{"id":629,"date":"2021-01-22T15:21:17","date_gmt":"2021-01-22T13:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/?p=629"},"modified":"2021-02-02T11:49:11","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T09:49:11","slug":"are-virtual-conferences-any-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/2021\/01\/22\/are-virtual-conferences-any-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Are virtual conferences any good?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

2020 was the year when everything went\nonline, including academic workshops, colloquiums, and conferences. And opinions\nabout such online events differ. I have heard about academics\u2019 varying experiences\nof virtual conferences, and have attended a few smaller online seminars myself.\nBut I have yet to experience a full-scale international virtual academic\nconference. However, my curiosity in such virtual conferences will soon be\nsatisfied as I plan to attend and present at the 30th RESER (The European\nAssociation for REsearch on SERvices) International Conference, which due to\nCOVID-19 will take place virtually on January 21st-22nd 2021. Meanwhile, I\nthought I should have a look at the pros and cons of virtual conferences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The major advantages of virtual conferences\nare of course their smaller environmental impact and greater inclusiveness. If\nwe start with the environment, different calculations of the carbon footprint\nof conference travel exist and I will not recite the numbers here. Let\u2019s just\nconclude that academic conferences are a big source of CO2 emissions, with some\nestimates even suggesting a carbon footprint equivalent to that of some small\nnations. Virtual conferences reduce this environmental impact to almost zero. Taking\nconferences online also make them available to a much larger group of\nacademics. It is much easier for researchers with small children or disabilities\nto attend virtual conferences from home, than flying around the world to\nparticipate in traditional in-person conferences. Similarly, economically\ndisadvantaged academics, or researchers from specific countries, often find it\ndifficult to attend international conferences, due to the high costs and visa\nrestrictions. With virtual conferences, the playing field is levelled.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what are the main downsides of virtual\nconferences? Well, aside from being stuck behind a computer for hours and\nmissing out on the (often but not always) exciting travel destination, the\nmajor disadvantage of such online events is of course the lack of in-person\ninteraction. In academia, networking is vital, especially for PhD students and postdoctoral\nresearchers. But also for senior academics, meeting and discussing things of\ncommon interest with fellow scholars is a critical part of a flourishing\nacademic environment. As many who have attended academic conferences know, even\na short lunch or drink in the evening with other researchers of similar\ninterests can stimulate the most interesting ideas, and lay the ground for new\nexciting collaborations. Also, the wonderful randomness of who you will meet\nand interact with during traditional conferences and the quality of these\nexperiences are, understandably, not on the same level during online events. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My own final opinion about virtual academic\nconferences has to wait until after the 30th RESER Conference later this month,\nbut it is obvious that both online and offline conferences have their pros and\ncons. If I was to speculate, I think both these forms of conferences will co-exist\npost-COVID-19. And academic conferences of the future might very well try to\ncapture the main strengths of the two formats. For example, I would not be\nsurprised if we will see hybrid conferences in which some of the participants\nattend in-person and others online. Maybe that would be the best of two worlds?\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gustav Medberg<\/em>
\nPostdoctoral Researcher<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2020 was the year when everything went online, including academic workshops, colloquiums, and conferences. And opinions about such online events differ. I have heard about academics\u2019 varying experiences of virtual conferences, and have attended a few smaller online seminars myself. But I have yet to experience a full-scale international virtual academic conference. However, my curiosity …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cers-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":634,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions\/634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/cers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}