The delivery of Early Language and Literacy workshops for early childhood educators has been a foundational element of VPL’s Early Years services for many years. These workshops have been very popular and highly valued by the ECE community. Training and early literacy are the foundation of the conference but, providing networking opportunities and raising the profile of ECE profession are also key goals. This year the challenge was to shift the traditionally in-person conference online because of the pandemic.

We used a patron-focused approach with targeted tech support offered before the virtual conference to ensure the pivot to virtual would not exclude any participants. We emailed registered participants inviting them to Zoom tech support sessions that were optional and drop-in. Almost half of the participants attended (37/80). These sessions connected our early learning mandate with our digital literacy goals. We aim to offer similar targeted tech support sessions to participants for future virtual programs.

The virtual conference was a success and achieved all of our goals. We reached maximum capacity of 80 attendees and received positive responses to the integration of literacy and Indigenous content into childcare practice. We have clearly seen that adult professional caregivers find the virtual format as or more accessible for early literacy learning and training, and will work to balance this accessibility against the best pedagogical approach for future education offerings.