Post #2862333

2025-07-13 10:48 UTC

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@post.lurk.org

Replies (3)

@jakob_thoboell@kirche.social 2025-07-13 11:46

@johentsch@hostux.social lets take this observation and make it an New questuon: how can we at least partly allow people Lister by the post by @yaxu@post.lurk.org to participate in that kind of conference activities too? - solidarity Tickets - short term (child)care as part of travel fees - possibility to travel and attent a conference with your child - travel expenses for a personal Assistent payed by the Institute t.b.c.

Open ##2862334
@yaxu@post.lurk.org 2025-07-13 12:13

@johentsch@hostux.social 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.

Open ##2862340
@juliette@mastodon.green 2025-07-14 06:38

@johentsch@hostux.social @yaxu@post.lurk.org The main difficulty I had when I organized a fully remote conference was that people's time wasn't respected. Like "oh, it's remote? Then you can skip the talks for an hour and attend this meeting I deem more important." We tried to encourage people to be from home, but that's not workable for everyone. City-based watch parties worked well for people who could have a good group audio set-up - and that solves your problem too.

Open ##2862348