TY - JOUR
T1 - Improving on legacy conferences by moving online
AU - Achakulvisut, Titipat
AU - Ruangrong, Tulakan
AU - Bilgin, Isil
AU - VAN DEN BOSSCHE, Sofie
AU - Wyble, Brad
AU - Goodman, Dan F.M.
AU - Kording, Konrad P.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, eLife Sciences Publications Ltd. All rights reserved.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Scientific conferences and meetings have an important role in research, but they also suffer from a number of disadvantages: in particular, they can have a massive carbon footprint, they are time-consuming, and the high costs involved in attending can exclude many potential participants. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the cancellation of many conferences, forcing the scientific community to explore online alternatives. Here, we report on our experiences of organizing an online neuroscience conference, neuromatch, that attracted some 3000 participants and featured two days of talks, debates, panel discussions, and one-on-one meetings facilitated by a matching algorithm. By offering most of the benefits of traditional conferences, several clear advantages, and with fewer of the downsides, we feel that online conferences have the potential to replace many legacy conferences.
AB - Scientific conferences and meetings have an important role in research, but they also suffer from a number of disadvantages: in particular, they can have a massive carbon footprint, they are time-consuming, and the high costs involved in attending can exclude many potential participants. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the cancellation of many conferences, forcing the scientific community to explore online alternatives. Here, we report on our experiences of organizing an online neuroscience conference, neuromatch, that attracted some 3000 participants and featured two days of talks, debates, panel discussions, and one-on-one meetings facilitated by a matching algorithm. By offering most of the benefits of traditional conferences, several clear advantages, and with fewer of the downsides, we feel that online conferences have the potential to replace many legacy conferences.
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U2 - 10.7554/ELIFE.57892
DO - 10.7554/ELIFE.57892
M3 - Article
C2 - 32308195
AN - SCOPUS:85083702284
SN - 2050-084X
VL - 9
JO - eLife
JF - eLife
M1 - e57892
ER -