Virtual Conferences

[secondAuthor]

Every once in a while, the idea of virtually attending a conference pops up.  The big reasons for virtual vs physical include the cost (not only monetary) of travel, needing time away from the classroom (esp in places where the culture of missing class for anything other than one's own death is frowned upon), the school isn't going to pay for anything anyway, etc. etc etc. 

For a lot of reasons, I have an interest in this now.

Does your field have virtual conferences? Has this concept changed the physical conference at all? Is there anything one would really miss by virtually attending? Do you emulate in any way the social/networking parts? How do you handle posters, panels, birds of a feather, special sessions, and lightening talks?  And what to do with all the vendors?  Have you increased participation by attracting folk who traditionally cannot physically attend a conference? (not only folk from teaching schools, CCs, HS (depending on field); but also those with physical and other challenges that make travel more work than it is worth or just impossible)

If you don't, why not? Haven't talked about it? Or has it been rejected in some way (why)?

Very curious to hear your thoughts & ideas and to see where this thread veers off to ..

thanks.

[fast_and_bulbous]

I did this recently, for a conference I wouldn't have traveled to in the first place, but very interesting nonetheless. I discovered the conference the day before it started. So that is the context. It was about AI in my field, something that is just starting to get traction - this was the inaugural conference.

I watched the talks which were slides with audio. Q&A was as useful as ever, and there was a way for remote viewers to ask questions. I got other work done while listening to some of the less interesting talks, and paid close attention to other talks.

I grouse about traveling conferences all the time to my spouse, but I go to the important ones because I'm expected to (NSF), and almost always I am glad that I went because of the unexpected face to face interactions. It will be a long time before that kind of thing can be replicated with virtual conferences. Where is the hallway outside of the hall where you can talk for 10 minutes to somebody who approaches you about a collaboration or a new angle on things?

On the flip side, I would present at more conferences if I was allowed to do it remotely. My talks are all produced as videos. When I give them, I talk over them, pausing when I need to (slides are just held in the video for a few seconds so I always pause them). Much of the presentation of my work is visual/moving (visualizations of simulation data). I would happily produce a video with my voice already burned in, and then pause for actual live questions via some skype type interface, if I could at far-flung conferences. I hope that this kind of thing becomes more common, for all sorts of reasons. "Normal" conferences will not go away but we can be a lot more efficient with (some) conferences and meetings using technology.

There is some cool tech coming out that involves holograms where you could perhaps walk around in a room with your headset on and talk to virtual people doing the same thing somewhere else. But it's really early days. When that becomes more mainstream, perhaps the "hallway chat" will be possible virtually, which would be pretty sweet.

[ab_grp]

Sorry I don't have a lot to contribute, but I am also very interested in this topic and opportunities.  I used to travel a few times per year to conferences and other professional meet ups.  Now, for various reasons, there are constraints on my traveling (in retrospect, I don't want that to sound ominous... some family obligations have made it difficult to travel, plus I don't feel much like it anymore).  I would still like to learn more about what's going on in fields of interest, and I would still like to share my work.  Some of the webinars I've watched have worked out pretty well, as long as the chat is well monitored.  I have been a remote attendee for mandatory meetings in which we were assured our chat questions would be asked in the room.  Of course, they were not.  Sometimes the session is just retrofitted to include remote people, so the sound is awful and questions asked in the room are not repeated, etc.  It can be hard to engage.  But, those designed exclusively as remote sessions seem to work fairly well.

At times I have dreamed of finding some good tech solution that would allow more informal and off-the-cuff seminars even for just me and my colleagues (our research group or related groups), because I am no longer on campus.  We can always do Skype presentations in little groups, but I figure there has to be something even better now.  I just haven't had time to find it.   I have noticed that a lot of the fields that do offer more remote or virtual talks and discussions are in fields somewhat tangential to mine.  I have ended up engaging more in those fields and discussions than my own! The hologram tech is something I have imagined possibly happening, so it's neat to hear that it is at least in its early days of development.  That could help with some of the hallway chat.  Maybe someday there will be something similar for the more casual chat (okay, I might mean night life).

[polly_mer]

I've liked virtual seminars much more than I thought.  I've spent a lot of time in places where a half-day seminar/workshop still means almost 2 full days of travel to attend.  Thus, I do like being able to call in for the couple hours to have some interaction and skipping the travel.

I don't know that I'd like a virtual conference because a conference to me is a lot of discussions outside the main group.

[bibliothecula]

Oh, I love these. I've participated in several, both as a paper-giver and just as an attendant. All of the ones I've participated in were held on campuses, not in conference hotels, and the tech worked really well. I watched sessions on youtube and gave my talks via Skype. With the watching sessions ones, there's also been a chat window to ask questions as if I was there in the room when people were presenting, so I didn't feel left out. And for the ones where I presented, I was on Skype for the whole panel, so I got to chat with and comment on my fellow panelists' papers. My main disciplinary orgs are trying to figure out how to make this work at their enormous meetings held at hotels, and we'll get there eventually, I'm sure. People just can't afford to go, and the carbon footprint issue is keeping a lot of people at home, too.

[ab_grp]

I recently experienced a virtual webinar on an interesting platform, Zoom.  It was pretty neat, because the slides took up the screen, but the speaker could be seen speaking in the corner.  So, there was more of a human aspect than remote presentations that just have the slides going and you can hear a speaker speaking.   The platform has a number of other cool features.  We were all able to participate in a poll (click on answers in a pop up), and at some point (determined by time or the organizer? I will have to ask the presenter) the results were shown.    There was also a chat box available to all attendees and a separate Q&A box to ask questions of the presenter, although I did not see those questions, so they might only be available to the organizer to then ask aloud.  The presenter and organizer, who were not physically in the same place, were both shown speaking when they were speaking.  I think this is the website: https://zoom.us/  I will be looking into this more but wanted to share the information here.