Alex McLeanJul 13

An incomplete list of people excluded from 'international' conferences that are in-person only and aren't streamed or recorded
- People with caring responsibilities
- People with disabilities
- People with health vulnerabilities
- People who don't fly in recognition of climate emergencies
- People who work for orgs with ethical no-fly policies
- People who have their travel disrupted due to climate chaos
- People who only engage with fully open access scholarship (if you have to travel+pay to watch a talk, it's not at all open access, even if a related publication is)
- People who can't leave their country for fear of not being let back in
- People who can't get visas
- Unfunded/underfunded people
- People with unfavourable exchange rates
- People who have limited holidays off work
- People who can't afford it
- etc..

I guess you end up with rooms mostly of academics with travel budgets who are too senior to really do research any more, and research students with stipends. That's fine but the perspectives can feel limited, ungrounded and underinformed.. with a huge environmental cost.

Show threadJohannes HentschelJul 13
@yaxu
@yaxu
This is true. Yet, having participated remotely in hybrid conferences, the hitting each other up randomly over some poster or buffet, or purposefully because someone had asked an interesting question, is yet to find its online equivalent. When you're there physically, well, you're gonna talk to people. Attempts at extending these mechanisms to online during the pandemic (e.g. via wonder.me & co) haven't worked because a) when you're home you have other things to do
Show threadJohannes HentschelJul 13
in the intervals, and b) people in presence are not going to interact with a virtual platform. I think the idea of having it all online starts from the inaccurate idea that conferences are all about listening to each other's talks (that, we can perfectly do online): No, I would claim their main function is the peer interaction, networking, forming collabs, etc. The idea of full inclusion is at odds with real-life interactions in world-wide communities. Both are important! @yaxu
Show threadAlex McLeanJul 13

@johentsch Yes hybrid conferences totally suck. We need more imaginative alternatives. They exist!

Conferences really suck for meeting people and forming collabs, you have to cram it in between all these inhumanely intense talk sessions, and if your talk is scheduled towards the end of a conference, you're at a major disadvantage - I at least can't introduce myself 50+ times without losing my mind.

Actually, online fora can be really great for meeting people too, just not when they're attached to/trying to simulate a bunch of people in a conference facility somewhere. I've had many amazing collabs with people I haven't met in person.

That said, in-person meetings are indeed undoubtedly important, so important they shouldn't be wasted on conferences. Dagstuhl-style seminars are _far_ more productive, where you do actual research together for a ~week. How many 1-3 month early career research residencies could you run for the cost of a in-person conference? Much deeper cultural and interdisciplinary connections can be made through those.

The important thing is that running in-person only international conferences is astonishingly damaging, amounting to soft climate change denial while excluding most potential participants. I really think they should be banned.

Show threadJohannes HentschelJul 13
@yaxu
I agree with all your points except the last. Go ahead, foster these alternatives, convince people they are better, I will support such initiatives for my domain, but oppose authoritarian ideas such as banning conferences.
Show threadIan Douglas ScottJul 13

@johentsch @yaxu In the longer term (and in society more broadly), clearly part of the problem here is that we need more environmentally friendly methods of international travel.

Solar-powered academic airships! (Well, maybe some other things. But hey, at least consider it...)

Show threadViktor Tokariev 🇺🇦
@ids1024 @johentsch @yaxu it could be a multi-week foot trip, some type of pilgrimage with grad students and colleagues through steppes, forests and mountains, culminating in a one-hour poster session.
Jul 13 at 4:21pmWeb
Show threadIan Douglas ScottJul 13
@victor_tokarev @johentsch @yaxu "The real value of the conference is talking to other pilgrims as they join you walking along the forest road. So these 'hybrid conferences' where some people fly in and skip the hike can never really work."
Show threadAlex McLeanJul 13
@ids1024 @victor_tokarev @johentsch To be fair some of the best international research meetings I've attended have included a hike