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The format of scientific conferences has come under significant scrutiny and has been the subject of extensive debate in recent years; these debates centered on the carbon footprint and sustainability of such conferences, but also on questions of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion as well as accessibility at these conferences. Within the geosciences, the debate has been particularly strong given that global change and sustainability are part of our direct research subjects and the community has realized the amount of work still needed to attain the goal of truly inclusive and diverse meeting participation and a fair and equal exposure at such conferences.

The Covid-19 pandemic has strongly expedited the evolution of scientific conferences, as numerous learned societies were forced to organize virtual meetings. EGU has thus needed to very rapidly change the format of the 2020 General Assembly from a traditional in-person meeting to “Sharing Geoscience online”, and organize vEGU21 as a fully virtual meeting, while EGU22 is the first hybrid meeting in the history of the Union.

It is now a good time to take stock and look forward: what have we learned from our experiences with virtual and hybrid meetings; how can we take these experiences to design more sustainable global meetings in future; how can we make such hybrid meetings more accessible and inclusive while fostering diversity of presenters and ideas? This Union Symposium will bring together meeting organizers and members of the community who have presented thoughts about future meetings to reflect on the required and desired evolution of scientific conferences, with a focus on the geosciences.