‘What about the coffee break?’ Designing virtual conference spaces for conviviality

Abstract

Geography, like many other disciplines, is reckoning with the carbon intensity of its practices and rethinking how activities such as annual meetings are held. The Climate Action Task Force of the American Association of Geographers (AAG), for example, was set up in 2019 and seeks to transform the annual conference in light of environmental justice concerns. Mirroring shifts in geographic practice across the globe, these efforts point to a need to understand how new opportunities for knowledge production, such as online events, can operate effectively. In this paper, we offer suggestions for best practice in virtual spaces arising from our Material Life of Time conference held in March 2021, a two-day global event that ran synchronously across 15 time zones. Given concerns about lack of opportunities for informal exchanges at virtual conferences, or the 'coffee break problem', we designed the event to focus particularly on opportunities for conviviality. This was accomplished through a focus on three key design issues: the spatial, the temporal, and the social. We review previous work on the benefits and drawbacks of synchronous and asynchronous online conference methods and the kinds of geographic communities they might support. We then describe our design approach and reflect on its effectiveness via a variety of feedback materials. We show that our design enabled high delegate satisfaction, a sense of conviviality, and strong connections with new colleagues. However, we also discuss the problems with attendance levels and external commitments that hampered shared time together. We thus call for collective efforts to support the 'event time' of online meetings, rather than expectations to fit them around everyday tasks. Even so, our results suggest that synchronous online events need not result in geographical exclusions linked to time-zone differences, and we outline further recommendations for reworking the spacetimes of the conference.

Transitioning to sustainable academic conferences needs more experimentation and reflection

“…Online conferences facilitate participation of those with financial or physical constraints, or caring responsibilities, but interactive social networking in online environments remains challenging (Raby & Madden, 2021). Improved design of conferencing platforms targeting social interactions can overcome some of these challenges but cannot replace the in-person conference experience yet (Bastian et al, 2022). Targeting audiences and presenters in multiple time-zones further complicates online conferences (Mori, 2020).…”

“…Third, we sought to accommodate global participation by organizing each of the online conference days during daylight hours in the respective time zones. We wanted to contribute to ‘time-zone literacy’ (Bastian et al, 2022) and design a conference experience that was less Eurocentric and enabled participation from more diverse geographies. The entire conference ran over the course of one week, starting with the three online conference days hosted by each university via a single online platform, followed by three in-person events across three continents.…”

“…They can be resolved through regular organizational team meetings and collaborative planning, albeit often outside of normal office hours due to time-zone differences. Second, limited social interaction opportunities online were still an issue, which can be improved through future virtual software advances and new modes to online, convivial conferencing (Bastian et al, 2022). Third, online conferencing does not necessarily reduce participants’ registration costs and affordability, and clear communication is critically important when organized with multiple hubs and across time-zones.…”

An EAACI review: Go green in health care and research. Practical suggestions for sustainability in clinical practice, laboratories, and scientific meetings

“…For instance, the Climate Action Task Force of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) designed a conference program offering numerous virtual spaces. 107 This resulted in high delegate satisfaction, even though the conference ran across 15 time zones. Also, in EAACI meetings, virtual coffee break rooms have been introduced…”

“…To solve the “coffee break problem”, virtual relaxation rooms have been introduced aside the main sessions. For instance, the Climate Action Task Force of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) designed a conference program offering numerous virtual spaces 107 . This resulted in high delegate satisfaction, even though the conference ran across 15 time zones.…”