Virtual Conferences Are Not Here to Stay

I was recently part of ASPB's Plant Biology 2020 Worldwide Summit. It was my first virtual conference and I've got to say that overall it was a great experience. The talks were exciting and the posters were interesting. People were genuinely engaged and asking really good questions. One of my favourite features was the voting system for questions; it was a nice way to know that others were thinking the same questions as me.

All the plenary and concurrent symposia (CS) talks were pre-recorded. In the plenary sessions the speakers were present for a live video Q&A, where the speakers answered questions that had come in via the text chat function. The plenary sessions were re-broadcast to accommodate more time zones; this was a really nice touch for someone in Australia and some of the speakers even made the effort to be present for the re-broadcast.

In contrast, the CS talks were played back to back, and questions that came in via the text chat function had to be answered by the speakers during others' talks. I didn't like this as much. It meant that I was answering questions about my talk instead of watching the next talk, which would have been interesting, if I had been able to pay attention! One of the worst features of the plenary and concurrent symposia was the Discussion Tab. This was a text chat window that was available during the talks, but I don't really know what it was for. Discussions happened, but they felt a little forced. And it seemed to be encouraging people to chat during the presentations, which would never be encouraged at an IRL conference.

As for the posters, they  were the best they could be at a virtual conference. There were certainly some positives of being able to search for posters in your areas of interest without having to wander a poster hall for ages. And you could fit much more information on a virtual poster than a traditional poster. I experienced very little interaction around the posters, though. A few people asked me questions and I asked a few questions and got answers, but one of the benefits of a real life poster hall is the interactions you get with people you weren't planning to interact with; it's sometimes those interactions that lead to the most interesting projects and collaborations.

This leads to my final point. Despite the valiant efforts of the organisers, I found the networking to be essentially nonexistent. Perhaps this was due to the time zone difference and the fact that I didn't want to be nocturnal for a week. But this is why I don't think virtual conferences are here to stay: you miss out on all those unplanned interactions with fellow researchers, which are invaluable for scientific progress.