Cal Poly’s 2021 Developer’s Workshop Finds Opportunity in a Challenge
NICO VINUELA | JUNE 3, 2021
Last year’s 2020 CubeSat Developers Workshop (CDW) was set to start only weeks after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Without enough time to rework the event into a virtual format, the Cal Poly team was forced to cancel the 2020 conference until the following year. And so, like the rest of the world, they waited.
By the time 2021 rolled around, they were ready.
After a year of planning, Cal Poly hosted the 2021 Developers Workshop fully virtual from April 27th to the 29th. Though the pandemic originally presented itself as a challenge to the Workshop team, Cal Poly’s CubeSat Laboratory was able to turn it into one of its greatest success stories.
Typically, the in-person event sees around 600 attendees. Because of the increased accessibility of the virtual format, the 2021 Workshop hosted three times its usual capacity, with over 1800 people registering for the event. The virtual CDW consisted of scheduled Live Q&A Panels, Keynote Speakers, and Virtual Exhibits. Presenters and participants accessed various Zoom links posted on CalPoly’s CubeSatDW website and joined the various events remotely from their home bases. The event was able to host over 40 presenters across its 3-day duration.
Presenters from all over the world were able to join the CDW from their home countries, which opened a lot of doors for exhibits that could not have happened in the event’s usual setting. Thomas Yen, a representative of Tensor Tech in Taiwan, was a speaker in a Q&A session on the last day of the CDW. Without the virtual setting, he says, he would not have been able to attend.
“It would be too time-consuming for us to travel around,” he said. “The event made the cost fee lower, too.”
Yen and his company had been interested in the CDW for a while; the virtual setting gave them the accessibility they needed to promote their company and learn from other presenters. He says that he was able to make professional and personal connections throughout the event and that CubeSat’s commitment to accessibility made it possible to increase the outreach of his company. During a normal year, Yen said that there would have been “no way” for Tensor Tech to make an appearance as exhibitors.
“Not being able to hold the Workshop in-person is not really a problem,” said Dr. Pauline Faure, director of CubeSat. “I like to turn setbacks into opportunities.”
Dr. Faure said that’s the magic about the virtual setting; you either take it as a problem or as an opportunity. After hosting one of the most successful CubeSat Developers Workshops, she and the Cal Poly CDW Team are extremely pleased with the event they were able to produce.
“The whole CubeSat Lab had to come together to make the Workshop a reality and a success,” she said. “That’s the beauty and strength of working together!”
To learn more about the CubeSat Developers Workshop, visit https://www.cubesatdw.org/