[TYPES] global debriefing over our virtual experience of conferences

[Flavien Breuvart]

Dear colleagues,

This spring, under unfortunate circumstances, many conferences held 
virtually. We have witnessed the disadvantages of such dispositives, but 
also its numerous advantages. Many of those conferences have had 
internal debates for debriefing this experiences, but I haven't seen any 
large and public debate inside the community. I was hopping that some of 
you may engage in such debates.

As a starting point, I will try to succinctly expose my own point of 
view, which is probably subjective, politically charged, and highly 
debatable, but this is the whole point :-)

I think we where all impressed by the high level of attendance of 
conferences and workshops. But when thinking back at it, this situation 
is perfectly normal as virtual conferences opened several blockades 
usually preventing people from coming, in particular via the absence of 
fees, the flexibility with respect to other duties (familial, teaching 
or administrative), or the weight of travels. Even if this was the only 
reason, I think it would be worth considering to secure part of these 
improvements.

Another, huge (but politically charged) advantage, is the drastic 
reduction of the carbon footprint of our conferences. Several colleges 
are advocating for a public engagement of the community to reduce its 
global footprint. For example, see https://tcs4f.org/ which is a group 
advocating for a 50% carbon reduction in theoretical computer sciences. 
I have no doubt that other such initiative exist here and there; this 
year unfortunate event at least showed that they are well founded and 
not unreachable.

That being said, I have to address the fact that our virtual conferences 
had technical issues and that physical ones have several other 
advantages. Concerning the technical issues (timeline clashes, internet 
connection, organization...), I strongly believe that time and 
experience can overcome most of them; I was helping in the organization 
comity of FSCD and it appear that many issues could have been avoided by 
a few technical adjustments (such as assigning two co-chairs for each 
sessions for example).

Concerning the advantages of conferences, I see three important ones : 
1) the chance encounters, 2) the strengthening of collaborations, and 3) 
the prolonged focus. 1) From my (short) experience, the first can happen 
in smaller scale meetings, that can be mostly local (with a minority of 
invited non-local visitors). 2) The best way to strengthen 
collaborations is not conferences but lab invitations (which could be 
more frequent without conferences fees and time expenditures). 3) I got 
the impression that most people where not as focus as in traditional 
conferences, but not to a big margin, and mainly by lack of routine 
(here I distinguish independent seminars and regular courses, as all 
teachers I have seen the disaster of virtualization among our students...).

All in all, I would advocate for more small scale meetings, more lab 
invitations, but a virtualization of big scale conferences, and (why 
not), the securing of some international virtual seminar that where very 
interesting (thank you for the organizers that took those initiatives !).

I hope I was not too long and too boring, do not hesitate to contradict 
me, all I want is to start a fruitful debate.

Best,

Flavien