ORCID’s digital-first commitment guarantees that events are accessible for scholars and researchers working all over the world and also shapes the way the organization governs itself.

For some global organizations, the impact of their events goes far beyond what happens when attendees connect face-to-face. The Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) is a global, not-for-profit organization that is working to establish a digital identification system that helps scholars, researchers, and other academic stakeholders protect their original work — and make it easier to share with the scholarly community. “Digital-first and hybrid strategies aren’t simply options for ORCID, they are essential to upholding our value of inclusivity,” Visionary Awards Finalist Kimberly Inniger, DES, ORCID’s senior events and outreach manager, told Convene. “Because we serve the entire scholarly ecosystem in every corner of the globe, physical barriers — like travel costs, visa restrictions, and time-zone conflicts — should not limit participation.”

Kimberly Inniger, DES

One of ORCID’s founding principles is to transcend boundaries around disci-pline, geography, nationality, and institutions, and digital and hybrid events are crucial to ensuring truly global representation. “We meet our community where they are. I’ve intentionally scheduled webinars for 2 a.m. my time because it was the most accessible window for our target APAC audience to join live,” she said. “When we serve our community directly rather than just offering a recording, it demonstrates a tangible commitment to supporting research within their specific region. By further leveraging Zoom’s closed captioning and translated subtitles, we break down language barriers and ensure our English-led sessions are truly global.”

As a geographically inclusive organization, ORCID’s annual meeting is a series of regional town halls, ensuring maximum access for the academic community around the world. “The Town Hall is our most vital annual touchpoint. It’s the one time our entire leadership team talks directly to the community to hear what’s on their minds,” Inniger said. “We don’t just broadcast, we listen. The community’s feedback during these sessions directly guides the session, especially the Q&A.”

ORCID’s digital-first commitment guarantees that events are accessible for scholars and researchers working all over the world and also shapes the way the organization governs itself. “While we strive to hold board meetings in person around the world, we recognize that travel budgets and visa hurdles are real,” Inniger said. “To solve this, we’ve invested in high-quality, hybrid ‘travel tech’ to ensure that when a board director cannot attend meetings in-person, their voice, video, and presence are so seamless it’s as if they are right in the room with us.”

ORCID also has used content from digital and hybrid events to fuel its content strategy to grow its membership and overall impact. Inniger and her team repurpose content from their digital and hybrid events to create resources that are available to members on-demand. “We are committed to making as much of our content open access as possible. By publishing all our content under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license, we’ve ensured our webinars are accessible to everyone,” Inniger said. “Our members and partners can freely share these resources within their own institutions, which exponentially scales our mission. Having this accessible, ‘anytime, anywhere’ home for our content ensures that the conversation doesn’t end when the Zoom room closes.”

Publishing event content fuels engagement. “Our technical motto is ‘Enter once, reuse often,’ and I’ve applied that same logic to our content strategy,” she said. “While our live webinars typically see a 45- to 50-percent attendance rate, that engagement skyrockets to 85 percent when you factor in on-demand views. In 2024 alone, we surpassed 25,000 recording views.”

Hybrid and digital meetings are a source of actionable data for ORCID. Each year, Inniger combs through event data to gauge how attendees are engaging with the content. “In our 2025 data, I discovered our average attendance was 39 minutes for a 60-minute session. Knowing that many folks drop off after the 40-minute presentation mark, I’ve adjusted our strategy: All speakers are now briefed to deliver their key takeaways by the 30-minute mark to ensure the maximum audience hears them.” Adding real-time interactive elements like polls and community whiteboards has proven to earn an average of five additional minutes of attendance.

Kate Mulcrone is Convene’s digital managing editor