Last year was a really busy year for us, especially in the #astronomy world 🔭 Two major #TFOM activities involved partnering with @astrosocaus on #ASA2024 and the IAU GA NOC on #IAUGA2024 and we have just had our findings released publicly 🙌
The Future of Meetings
@futuremeetings
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And our #IAUGA2024 articles have been shared in an #IAU announcement: https://iau.org/news/announcements/detail/ann25003
From the #TFOM perspective, we're always happy to help answer questions about better #online and #hybrid meetings and provide advice - please feel free to reach out if you're interested! 🔭
The other half of this pair of @NatureAstronomy Comments focuses on the vision behind #IAUGA2024, exploring the motivation and realisation of its key goals of #accessibility, #impact and #sustainability - you can find it here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-024-02447-w #TFOM
A historic XXXII IAU General Assembly for a lasting African legacy - Nature Astronomy
The XXXII IAU General Assembly, held for the first time on the African continent from 6–15 August 2024, marked a historic milestone in the global astronomy community. Driven by a bold vision, the event highlighted Africa's growing scientific capacity, and embodied the African spirit of Ubuntu, emphasizing accessibility, impact, and sustainability.
We also shared lessons learned from #IAUGA2024 as part of a pair of articles, ours focusing specifically on the #technical aspects of realising large #hybrid conferences - hybrid conferences *are* possible and affordable! 🔭 Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-024-02448-9 #TFOM
Accessible hybrid conferences are possible and affordable at large scale - Nature Astronomy
In August 2024, the International Astronomical Union General Assembly was held for the first time on the African continent, as a fully hybrid and open-access conference. This opportunity to approach such a traditional and historical event from a new perspective encouraged a spirit of innovation enabled by emerging technologies.
You can also find a nice highlight summary by #CSIRO on #LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/csiro_what-is-the-main-barrier-to-better-online-activity-7288344814201319424-Ai3m #TFOM
Our @NatureAstronomy Comment on #ASA2024 has just been published and reflects on our findings in applying new technologies like #VR to online #meetings and the main barriers facing widespread adoption of these formats. Hint: it’s not the tech! Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-024-02460-z #TFOM
The main barriers to distributed interaction are not technological - Nature Astronomy
For the first time in 2024, the Astronomical Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting was held as an online-first conference, incorporating unprecedented use of immersive spatial venues. This Comment presents findings from this experiment in accessible conferencing and reflects on their implications in the current academic climate.
Greetings all! We (The Future of Meetings, #TFOM) are getting a bit more active on social media again, and we plan for this to be one of our main platforms going forward 👋 There's a fair bit of very recent TFOM news to share, so stay tuned for more posts imminently! 📬
Elizabeth TaskerI’m supporting the CSIRO (Australia research council) booth at #URSI (radio science conference) in Sapporo this week! This is part of @futuremeetings, where we’ve developed a virtual reality experience where you can explore models of the radio telescopes & the engineering components that make the astronomy so successful!
That said, putting up those posters yesterday nearly broke me and the entire legitimacy of the radio component of the electromagnetic spectrum was questioned before I was done.
Is anyone at #APRIM2023 this week? If so, do go and check out the CSIRO booth, where @futuremeetings have a #VR exhibit! You can try the headset, and walk around our much larger virtual booth, handling 3D models of the antenna dish, and various components while listening to commentary from the team. There's even a very cool hologram.
You can also say hello to poor Vanessa, who is handling the booth all alone after we lost one member to covid 😓
After over a year working together to develop online conference ideas at @futuremeetings, flying through the sky and fighting demons in #VR, golfing in the underwater city of Atlantis, and murdering each other (frequently) in “Among Us”, Vanessa and I finally met in person!
And then proceeded to wrestle 4 huge bags onto the Shinkansen for an in-person meeting… whereupon we agreed online is superior 😂
