[TYPES] Online vs travel

[Hendrik Boom]

On Tue, Aug 25, 2020 at 10:08:17PM +0100, Reuben Rowe wrote:
> [ The Types Forum, http://lists.seas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/types-list ]
> 
> Dear Colleagues,
> 
> I think this comment gets to the heart of one of the major issues with
> virtual conferences.
> 
> I did think the LICS model of having talks pre-recorded and reserving
> synchronous sessions for questions and live chat worked extremely well
> to mitigate the very real fatigue of having to sit in front of one's
> screen watching hour upon hour of talks.

Indeed.  I don't manage to pay full attention like that.  I tire, and I 
cannot fully appreciate the talks.  In the days I still had a travel 
budget, The same would happen in a physical-presence meeting.

Not to mention effectively missing half the talks altogether in the 
first few days because of jet lag.  (jet lag isn't as bad if nighttime 
doesn't shift to a new schedule)

A big advantage in an online conference is that I do not end up 
attending all the talks.  I do not become exhausted attending talks of 
no interest to me.  And I have attention left over for the talks that 
are of interest.

And if too much is of interest (I should be so lucky!) I can *still* 
attend the talk later via the recording.

Nowadays, I have essentially no travel budget.  Most of the events I 
now attend online I would be completely unable to attend if I had to be 
physically present.

-- hendrik