Tag: conference

Are online conferences more inclusive?

Once again, we are entering the summer conference season and, once again, most conferences are taking place in virtual format due to the ongoing travel restrictions and uncertainty due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Much has in fact already been written about how to make conferences more inclusive, both in person and virtually. So what aspects should be considered as a measure of inclusivity?

Cost

Firstly – cost. The ugly truth is that expensive conference fees, coupled with transport and accommodation costs, often effectively prohibit people from attending meetings due to their location. Travel grants and awards can help to combat this, but are not as much of an equaliser as a fully online format.

Travel

Secondly – even for those who can afford it, travelling long distances is not always possible or desirable. This is especially true for people with family to look after, with teaching obligations, or for people with certain disabilities, for whom the stress is not worth the effort.

Time

Not everyone can afford the luxury of going away for 1-2 weeks. Yet an online format is typically difficult to be fully inclusive in terms of time zones. As an example, next week from 28th June until the 2nd July, the European Astronomical Society (EAS) 2021 meeting takes place; scheduled from 9am to 6pm CEST, which makes sense for a majority European attendance. However, the International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC) 2021 from 12th – 23rd July has to cater for a truly international attendance. This is scheduled from 12pm to 7:30pm CEST — which is 7pm to 2:30am in Tokyo and 3am to 10:30 am in Los Angeles. Good luck to colleagues further afield still, in Australia and Hawaii!
In these cases, the online format makes scheduling “live discussions” in which all can participate at a reasonable time, effectively impossible. Such is life when living on a rotating Earth.

Recordings

For the ICRC this year, all contributions (except for plenary talks) have to be recorded and uploaded in advance of the conference. Although it may seem like a pain – one more thing to prepare – in my opinion this is helpful for many people for the following reasons:

1) it enables people to watch talks at a suitable time for them;
2) the talk can be recorded as many times as the presenter likes, thereby getting rid of some nerves;
3) fast speakers can be slowed down and slow speakers can be sped up;
4) parts of a talk can be repeated if necessary (or skipped, e.g. if hearing the same introduction for the Nth time).

The major disadvantage being, of course, that the audience can be much reduced, as fewer people will proactively watch as many talks as they would in person.

Language

English is the de facto language of science in general and international conferences in particular. As a native speaker, I’m fully aware that I have an unfair advantage here. (Also, that my natural writing style is deemed “difficult to read”…)
Online formats can provide non-native speakers of English with more time and flexibility; in preparing their talks; in formulating questions before asking these live or writing and posting online; and in assimilating and understanding information before responding.
Actually, that list applies to everyone, regardless of their native language!

Invisible barriers

There are likely several further, invisible barriers that I have not mentioned so far. These are the less obvious aspects, that you won’t know someone is affected by unless they tell you. For example, at the EAS 2021, a friend is helping to organise this special session on Welfare and Mental Health in Astronomy Research which will no doubt spark valuable discussion; whilst the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) as part of its “Astrodiversity” project has issued a set of guidelines for colour blind friendly publications.

As scientists, it is important to keep learning from each other, and try to make science in general (and astrophysics in particular) a welcoming environment that supports all people involved.
After all, E = mc2 regardless of our differences.

Comets and Conferences

This month we are being visited by comet C/2020 F3, better known as comet NEOWISE, named after the mission that first discovered it. Comets are, roughly speaking, icy rocks from the outer reaches of our solar system. They follow parabolic orbits around the sun; meaning that most of their time is spent at large distances but periodically they come close to the sun. On nearing the sun, they travel much faster (due to the sun’s gravity) and start to warm up, releasing gases. It is this trail of gases that produces the characteristic cometary tail.

Comet NEOWISE reached its closest approach to the sun on the 3rd July and will reach its closest approach to the Earth on the 23rd July. If you miss it, don’t worry, you’ll get another chance in about 6000 years time. So it might be worth trying to see this rare spectacle! Currently, NEOWISE is visible throughout the night with the naked eye and should remain visible until the end of the month. Last night, I even caught a glimpse from the centre of town. (The last time a comet could be seen this easily was perhaps Hale-Bopp in 1997.) Look towards the North West, just below the constellation of Ursa Major (also known as “the plough” or the “big dipper”) and take a few minutes to see if you can spot it. Somehow, I doubt you’ll regret it.

Comet NEOWISE seen from Stanserhorn, Switzerland. Credit: Raphael Niederer, Source: srf.ch

Virtual Conferences

At the start of the month, I attended my first ever virtual conference. In recent years, a move to more online formats has been frequently discussed in the scientific community. Although the motivation to reduce travel in academia has been present for a while, not least for environmental reasons, the move has been accelerated by the current pandemic. The European Astronomical Society annual meeting (EAS 2020) was due to take place in Leiden, Netherlands – but was moved to an online meeting during the same week as originally planned. This actually led to much higher conference attendance – over 1700 participants – and a much reduced conference fee.

Overall, I was fairly impressed. Separate zoom rooms were set up for each session, embedded in the dedicated conference software and hosted by the organisers. There was also a dedicated slack, with separate channels for each session and for different topics. Many features, such as the questions and note taking (exportable to word) worked particularly well. There were a couple of things that – in my opinion – worked even better than an “in real life” conference.

What worked well

  • Attendance: many more people could join online than usual – due to travel costs for those based further away, family commitments or other reasons.
  • Questions: these could be typed and entered at any point during a talk; other people could then upvote questions they wanted to hear answered. At the end of the talk, the most popular questions could then be answered – great idea.
  • Questions 2: run out of time? The conversation continues on the slack channel! Further questions could be asked and answered at leisure and questions were transferred rather than forgotten. Usually, at a conference if you run out of time, forget it. (Unless you’re lucky enough to catch the person in a coffee break later.)
  • Recordings: all of the sessions were recorded, so if there were talks that you had to miss (due to parallel sessions, presenting or other commitments) you could watch them back later.
  • Pre-recordings: some talks – particularly for people in other time zones – could be pre-recorded and played back whilst the presenters themselves were asleep. (Although I did have a colleague who decided to present live anyway – at 2am local time!)
  • Slack: Very useful for getting in touch with people. As well as for conducting quick surveys via emoji reactions! It also meant you could contact people directly (direct messages) without having to search for their email addresses or hunt them down in person. (Let’s face it, we don’t often approach people in person for “minor” points.)
  • Posters: not just a pdf, but gifs, videos and pre-recorded audio presentation – the interactive poster is a different experience!

Nevertheless, it wasn’t perfect – no-one can stay glued to their desk from 9am to 6pm with virtual coffee breaks and parallel lunch sessions too. Several of the above points are also being better addressed by in-person conferences these days, and virtual conferences are no replacement for meeting someone in person.
However, in future we will see a rise in virtual meetings or hybrid events; a new format that the academic world at least is rapidly adjusting to. There are some virtual meetings in my 2021 calendar already.