Jen here –
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began I have attended several virtual conferences. I wanted to give my honest experiences as we head into a still very virtual fall in academia. I think it is also important to consider how long conferences had to create this virtual switch, I will try to be thorough in my reviews.
Conferences Attended
Each of these conferences was slightly different – different duration, style, format, and user experience. I will try to discuss the pros and cons for each event and also discuss how I managed my time during the events.
Palaeontological Virtual Congress
- Dates: May 1-14 2020
- Venue: WordPress, virtual
- Cost: 5 euros
The Palaeontological Virtual Congress (PVC) is a new (this was the second annual event) event that is completely virtual. They did not have to modify how they were structuring their event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This event is hosted through a WordPress site and attendees are given login information to explore the different sessions and talks. Talks and posters are updated as mp4 type files and you can view them in your web browser of choice. The entire event is asynchronous and available for a two week period to attendees. This allows attendees to explore content at their own pace and comment on content.
This past year, I participated as a judge of content for the early career researcher symposium. It was relatively easy to navigate through the different content and view talks. There was seemingly no set time requirements for the talks and posters, this allowed users to upload whatever was best for them. Content ranged from 5 to 20 minutes in length. It was really nice to have the two week period to stretch viewing content. However, this is very unlike normal conferences where during this ‘away’ time you are solely focused on the event at hand. It was difficult to give/assign parts of my time to the conference experience. At large, I was still working my normal 8 hours / day.
Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference (iDigBio Digital Data)
- Dates: June 1-3 2020
- Original Venue: Indianapolis, Indiana
- New Venue: Zoom
- Virtual Cost: $0
The 4th annual iDigBio Digital Data conference was set to take place the first week in June in Indianapolis, Indiana. Event organizers pushed quickly to move into a virtual format. The symposia, discussions, and social events were all hosted through Indiana University’s Zoom account. Registration for the event was done through Eventbrite and each day you were sent an email with the zoom links for the events that day. There was also a thorough Wiki page outlining details, working documents, or discussion docs. This landing page was so convenient! I could bookmark it and return to specific days to explore the talks or pop into other docs of sessions that I missed. The events were largely synchronous with the exception of the posters which were available to view for the duration of the event. In some instances pre-recordings of presentations were (and still are) available to view.
The organizing team had staff in each of the event rooms to help monitor the chat, troubleshoot problems, and ask questions as they were brought up in the Q&A, chat, or Google docs. During this time I had the conference sort of on as background noise while I did regular work – largely easy tasks like cleaning up the database or searching to verify data. For sessions that I was particularly interested in I focused more deliberately on the content. During this conference time I was probably working 6 hour days on average on top of attending the conference.
The conference was structured on a block schedule largely based in EST since that is where the hosts were located. This usually meant there was a morning block, afternoon block, and evening events – which usually included a social event or two. They did run concurrent sessions so in some instances you had to decide which session you would attend. All of this information can still be found on the Wiki page and is worth exploring if you are working to go virtual.
Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections
- Dates: June 8-12 2020
- Original Venue: Indianapolis, Indiana
- New Venue: Zoom
- Virtual Cost: $0
The Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) converted rapidly to an online format via Zoom. Similar to the Digital Data conference, they used Eventbrite to send out mass communication daily. This included a schedule of the day’s events, Zoom links to the various session rooms, and other helpful information about the conference.
SPNHC has a longstanding Wiki page with lots of information and the poster presentations were hosted through this same platform. Posters were available for the duration of the conference and all talks and discussion groups were recorded and posted on SPNHC’s YouTube Channel after the conference ended.
In each session at SPNHC, organizers were present to help troubleshoot and help the session chairs with finding and fielding questions in the chat. Talks were uploaded ahead of time via Google Drive and both the slides and a recording of your talk were requested. This was to ensure folks outside of the active time zones could still participate and also those who may not have a secure internet connection. I chose to participate live, the session chair screen shared the PowerPoint slides and presenters would say ‘next’ to carry on through the presentation. If I were to do it again, I would just have the chair play the recording. Giving a live talk on Zoom is very distracting – especially with an active chat room! The chat room notifications, my face, the faces of others, was horribly distracting. I also had much better lighting and sound capabilities on my recordings – so I would urge others to use that route.
During SPNHC, I was probably working half days on my normal work and even during the conference sessions I was watching I was doing simple work on the side managing my database and emailing various people. I only stopped all activity for a committee meeting, my talk, and a session I was running. I didn’t feel horribly burnt out but I did after the week ended. The session blocks were morning and later in the day in my time zone. So I would get ready to start at 8 AM and then sessions went until 9-10 PM some evenings with a large break in the day (which is when I would work). My work-life balance was non-existent this week. I would recommend setting clear boundaries with yourself so that you maintain sanity and get the chance to move around. Being stationary all day can be a huge negative for our bodies and minds!
Advice Summary
- Know when you need to get up and walk around (wireless headphones can help you here)
- Make sure you are staying hydrated
- Don’t try to do ‘too much’ talk with your supervisor on how to best manage your ‘normal’ work on top of these virtual events
- Set boundaries for yourself
Virtual conferences are different but allow for the participation of so many others – let’s keep working together to create better events to be more inclusive and accessible.
Stay tuned, I am running a session at the Geological Society of America Meeting this year and am attending several other events as we move into the fall semester! Hopefully each event becomes easier and easier on attendees! I am also collating accessibility resources for presenters and will share those in another blog post!