Justice helps event go virtual

JSharon Justice, right. (ECU Photo by Cliff Hollis, pre-COVID)

Over the summer, Sharon Justice assisted the North Carolina Bankers Association, led by Peter Gwaltney, as they transitioned their training and leadership development from inperson events into virtual delivery events. When Justice is not teaching leadership in the College of Business, she provides consulting services to organizations through Justice Leadership, which led to this partnership with the NCBA.

Justice worked with the event team of Blair Jernigan and McKenna Gorham to brainstorm creative ways to move the 84^th annual NC School of Banking (NCSB) to a virtual delivery platform using Zoom. This event is more than a banking school for teaching advanced banking concepts. One of the vital components of the week for the attendees is networking, relationship building and small study group interaction opportunities. The planning team knew creating these opportunities would be difficult but not impossible to achieve in a virtual setting. With hours of intentional planning and out of the box thinking, the NCSB leadership team created an event that taught advanced banking topics and concepts, but also provided meaningful ways for the participants to connect and build relationships.

Early in the planning, Justice hosted an NCSB Faculty training session where she shared advanced Zoom tools and techniques.  In these sessions she also demonstrated creative ways to build interactive and engaging online sessions.  Before the start of the school, she conducted four virtual orientation sessions with each of the NCSB 40 student cohorts to acclimate them to the virtual delivery platform and to introduce the networking component of the NCSB. During each of the orientation sessions, the participants broke into small groups of 4-6 people. They played traditional People Bingo, using Zoom breakout rooms, where they got to learn a bit about their fellow classmates. After completing several rounds of small group breakouts, the participants had the opportunity to say hello to a majority of their classmates during the initial session.

During the week of the school, Justice hosted daily study group sessions with up to 90 participants.  She used breakout rooms and creative and interactive tools to engage the participants.  Activities included a virtual scavenger hunt, a simulation of being lost at sea, creating team mantras, and developing graphics to describe each team. During these activities, the groups interacted, networked, built relationships and reviewed banking concepts.  By the end of the week, when asked what they took away from the week, one of the top responses was the people they had met, and the relationships forged.  This networking and interaction happened after spending a week on Zoom, learning, working hard, and having a bit of fun together through creative activities and delivery methods.

“This event demonstrated to all those in attendance that with a few creative approaches and innovative thinking, learning can happen in a virtual world while being fun and interactive,” said Justice. “Networking and relationships can be forged through a Zoom setting, proving that virtual meetings don’t have to be dull, boring, uninspiring with no opportunity to connect with others.

“Until the environment changes and inperson meetings are possible again, the NC Bankers Association will continue to use the lessons learned and creative approaches to inspire and educate their members through regular virtual events and conferences,” added Justice.

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