Conferences - are they doomed now? No going back?

[miimblemomble]

I work in a school (admin) and just booked some teachers for an upcoming conference. It's massive - 4 days of sessions 8am to 8pm, 7-8 different streams running concurrently, literally hundreds of speakers. Obviously, it's all online - so basically it amounts to hundreds of hours of Zoom presentations. Part of the deal for attendees is that they get access to all the resources (videos of all the presentations) are available to them for a year afterwards.

In a previous life I did a PhD and went to several academic and subject conferences, including a couple of massive ones. They were great experiences. The presentations were often good but the real benefits were the networking, the social time meeting a whole range of people I'd never met before including those at the top of the heap, and the opportunity to travel to places I'd never been before. I presented a few times and while I wasn't paid, the conference fee was either reduced or waived. The conference proceedings came out as a paper report - only the real headliners / events would have been filmed.

Are conferences of this type ever going to come back? For me their true value lies in the networking, face-to-face socialising, informal contacts etc. I can't imagine that sitting in your bedroom watching someone make yet another Zoom presentation is is going to be anything like the same experience as actually jetting off somewhere, to meet loads of like-minded people, to see some of your inspiring 'heros' presenting their work in real life, to make the contacts that will help push your career forward. What's going to take their place? if anything?

Yes. What this winter has shown more than ever is there is no substitute for real human connection. It will be 2022 before things get back to normal. Society first needs the confidence that vaccination can be completed annually.

They probably will come back but with better online accessibility. I actually think it's been great for conferences and events in the past year as I've been able to attend lots more than I normally would.

DH is one of the teachers at the school who's signed up for the conference. For him, there are some benefits to the online event - he doesn't need to miss any lessons as he doesn't need to watch the presentations in real time, and it's totally flexible. But it also makes it such a non-event - he has to be pretty committed to remember to participate when all of normal (busy) life is going on at the same time.

Whereas, ordinarily, going to a big conference usually means stepping out of normal life for a while to be immersed in the event - that's what you are there to do, and there are few distractions.

Yes they’re definitely going to come back. I work in academia and people are so sick of online conferences. I think for small ish meetings (30-50 people), online will be a great option especially when it means people can be more flexible with travel and childcare. But there’s so much you can do in an online format. It’s the rapport building and the networking and the lunches and dinners and one on one conversations. I think there will be more options for mixed formats which is great for the environment. But people are ready to do things in person again now.

Online conferences definitely have their uses.
When I worked in pharma, despite a supposedly open booking system only the bosses mates ever got to jet off to events.
It would be a lot fairer and more open to everyone this way. Better for climate change too.

The ones I've been looking at recently are all hybrid this year. They haven't shifted entirely online. Hopefully they'll take the best aspects of both in future.

I am part of an organisation that usually runs in person networking events and talks.

This last year was amazing - membership rocketed and attendance was right up at events. Mainly because no-one had travel/childcare/can’t answer the phone all day issues.

I know others are keen to get back to ‘in person’ but they forget how many people we can reach with the events held online instead. The information is more widely dispersed. And we have created small ‘coffee groups’ to chat in. It’s been so much better.

Yes yes about climate change.

The flexibiliy of recording and distributing online is a potential enhancement, but on its own is no replacement for face to face interactions and networking. DH has been involved in several online only and finds it considerably harder to process and retain information when the majority of his life is 2D on a computer screen.

Real life conferencing will return, and that's more economically productive through venues, catering and promotions.

I think they will definitely be back but with the added element of all the content being available online for an additional audience that couldn't go but want to catch up with it all.

Dp is hoping not, also travelling to clients. Used to be away 1-2 weeks a month, he said he would be happy to never see the inside of an aircraft ever again!

Interesting seeing different responses. In my field I think they'll always have a bigger online element now. We had an online conference in January, and while I do miss face to face interaction, it worked really well and definitely wasn't just 'watching zoom presentations'. Plus it was so lovely to see US and Aus colleagues who often struggle to make the 'live' events. And a colleague who is severely ill (brain tumour; she really has little energy) was even able to come along and present and I can't imagine how that would work in RL.

Was also lovely seeing how many of us had babies/small children and people adapted. I will admit, it has boiled my piss for years that feminist conferences always seem just fine with babies being brought along (I've seen a very respected speaker walking up and down shushing someone else's baby so she could take her turn talking). But academia has always been all 'OMG an infant gurgling, my precious genius may be harmed!' I think that may have gone the way of the dodos, thank goodness.