Rita SingerAug 29, 2023

It is the year 2023, and I'm getting booted off a conference programme because "presentations have been planned as an in-person event" and the facilities don't have the required technical set-up.

Wow!

The only way this argument flies at all is that on campus presenters will not have access to the internet and their PPT slides have to be transformed into actual dia-positive slides for use on a manually handled projector? (I know the campus, BTW. Neither is the case.)

In danger of sounding like an entitled whatever, this is a plain lazy and, frankly, privileged and exclusionary excuse! in 2013, when I organised my first ever own conference, we managed to have two remote presenters from two different time zones present remotely and it worked.

@academicchatter

ouchthatsAug 29, 2023
Show threadRita Singer

I'm mostly angry about the complete cognitive disconnect between the academic discipline behind the conference series and the real-life implications the organisers' attitude has for (potential) participants.

Scenario 1: I'm a single parent and can't get childcare.
Conference: Too bad. We're in-person.

Scenario 2: I have a (in/visable) disability that makes in-person difficult/impossible.
Conference: Too bad. We're in-person.

Scenario 3: I can't afford to travel.
Conference: Too bad. We're in-person.

Scenario 4: I've seen the name of a presenter on a programme who makes me unsafe.
Conference: Too bad. We're in-person.

Scenario 5: I have lived experience to share, but have to remain anonymous for several reasons.
Conference: Too bad. We're in-person.

Aug 29, 2023 at 12:03pmWeb
Show threadJeffrey J. DeanAug 29, 2023
@_bydbach_
Solidarity.
Show threadRita SingerAug 29, 2023
@JeffreyJDean Thanks. For clarification, I should state these scenarios are fictional and do not include my personal situation why I asked to present remotely. But generally: if I *was* in one of those situations, I'd be even hopping madder with wheels on!
Show threadJeffrey J. DeanAug 29, 2023
@_bydbach_
Thanks, I understood that; I was expressing solidarity with the principle in any of its applications.
Show threadFirehorseart Lives!Aug 29, 2023

@_bydbach_

Scenario 2 was the case for me as I could have been presenting an in-person workshop today. There wasn't time to ask what other options may be available but ...

It's amazing that, with all the innovative tech available, the push back to in-person events continues.

Surely by now some lessons learnt should have filtered through?

Many institutions have distance learning as an option, so events could make the same pivot.

Show threadRita SingerAug 29, 2023
@srfirehorseart I'm so very sorry to hear that. And I'm angry to hear that, too! It is so easy these days even on extremely short notice, to hook up a laptop to a screen or set it up in such a way in a small room that the presenter can still have a meaningful engagement with the people present on site. After Covid forced companies to rethink on their feet, there are absolutely no more excuses other than being deliberately discriminatory.
Show threadCharlesAug 30, 2023
@srfirehorseart @_bydbach_ The reason for the push for in-person events is probably at least in part due to the fact that most people just like to travel
Show threadRita SingerAug 30, 2023
@aeftaw @srfirehorseart Which is fair. But not everybody can afford that luxury.
Show threadCharlesAug 30, 2023
@_bydbach_ @srfirehorseart Aren't conference travels usually sponsored by universities?
Show threadRita SingerAug 30, 2023
@aeftaw @srfirehorseart Nope. Some unis cover students and staff, some only academic staff, some only permanent academic staff. Some unis set a tight annual budget which barely covers a single conference within your own contry. -- And then there are very often contributors who are independent researchers who have no institutional support at all.
Show threadRita SingerAug 30, 2023
@aeftaw @srfirehorseart And to be honest, I have yet to hear of a single institution who covers the cost of visa applications, which can run into the hundreds for a single coloured sticker in your passport. And that does not even include the time and nerves spent on the application on top of organising travel which often cannot be done unless the visa has been issued. So any delay with that can potentially lead to spiraling travel costs.
Show threadMartin EscardoAug 29, 2023

@_bydbach_

Scenario 6: I worry about the planet. I am OK going to one or two conferences every year, but 5 perhaps stretches the limit of the planet if everybody in the academic community does it.

Scenario 7: I have been to only two in-person conferences after the Covid pandemic "ended", and I caught Covid after each of them. I don't want to get Covid a third time and risk long Covid.

Show threadRita SingerAug 29, 2023
@MartinEscardo Scenario 6 is one of my own top reasons not to spend a total of 48 hours in transit (4 of which are flying) in exchange for a total of 16 conference hours. And as for COVID: I'm too close to vulnerable people to become Typhoid Mary.
Show threadApostolisAug 29, 2023
@_bydbach_ @MartinEscardo During Covid, it was amazing because many lectures were put online for people that couldn't participate.
Show threadetorreborreSep 13, 2023
@_bydbach_ @MartinEscardo it is already almost impossible to be at a 2t / year CO2 budget so any conference travel is guaranteed to blow it (London / Rome is around 500kg) 😑
Show threadShawn StandeferAug 29, 2023
@_bydbach_ related to scenario 3: Getting a visa to attend is too onerous/too expensive/impossible
Show threadRita SingerAug 29, 2023
@standefer The Visa process is also something that too often falls under the radar and totally contributes to Western exclusion of scholars of the global south mostly. So many things are wrong with insisting on in-person only conferences. Ugh!
Show threadIzzyAug 30, 2023
@_bydbach_ Scenario 6: It is functionally illegal for me to exist in the polity where the conference is being held.
Conference: Too bad. We're in-person.
Show threadRita SingerAug 30, 2023
@ijk Exactly!
Show threadLuis VillaSep 13, 2023
@_bydbach_ it’s so sad, in so many dimensions, that we have failed to learn about the virtue of hybrid over the past four years.