Thread by @ryankatzrosene

@ESACCanada recently pulled off a 100% Virtual Conference, with the support of @ideas_idees and AV Canada. A couple reflections on the organizing side of things… aimed mostly at fellow scholars organizing virtual conferences these days…

/long thread, starting w practicalities

PLATFORM: We did ours through a modified Zoom platform, where each conference room was essentially a Zoom call. In the past we’ve had success with BlueJeans too. Zoom seems to be the platform most scholars are becoming acquainted with, and that DOES count for something...

SESSION ENTRY PORTAL: I really liked the Swoogo site @ideas_idees set up for our conference (below). Each session title became a hyperlink through which participants could ‘enter’ a session. I also like the idea of the visual portal too (and I know they exist)..

PREPARATION: @ideas_idees & AV Canada had an excellent set of protocols and “scripts” for each session. This included things like pre-conference trainings where participants could practice the screen-share function and check their lighting/camera view/connection issues, etc.

TIP SHEETS: We provided tip sheets for different roles (one for presenters, session Chairs, session Hosts, and even a special sheet for Keynotes, covering everything from responsibilities to reminders to tech info).

👉Send these out in advance so everyone is on the SAME PAGE.

SPLIT & DEFINE ROLES: FOR each session we had split and defined roles: an association HOST (to keep track of waiting room, etc.); a session chair (to moderate the proceedings); presenters; IT/tech support; PLUS an administrative Host (from the federation).
Highly recommend this.

CALL IN EARLY: All admin and presenter roles were expected to enter their session a good half hour before start to troubleshoot, test sound/video/screen share, and so on. I really liked this function. With Zoom, people with hosting capacity can keep tabs on waiting room.

SECURITY: Luckily this wasn’t an issue, but w multiple hosts & tech support for EACH SESSION we felt comfortable we could boot someone if needed. For the public events we had a pre-event REGISTRATION, which allowed a host to cross-reference names of people in the waiting room.

ZOOM PROFILE NAMES: Remind everyone to change their Zoom profile to their full name and affiliation (just like a 'conference name tag' for each session (you can easily rename your Zoom profile while in a call).

VIDEO/ZOOM “ETIQUETTE”: Remind users about things like face lighting and camera positioning; muting mics, not using backgrounds, etc.
👉Strongly encourage participants to seek a strong, WIRED, internet connection if possible - just makes for a better experience for everyone.

VIDEOS ON/OFF POLICY: Decide ahead of time if you want non-presenting audience-members to have their videos ON or OFF, during keynotes, panels, etc.
👉Personally I prefer VIDEOS ON (it feels very strange to speak to "room" full of blank screens!).

ZOOM FATIGUE: It’s a thing, but it can be easily averted - it’s caused by the tiring effects of seeing your own image broadcast back to you while talking. Zoom has a great setting where you can hide your own video from yourself.
👉Highly recommend the hide your own video feature.

EXCHANGE CONTACT INFO WITHIN SESSIONS: I recommend having session HOSTS contact all presenters ahead of time to share 'emergency' phone numbers and any necessary back-up files, and reminding them of log in details and session timing, etc.

BACK UP FILES/PLAN B: Have a common plan for what happens if someone faces IT failure/disconnection mid-way through presentation.
Does chair pull up backup powerpoint?
Load a pre-recorded video?
Do you just move on?
My recommendation is you try to reconnect for a 2nd try.

TIME ZONES & TIMING: Virtual conferences are tricky, especially when factoring in international participation and time zones. Try to schedule sessions so that a) there’s AMPLE time between them and b) during work hours for *most* participants.
👉 Recommend timeanddate.com/worldclock/mee…

DOUBLE DOWN ON SOCIAL EVENTS: We had some creative 'social' sessions - including a social/trivia night, yoga and meditation breaks, and a ‘farewell wave’ at the end. These are super important, but note you need strong facilitation to start the sessions to help "break the ice"

COFFEE BREAKS: One idea we’re going to try next time is having breakout rooms available during coffee breaks, perhaps organized by theme or question; just to have a space to mingle/network informally with others… Tho I'd probably still designate a 'facilitator' for each session.

OK… now for a few ‘meta’ reflections on the state of virtual conferencing in academia...

BE FLEXIBLE: Be open to new ideas, new ways of doing things, accept failure as a learning opportunity: Virtual conferencing, in the grand scheme of things, is pretty new tech and we’re all learning how to make this a ‘normal’ part of the profession.

ADJUST EXPECTATIONS TO VIRTUAL SETTING: You will not be able to totally “reproduce” the feel of in-person conferencing. But the flip-side is that you can help set the stage for new practices and new ways of networking and exchange in academia.

DAWN OF AN AGE: Most of us are just learning these tools (Zoom, web cams, mics, etc.). I think in 5 or 10 years we’ll look back on this time the same way we now look back on the dawn of the cell phone age.
👉The tech is going to get more advanced.

PROS AND CONS: Virtual Conferencing bring benefits! Participation tends to be HIGHER as it’s much more accessible. It’s also much better for environment. But the obvious drawback is that missing social aspect of tangible in-person interaction...

THINK CREATIVELY: There are ways to try to achieve some of that social aspect… just needs a bit of creative thought, planning & facilitation.
👉 Maybe appoint some extrovert on your team to be the master of breaking the Zoom awkwardness.

VIRTUAL CONFERENCING IS HERE TO STAY: Love it or hate it, virtual conferencing is going to increasingly displace parts of the traditional mega in-person academic conference.
👉As much as I miss the good old days, those mega conferences are ecologically catastrophic & exclusive.

RESOURCES: We're trying to keep up with all the major efforts out there to build a more environmentally-friendly, accessible and inclusive structure for professional international scholarly exchange, at: flyinglessresourceguide.info

/fin

Tagging some tweeps who may be interested: @PeterShepherd8 @SciPolEnv @aepasek @flyingless @simondonner @WynesSeth @mmbuchs @KA_Nicholas @ClimateHuman