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Highlights from the

40th Virtual

Conference Advocate Advance

JAIL EXPO
&

Engage

The Wellpath Wellness Lounge
offered attendees information about
achieving better mental, physical,
and spiritual health. Videos and
fact sheets contained tips on diet
several live Town Halls, iConnect and exercise, proper sleep habits,
Live chats, and post-session Q&As breathing techniques, and more.
with presenters. Recordings of the The Bob Barker Networking Lounge
he COVID-19 pandemic workshops are available to attend- was a place where attendees could
has been the cause for ees in an on-demand library for a connect with other jail profession-
Tmuch change since March full year following the conference. If als with similar job responsibilities,
2020—at home, at work, and in our you weren’t registered for the con- facility sizes, and career aspirations
communities. The American Jail ference, turn to page 14 for informa- to discuss strategies and solutions to
Association has certainly felt its tion on how to access the workshop manage their daily challenges.
impact as we were forced to cancel and session content. The 40th anniversary edition of
our 39th Annual Conference & Jail Attendees could visit more than AJA’s Conference & Jail Expo was
Expo in Aurora, Colorado in April 50 exhibitors in the virtual Jail certainly unlike any of the associa-
2020. This year, we chose to host Expo, where products, services, and tion’s previous conferences. And the
our 40th Anniversary Conference & technologies for today’s jails and virtual format offered opportuni-
Jail Expo scheduled for Columbus, detention centers could be found. ties to share valuable information
Ohio on a virtual platform. The exhibit hall’s virtual booths in ways not previously considered.
More than 800 people registered allowed attendees to schedule As our nation looks toward the end
for the association’s first virtual individual chats with vendors, view of the pandemic, AJA looks toward
annual meeting from April 12–15, product demonstrations, download 2022 and a return to an in-person
2021. Over four days, attendees documents and brochures, and Conference & Jail Expo in Long
were able to choose from more than exchange electronic business cards. Beach, California, May 21–25. Mark
60 workshops, most of them pre- The virtual hall has been converted your calendars now!
recorded, as well as participate in to AJA’s Products & Services Guide
and is available online.

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