Faced with restrictions on holding its traditional annual residents’ conference, Bath-based housing association Curo took to the internet to host its first digital conference.
Tom Box, Curo Resident Engagement Manager, said: “We’re determined to stay in touch with our residents as much as we possibly can throughout these extraordinary times.
“We want to hear what our customers are saying and give them the information they need about our services.
“Our annual residents’ conference is an important way for us to do this and we weren’t going to let COVID-19 stop this happening.”
Curo designed a day-long, interactive programme so that residents could see and hear directly from colleagues from across Curo and choose to join the sessions that most interested them.
The conference, which was broadcast live on Youtube, Facebook and Zoom has now been watched more than 1,200 times, with numbers continuing to rise daily.
Rigorous COVID-19 safety measures were in place for the event, which featured socially-distanced presentations from Curo colleagues with a panel of Curo residents and Curo’s Chair, Liz Potter, joining remotely from their homes.
Broadcasting live on Facebook and Zoom meant participants could easily ask questions and share their ideas and thoughts.
Each of the 15 themed sessions has been made available to watch again on both Facebook and Youtube.
Tom added: “We recognise that not everyone has access to the internet so we provided information about the event to residents living in our sheltered housing and offered to support anyone who wanted help getting online.
“We’re also including a report on the event in Prime Time News, our newsletter for sheltered housing residents and customers of our Independent Living Service.”
