I am a lecturer within the School of Allied Health Professions, Keele University, and a physiotherapist with many years of experience, specialising in the field of neurology. I have also commenced on a Clinical Academic pathway building my research career. I was proud to be awarded a prestigious NIHR Clinical Academic Doctoral Fellowship, which I successfully completed in 2018, and commenced a Clinical Academic post in the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust in 2019. One of my latest ventures was taking over as Chair of the Physiotherapy Research Society (PRS), leading an international committee promoting research within the physiotherapy profession.
As the new Chair of the PRS, I offered to host the 2021 conference, presenting it through Keele University, and was honoured that this offer was accepted. The 2021 PRS conference was given the theme of ‘Clinically driven research to benefit patients’. Perhaps, not surprisingly in light of the recent COVID pandemic, this took place virtually using Microsoft Teams. It was a steep learning curve for me to navigate all the necessary steps to ensure that the conference would be well-attended and run smoothly online; thankfully, these efforts culminated in a very successful conference attended by over 70 participants from around the globe, including people from The Netherlands, Germany and Pakistan.
Organisation of the 2021 conference started back in 2019; we were originally planning a conference to be held in Kent in April 2020. As with so many planned functions that year, we had to cancel the 2020 conference, postponing the event to April 2021. The uncertainty in the world continued and the inevitable decision was made that the conference would need to run online. This offered both advantages and disadvantages. We were able to allow students to attend the conference for free, offering them a superb developmental opportunity with insight into cutting edge research in the field of physiotherapy. The virtual sessions also created opportunities to have presenters and attendees from all over the world, another distinct asset. However, the challenges of delivering numerous presentations in a short space of time were clear.
We offered those who had initially planned to deliver presentations at the cancelled 2020 conference an opportunity to present in 2021; however, to keep the content of the conference current we also invited submission of additional abstracts. These went through our usual stringent peer review process between October 2020 and January 2021. As a committee we worked hard to find appropriate sponsors for the conference and suitable keynote speakers. We planned the day to allow 45-minute sessions for each of the three keynote speakers and short 10-minute oral presentations, as well as rapid-5 poster presentations. There was a huge amount of work to do to ensure delivery of a successful conference.
A decision was made to run the presentations through Microsoft Teams Live. I was extremely glad that audio-visual services at Keele agreed to support the conference. They did an excellent job, contacting presenters in advance, offering practice sessions and endeavouring to ensure everything was in place to facilitate a successful conference. One of the important aspects of conferences is the opportunity to network and, although this is more challenging online, numerous Microsoft Team rooms were set up to facilitate networking. Sessions which were required to be interactive, such as the annual general meeting, were run through this forum too.
On the day of the conference, I was a little anxious, to say the least – I was in charge of doing the welcome speech introducing the conference, chairing sessions, hosting and ensuring everything went to plan, as well as presenting an oral presentation myself too. I must be a glutton for punishment! We were a few minutes late starting because our first speaker could not access MS Teams Live on their computer. Quick thinking by Dan (Senior AV technician) ensured an alternative method was found. After managing to keep my welcome speech brief and catching up on lost time, Dr Lesley Thompson presented via her phone, with me working her slide show (very stressful!)…this was not the start I intended. However, all worked well, and the rest of the day went without a hitch, except for one other presenter from Pakistan who had a similar issue. Timing was tight but we managed to fit this presenter in later on in the day, using the same method. We had two other external speakers in the afternoon: Dr Caroline Alexander and Dr Andrew Bateman.
The sponsorship from several companies enabled us to be able to offer prizes for the best oral presentation in each virtual room, the best poster presentation and also the person who was best at promoting the conference on Twitter, which was great fun. Our illustrator, B Mure, was another great exciting, successful touch to the day. People really enjoyed watching the content of the presentations and discussions unfold through the pictures, which were spread far and wide via Twitter.
The results of the evaluation spoke for themselves, and, despite the two minor hiccups, the day was extremely successful; some people even preferred the online forum! The keynote speakers were superb, totally inspiring and very well received; all the presenters did extremely well using the online forum. Stimulating presentations allowed the sharing of new research and service evaluations relating to physiotherapy practice. Do check out the abstracts in the JADE supplement and visit the PRS website at https://prs.csp.org.uk/.
In summary, 18 speakers presented their research at PRS Conference 2021, and approximately 75 delegates attended and participated in the conference virtually. Questions were asked of the speakers via the hosts of each session and networking occurred with presenters, sponsors and keynote speakers in the breakout rooms. During interactions, and from formal feedback on the conference, we learnt that there was a need to provide more support, be more inclusive and diverse. Based on their feedback, we selected our theme ‘Creating a culture of change’ within physiotherapy for our 2022 conference and we plan to facilitate and celebrate inclusivity and diversity in physiotherapy research. As a committee, with the help of AV services, we were able to create a welcoming environment and made the most of the online forum facilitating international networking and shared learning for students and professionals alike. Do consider joining us for next year’s conference. As Chair of the PRS, I am extremely proud of what we as a committee achieved with the help of Dan and his team. Organising a virtual conference is perhaps not something I will rush to do in a hurry; however, it was great experience. I have to admit I was glad to reach 5pm and have the opportunity to sit down and relax with a cup of tea!