Each year they curate an innovative programme that brings its delegates the latest developments, best care and opinion from across the UK. The aim is to inspire delegates by the exchange of Ideas with like-minded care professionals.

The Event Format

SRNF was expecting delegate numbers to be in the region of 50-70 delegates, but by being online they had almost 100 more - 148 participants. Their aim wasn’t to grow attendance but it was a welcome consequence of taking the conference online.

The event consisted of: 

  • A live virtual plenary
  • Q&A with presentations from speakers across the UK
  • Delegate participation was via a live link and typed Q&A
  • Recordings of the conference are available on a private area of the College website for their members

 Feedback from Dr Michelle Duffy

We met with Michelle Duffy who was the lead organiser of the SRNF 2021 conference and here is what she had to say about her experience at the College.

Did you have any worries about taking SNRF 2021 online?

Yes, as we come from different areas and at different stages of comfort in using technology. We struggled sometimes even meeting as a group online, never mind organising a whole event! It was difficult to visualise what it might look like.  When we add in the fact that this is in addition to our day job, and some areas were clinically stretched, it was quite a challenging decision that we’d kept putting off.

How did hosting a virtual event impact make an impact?

It meant that there were teams who were able to take part together. Undoubtedly, we missed meeting up in person, but it definitely allows us to share in ways that we couldn’t before.

 Did you achieve your event objectives?

To be honest, given the challenges, we’d kept our objective simple. We knew we wanted to hold an educational event which brought respiratory nurses together. The event achieved this and beyond. The excellent feedback reflects that respiratory care teams valued the opportunity to come together and that the learning has inspired them for the future of respiratory nursing. Now we’re more confident, we’ll be more ambitious in future and include more interactive sessions. 

 What were the highlights of your event?

Being able to create a programme which included speakers of such high calibre and whose sessions were relevant to future practice. The feedback showed that among other things, people felt “hope” afterwards and this is what made it worthwhile.

Why did you choose the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh?

We were struggling with how to go about the whole process. We spoke to Dr Tom Fardon, of Scottish Thoracic Society who recommended the College. As soon as we spoke to Allan it was clear that we were in safe hands. The venue has so much experience of working with clinical teams and they understood the challenges that this brings. We felt confident that they could deliver exactly what we wanted. There was no hard sell and they set out clearly what they needed from us, with a detailed timetable. We felt safe in their hands.

 Could you describe what it was like to work the venue team?

The hard work is often in organising speakers, the events team made it clear that so long as they were confirmed and knew what to expect, the RCPE team would do the rest. Bill, the AV expert contacted them and offered help with their sessions, making sure they were all able to connect and felt comfortable and secure in doing.

There wasn’t a worry that seemed too trivial to him or too much. He gave us all opportunities to drop in and check things out with him in the weeks and days leading up to it. It was a reassurance to us that this was offered to attendees as well.