First virtual meeting

The first virtual meeting was organized by the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE, the predecessor of the modern IEEE), and took place on 16 May 1916. That evening, the recently-completed transcontinental telephone system was used to connect AIEE events across the United States. A total of 5,100 members took part in the event, which included speeches by Alexander Graham Bell (inventor of the telephone) and Theodore Vail (first president of AT&T), the engineers then carried out a conventional society meeting before signing off with a resolution celebrating the achievement.

The event was hosted at the AIEE's headquarters in New York, with telephone connections linking the proceedings there to satellite venues in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New York, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco. Denver and Salt Lake City were not planned to be on the roster, but members there were invited to listen in as the call was being routed through those cities anyway. They sent their greetings and comments via telegram to headquarters.

The meeting started at 8:30 p.m. and ended just after 10 p.m. The meeting followed the traditional rules of order, with a strict agenda and schedule overseen by the Chair, AIEE president John Carty. It opened with Carty reading a telegram from US President Woodrow Wilson, followed by speeches from Alexander Graham Bell, Theodore Vail, British engineer Charles Le Maistre and Bell's assistant Thomas Watson. At 9 p.m. the call was suspended for half an hour so each venue could listen to speeches given by the heads of their local chapters. When they came back at 9:30 p.m., representatives from each venue gave a roll call and exchanged greetings. There was also a musical interlude, in which each venue picked a patriotic song to play on the gramophone. It ended with a series of resolutions commemorating the event.