At this year’s ONA, nearly half of the attendees are at the conference for the first time.
Leah Rush is an ONA member and event support consultant who has worked at the conference for 15 years and manages registration data.
“We want to focus on what people are doing and not who they are,” Rush said.
Rush added that ONA publishes the data to help connect interests and attendees. The data was collected using an annual survey.
“We want everyone to come who’s interested in this work, and help them have a space to connect,” Rush said.
This data provides an overview of who is attending the conference and demonstrates an “interesting mix,” as Rush put it, of just how far ONA can reach.
45% of attendees are here for the first time
43% of attendees have attended ONA before
California, Pennsylvania and New York are the top states represented
States not represented are North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nevada, Kansas and Montana.
32 countries are represented
The majority of attendees from the United States. 91% of attendees, or 1,396 people, arrived from 45 states.
In addition, Egypt and Palestine are included in the data, but not represented.
The survey responses also indicated that most attendees had high expectations for how many new connections they would make at the conference.
A variety of organizations are attending the conference
Nearly half of attendees are senior-level professionals
Attendees with senior-level jobs, or eight or more years of experience, were most represented in the data at 47%.
Survey respondents are from multiple roles
Several topics are present at ONA this year, from AI to audience engagement. The majority of session attendees are interested in topics concerning the future of media.
