Virtual Growing Pains: Initial Lessons Learned from Organizing Virtual Workshops, Summits, Conferences, and Networking Events during a Global Pandemic

Abstract

For many, 2020 was a year of abrupt professional and personal change. For the aquatic sciences community, many were adapting to virtual formats for conducting and sharing science, while simultaneously learning to live in a socially distanced world. Understandably, the aquatic sciences community postponed or canceled most in‐person scientific meetings. Still, many scientific communities either transitioned annual meetings to a virtual format or inaugurated new virtual meetings. Fortunately, increased use of video conferencing platforms, networking and communication applications, and a general comfort with conducting science virtually helped bring the in‐person meeting experience to scientists worldwide. Yet, the transition to conducting science virtually revealed new barriers to participation whereas others were lowered. The combined lessons learned from organizing a meeting constitute a necessary knowledge base that will prove useful, as virtual conferences are likely to continue in some form. To concentrate and synthesize these experiences, we showcase how six scientific societies and communities planned, organized, and conducted virtual meetings in 2020. With this consolidated information in hand, we look forward to a future, where scientific meetings embrace a virtual component, so to as help make science more inclusive and global.

Maximizing the Impact of Science Outreach Training

“…Although the transition to virtual environments is initially time‐consuming such moves may allow for more inclusive and global training by removing, for example, financial, supply, and transport barriers. It will be important, however, to address issues that could create new barriers such as differential confidence with use of English, location of participants in different time zones, norms of interaction, and accessibility of particular forms of communication (e.g., audio, visual) (Deemer et al 2020; Niner et al 2020; Meyer et al 2021). Potential strategies to overcome such issues are including multiple modes of communication (e.g., live chat alongside live discussion, live polls) and captioning (Deemer et al 2020; Vervoort et al 2020) as well as prerecording some of the more content‐rich components of the workshop.…”

“…Potential strategies to overcome such issues are including multiple modes of communication (e.g., live chat alongside live discussion, live polls) and captioning (Deemer et al 2020; Vervoort et al 2020) as well as prerecording some of the more content‐rich components of the workshop. As a consequence of the COVID‐19 pandemic, there is a rapidly emerging literature around how to adjust various academic events from in‐person to virtual formats, from which specific advice can be drawn (e.g., Deemer et al 2020; Niner et al 2020; Vervoort et al 2020; Meyer et al 2021). Where these issues are overcome, and barriers to attend outreach training are removed, it could allow more equitable access to the training and broader uptake of scientific outreach.…”

Limnology and Oceanography Bulletin Volume 30 Number 3 August 2021 85–120

“…In order to meet this demand, there is an increasing availability of outreach training. For example, a growing number of graduate programs incorporate outreach training (Trench 2012;Varner 2014;LaRocca et al 2016), with postgraduate research students (i.e., academics in training) expressing a desire for even more opportunities (Hundey et al 2016). While graduate training is professionally formative, relying solely on this approach to address the increasing demand for outreach is likely unrealistic and, even if effective, prohibitively slow.…”

“…Training scientists in effective outreach strategies is a rapidly expanding area, with developing literature around how to prepare researchers for science communication (e.g., Trench 2012;Varner 2014;Dilger and McKeith 2015;LaRocca et al 2016). Here, we explore how scientists involved in various roles of outreach training can approach it effectively.…”

“…Although the transition to virtual environments is initially timeconsuming such moves may allow for more inclusive and global training by removing, for example, financial, supply, and transport barriers. It will be important, however, to address issues that could create new barriers such as differential confidence with use of English, location of participants in different time zones, norms of interaction, and accessibility of particular forms of communication (e.g., audio, visual) Niner et al 2020;Meyer et al 2021). Potential strategies to overcome such issues are including multiple modes of communication (e.g., live chat alongside live discussion, live polls) and captioning Vervoort et al 2020) as well as prerecording some of the more content-rich components of the workshop.…”