that, we can register for events in one place, network during and post the events, and view and present our reports and analytics. It just keeps those necessary conversations going, and I think that we’ve been very pleased with how that has progressed,”
The ability to have their information available during and after events has been critical to them. Also, the overall professional look and feel of InEvent have been a positive observation. They define their consistent success as being able to ‘convene in a true hybrid way.’
DFC is looking to expand our impact. As a statewide entity, we cover the entire state of North Carolina. “We even have some partners in other states, and so our desire and the reason we partner with InEvent is that it allows us to have greater reach impact and capacity In that we can convene more groups within InEvent.” Their Color of Education event, their core and signature program, unites over 1500 people in person every year. Their network continues to expand even at this very moment. Furthermore, DFC receives feedback that their attendees enjoy returning to the content they've had access to during the session.
DFC is hosting its second in-person event. Though they are incorporating virtual event strategies for registrations, they’ll be convening in person.
They have planned the engagement solutions they will utilize for their upcoming event later this month. “We’ll do polling, quizzes, and a few other activities for engagement with our guests who will be with us on February 20th.”
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We've been able to reach parts of the state that we haven't been able to get before and convene people in several ways. I think that's because we use InEvent for various things—not only for our signature conference, it is becoming a part of our brand. It's an expectation that people won't get disconnected. We don't have to use various solutions; one for registration, one for the meeting, and one after the meeting. We can do a lot of communication within one tool, which has been helpful. Dr. Deanna Townsend-Smith, Senior Director @ DFC
