Re-thinking conferences in medicine: opportunities and challenges of virtual delivery

Pang, Hilary; Wiercigroch, David; Sriharan, Abi

doi:10.37964/cr24728

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Furthermore, as virtual conferences do not imply travel or logistical requirements, they offer more opportunities for researchers, particularly for junior scientists and trainees, to attend high level meetings. As a consequence, virtual conferences quickly became a tool to break down economic, geographical, social, and also gender barriers 18 ) . The organization of conferences in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic has determined new opportunities of inclusion for many categories of researchers: women often unable to travel due to family obligations, scientists with disabilities, researchers from developing countries, and all those, that are generally unable to attend international conferences 19 ) .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The future of scientific conferences in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic: Critical analysis and future perspectives

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The global spread of COVID-19 pandemic forced the scientific community to identify new ways of exchanging and transferring the scientific knowledge, also considering that the measures taken to combat the pandemic, such as travel restrictions, closed borders and gathering bans, led to cancellations of many conferences, meetings and workshops. The enhancement of the existing digital platforms and the development of new systems to share scientific knowledge has allowed the scientific community to “meet” again in new virtual environments (e.g., Zoom, Cisco WebEx, Live Stream, Demio, GoToWebinar Seminar, Google Hangouts, Skype, Microsoft Teams, etc.), providing an unprecedented opportunity to reform methods of organizing academic conferences in all disciplines.Starting from the review of the existing literature, this study aimed at investigating the impact of the spreading of virtual conferences on the field of research. The SWOT analysis was used to identify strengths and weaknesses of the scientific conferences organized in the new format, as well as opportunities and threats created by the socio-economic and political context in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The future of scientific conferences in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic: Critical analysis and future perspectives

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Some beneficial outcomes of physical interaction (e.g., networking, and tacit knowledge transfer) are difficult, although not impossible, to emulate in virtual settings. Though some articles mentioned that there are a growing number of technological tools for more interactive online conversations, the lack of opportunity for networking F2F is seen as a shortcoming of virtual gatherings (Chan et al, 2021;Epstein, 2020;Etzion et al, 2021;Fleming, 2020;Gao 2020;Kalia et al, 2020;Levitis et al, 2021;Niner & Wassermann, 2021;Pang et al, 2020;Power et al, 2020;Raby & Madden, 2021;Reshef et al, 2020;Stamelou et al, 2020;Viglione, 2020b;Weber & Ahn, 2020). As Pacchioni (2020, p. 163) argues, "after all, most of the fruitful discussions tend to happen outside the conference room, and it's not unusual for new collaborations to be sealed over a walk or a meal".…”

Section: Event Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Delegate Views on Face to Face and Online Conference Attendance

Edwards

2022

IJBEL

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research has confirmed that F2F conferences generate significant benefits for destinations, communities, industries and economies. In addition to the immediate economic effect of a contribution to the visitor economy of the destination, F2F conferences build knowledge economies and networks, driving industry innovation and trade and investment. There has also been significant criticism of F2F conferences, particularly in terms of their negative environmental impacts, inequity of accessibility, and the ineffectiveness of traditional event design. The travel barriers associated Covid19 pandemic disrupted F2F conferences and accelerated the global move to online conferencing. While F2F attendance is returning, there is a growing trend for conferences to offer both modes of attendance; the hybrid conference is becoming the norm. Drawing on recent literature and a survey of international delegates, this study explores the advantages and disadvantages of both F2F and online modes of conference attendance and discusses ways in which we might leverage better outcomes from hybrid conferences in order to maximise outcomes for all stakeholders.

show abstract

“…[22] investigates concrete business model innovations as a way out of the crisis or MICE sector relation to the destination performance. Virtual and hybrid technologies created the paradigm of the new era of events, opened the opportunities for delegates' inclusivity, reduction of environmental impact, increase engagement and interactivity and financial accessibility, but at the same time raised up new challenges of minimizing digital exclusion, providing technical support, facilitating opportunities for networking and supporting physical wellness of the delegates [23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the COVID-19 pandemic forced the event organizers to ensure significant investments and in short time to adopt their meetings, congresses, conferences, exhibitions to virtual and hybrid formats, the concept of virtual events is not new. The World Wide Web was used since 1993, one of the first scientific conferences ECCC (Electronic Conference on Computational Chemistry) was organized in 1995 and followed by other conferences and events [23]. The recent decades show that meeting industry was changing rapidly by implementing on-line registration systems, event supporting applications, virtual platforms and live streaming.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Pressure of Technological Innovations in Meeting and Event Industry Under the Covid-19 Influence

Bukovska

Mezgaile

Klepers

2021

ETR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The innovation in technologies is one of the principal external forces that has a direct influence on the competitiveness of the meeting and the event industry. Therefore, implementation and adaptation of the new technological solutions in it has continuously followed the innovations in technological industry itself. However, the COVID-19 pandemic with the following lockdowns has pushed the industry to search for new technological alternatives to innovate their way out of the crisis in a very short time period. This was the first time when all the events from small family celebrations and weddings up to the international conferences and product launch events, have had to be cancelled or postponed or could have happened only to a very limited extent and under strict regulations excluding any larger gatherings of people. The event providers were forced to find new solutions to continue their business and not to hibernate with the minimum downtime allowance granted by the state to the employees. Technologies supporting various types of online events became the ultimate digital tool that helped event planners to execute projects from the beginning to the end after March 2020. The purpose of the research is to explore these changes in the usage of the technologies in meetings and events organized in Latvia caused by COVID-19. The quantitative analysis of the structural on-line survey data provides insights on what extent technology adoption in meetings and events businesses has been before and during COVID-19 and what are the future prospects supplemented by the in-depth interview data and qualitative analysis. Authors are investigating what is the amount of virtual and hybrid events organized in Latvia before and after COVID-19, what platforms the organizers used for their virtual events, what is the level of satisfaction and what kind of challenges the event organizers faced in the process of adoption of new technologies. The results of this research not only state the current position within the framework of the industry, but also enriches discussion about the adoption of new technologies to innovate the way out of the crisis and could help in some degree to strengthen the productivity growth in a long term perspective.

show abstract

Re-thinking conferences in medicine: opportunities and challenges of virtual delivery

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

The future of scientific conferences in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic: Critical analysis and future perspectives

The future of scientific conferences in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic: Critical analysis and future perspectives

Delegate Views on Face to Face and Online Conference Attendance

The Pressure of Technological Innovations in Meeting and Event Industry Under the Covid-19 Influence

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About