Inclusive scientific meetings need alternative modes of participation

Major sporting events, like the Summer Olympics or the FIFA World Cup, attract a global audience of billions of spectators. While many agree that watching the Olympic Games in one of its venues is the best way to experience the event, less than one per mille of the billions worldwide audience can attend in person. The majority watch such events at public events, at home with families and friends, or by themselves on their mobile devices. All these different modes of watching the Olympics allow a global audience access to a major sporting event.

International research meetings were forced into mainly online modes by the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020-2022. While the availability of online formats was initially high, it has since dropped, and only a small fraction of meeting organisers have made efforts to develop new formats that offer value to online participants. At the same time, the poor quality of virtual options and the “rush back to normal” contributed to a drop in virtual participant numbers. This is a missed opportunity; it disregards the high environmental costs of large international meetings and favours those who can afford the high costs and time commitment of international travel and are, therefore, already advantaged. For many in the Global South, attending international conferences offered as in-person-only events is almost impossible, widening the gap in their ability to participate in global science.

While technologies for alternative modes of participation exist, many organisers of conferences cite the excessive cost and a lack of interest as barriers. Financial modelling by a major conference provider showed that offering alternative participation modes adds approximately five to ten per cent to the cost of running a conference, which can be easily offset by attracting additional participants. However, conflicting aims exist between conference organisers wanting to offer alternative participation modes but also having to be financially sustainable, as well as conference venues and tourism boards, who want to maximise the number of participants on-site. It has been reported that tourism boards and conference venues use subsidies and overpriced equipment to discourage alternatives to on-site participation.

For their 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting, the Astronomical Society of Australia organised an “online-first” conference with a location-specific “Hub Day” during the week to offer space for in-person interactions. As this example shows, there are many opportunities to innovate by blending in-person, hybrid, and online formats and adopting new technologies (see, e.g., https://thefutureofmeetings.wordpress.com), including local or regional hubs where participants can gather to discuss and network. Alternative modes are already being used successfully by communities in other areas of society to bring people together and the scientific community is lagging behind. We could draw inspiration from completely different types of events, like games, international sports or cultural events. This presentation is about how we can make research meetings more accessible, inclusive, and sustainable by being more creative about modes of participation and thinking outside the box.