On Thursday, Sept. 3, Student Activities, Involvement and Leadership (SAIL) held their annual Student Organization Showcase virtually.

The event description on PointSync read, “Join our 60+ student organizations and learn more about what each of them does! College is more than the classroom and getting connected to other students is more important now than ever before.”

The event started at 5 p.m. and ended at 8 p.m. Students were able to click through different clubs on PointSync, and if they were interested in joining, they were able to join a Zoom call with members of the club.

Kasey Newman, a senior elementary education major, worked the Virtual Involvement Fair for  Strong Women Strong Girls (SWSG).

“The SAIL showcase was okay for our organization,” Newman said. “Definitely not as much turn-out as the in-person showcase.”

Newman does prefer the in-person showcase to the virtual because it is more personable when face-to-face with someone.

“In-person interaction is always better to form connections,” she said. “However, a virtual component is nice and can reach even more students.”

Newman describes herself as a “hybrid person” and appreciated that the showcase allowed some interaction as well as being accessible to more students.

If there has to be another virtual showcase in the future, she hopes for some training and more time to prepare.

“Not everyone has the opportunity to have in-depth experiences with these virtual meeting platforms, so more heads-up time and maybe some tutorials would be nice,” Newman said.

Newman was present for the first hour of the showcase for SWSG, and while there weren’t as many people as there usually are for the in-person showcase, she was still happy with the event. She noted that students did reach out for more information about the club after the showcase was over.

“I liked how all the information was in an easy place in PointSync and that should definitely be done again,” Newman said.

Jessica Dillon worked the virtual showcase for the Campus Activities Board (CAB).

Dillon, a junior interdisciplinary design major, noted that while not many people showed up to the Zoom call, those who did had actual intent in joining.

“I had a table for a different club last year and a lot of the people who signed up only did because they stood next to my table for a little too long and felt obligated,” she said. “A lot less people signed up, but those who did are genuinely interested in joining.”

Like Newman, Dillon noticed students popping into the Zoom call to ask more questions about the club.

“We did not have many people visit our room, but those who did were able to ask questions and learn whatever information they needed about the organization.”

While Dillon does prefer the in-person showcase, she was satisfied with how the virtual event went.

“SAIL did the best with what they had,” she explained. “This is a weird year, and I appreciate that SAIL did what they could to make it feel semi-normal for students.”