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Insights on iSRA’s First Virtual Conference

In light of current situations regarding COVID-19 and the cancelling of our Spring Section meetings, SRAI hosted a new and flexible education opportunity for the community – an iSRA Virtual Conference. We are happy to share that over 500 attendees participated in the first iSRA Virtual Conference!

Our mission is to continue to provide you with opportunities to share, learn and build community with the quality programming you’ve come to expect from SRAI – and we were pleased that so many of you were able to participate and make our first virtual conference a success.

The iSRA Virtual Conference offered an inspiring curriculum to tackle the current and future challenges and responsibilities facing research administration professionals, and a lot was covered over the course of three days! From Crisis Management and Foreign Influence to F&A Costs and Waivers, Salaries & Closeouts, the virtual conference served to address the hot topics and needs of the community.  

In case you were unable to make it to the virtual conference, you can still take advantage of this new and exciting experience!  In keeping with our commitment to support our members and provide resources to tackle current and future challenges in the field, we are making individual sessions from the virtual conference available for on-demand purchase. Click here to access recorded sessions available for purchase.

As a reminder, SRAI members who registered for the entire Virtual Conference have free access to recorded sessions until May 18, 2020. Please log-in with your SRAI credentials to access. Upon logging in, click your name and the "My Activity" tab. Upon accessing that page, you will see a secondary tab for "iSRA Virtual Conference" that houses all recordings. Please note that you must be a member of SRAI to access these recordings. 

If you attended the Virtual Conference but do not have an SRAI membership, you can join or renew your membership here to take advantage of this special offer. You can also access PowerPoint slides for sessions as well, by clicking here.

We are happy to hear that the iSRA Virtual Conference was thoroughly enjoyed by the community. See what some attendees had to say about their experience with the virtual conference:

"Kudos to SRAI for providing the program. This is a brave new world and the organization is to be commended for the courage and effort it took to pull off this production."
-Leslie Levine, Director, H&SS Office of Research, Carnegie Mellon University

"I was very impressed and pleased how quickly the conference shifted to a Zoom platform and think it actually increased attendance because of it. Presenters were very informative and efficient with their time."
-Derek Harrison, Senior Research Process Manager, Stanford University

"I enjoyed the zoom platform. I would definitely attend a virtual conference again."
-Lisa Parker, Research Administrator II, Michigan State University

"Well done. SRAI should be proud that this went so well. Very impressive."
-Michael Gabbard, Senior College Grants Officer Lead, University of Kentucky

"Very good virtual meeting! Everything started on time, Zoom worked just fine and the speakers were all well prepared. Thank you!"
-Stephanie Enriquez, Research Finance Administrator, Kaiser Permanente Colorado

"The participants from my institution were highly satisfied with the training and found this format easy to manage and conducive to their home office environments."
-Lisa Walker, Assistant Dean for Research Operations, UNC Greensboro

A huge thank you our speakers, attendees, and to all of you who are keeping the SRAI community thriving. We are glad so many of you had a positive experience, and we are committed to making each conference just a little better. As always, we are here to answer questions, address concerns and hear ideas about how we can best serve our members today and in the future. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or feedback to gcuevas@srainternational.org. We’re all #InThisTogetherRA and here to support you.