Occupational therapy is practiced in 50+ countries, but many countries have few therapists and scarce resources for ongoing professional development. At WFOT Congress in May 2010, the need to offer knowledge transfer (KT) opportunities to occupational therapists unable to attend such events was clear, and as Congress is only once every 4 years, even those able to attend wanted more frequent contact with international colleagues. The OT 24-Hour Virtual Exchange - a free 24-hour online conference - was designed to address these 2 KT concerns. Six therapists from 4 countries met online 5 times over 4 months to organize the 1st OT Virtual Exchange conference on Oct. 27, 2010 (World OT Day). There were 24+ speakers from 8 countries and 1000+ attendees from 30 countries, which was framed as the “1st OT conference you can attend in your pajamas”. Diverse topics included: virtual worlds, transition planning for adolescents, adapted hiking equipment, OT models, disaster response, social media use after brain injury, military OT and the therapeutic potential of dance. The Exchange was promoted with both traditional methods and social media. Key lessons learned: work lean, use appropriate technologies, tap peoples’ passions, use well-connected people and extend their reach with social media, failure is not an option, recycling is good, have fun. A second Exchange is planned for World OT Day 2011. We will discuss these lessons and survey results from the 2010 and 2011 Virtual Exchange.

1. *Susan'Burwash,'Anita'Hamilton,'Karen'Jacobs,''Merrolee'Penman,'Angela'Hook,'Sarah'Bodell'
“The only OT conference you can attend in your pajamas”'
By#the#numbers:#
0: Budget#
1: Visionary#
4: Months#planning#
5: Mee7ngs#–#all#online#
6: Team#members#across#globe#
24: Hours#of#con7nuous#presenta7ons##
30+: Countries#represented#by#a>endees#
2000+: A>ended#during#the#first#two#years#
33,915: Visitors#to#h>p://ot4ot.com#website#
Tips#for#running#an#online#conference:'
Select#technologies#to#suit#the#task#(planning,#publicity#&#event#management)#
Recycle#presenta7ons#from#other#events#
Merrolee"Penman"
Connect#with#“connectors”##
Harness#passions#&#skills#
Angela"Hook"
Karen"Jacobs" Keep#it#lean#
Have#FUN#
Anita"Hamilton"
Susan"Burwash"
Sarah"Bodell"
*AKA:'“CyberBbabes'of'OT'”'
''“Zero'Budget'Six”'
©"2012"S."Burwash,"A."Hamilton,"K."Jacobs"