Reflection: Two Overlapping Virtual Conferences!

Over one week, I went to two overlapping virtual conferences, ICER and Learning@Scale (L@S). Both usually are in person but were virtual due to Covid-19. Here is my reflection on the experience for the sake of those planning a virtual conference, those attending a virtual conference, and myself.

First off, the biggest pro to the virtual conferences is I got to attend! If Covid-19 had not forced the conferences to go online, I would not have attended either. ICER's locations go back and forth between in and not in North America. This year was a non-North America year and would have been in New Zealand. After I had my first child and an overseas trip away from him, I decided that while my kids were small, I wouldn't travel outside North America without them unless I had a solid reason. We also recently added another child to the family. So traveling that far with a 3-year-old and a 4-month-old was daunting and unaffordable. L@S was originally going to be in Atlanta, Georgia, in May, which would mean I'd be less than two months postpartum. Therefore, also not feasible even though we could have driven there.


The rest of this blog post I'm going to structure by first explaining my goals for attending a conference, the main differences between the conferences, and how well each conference supported me in achieving my goals. Then I'll have a few things I liked and didn't like that didn't fit in the discussion of achieving my goals. Finally, I'll have some suggestions for conference organizers and virtual conference attendees.


Before we get started, I'll say upfront that this post will compare ICER and L@S. Between the two, I liked the ICER experience better. However, L@S did have things I wish ICER had. Most important, though, is I think both conferences did a good job. These conferences were a "brave new world" that the organizers had never done before, so of course they were not going to get it perfect the first time. I think what they did was both good and had room for improvement. So hopefully, other conferences will be able to take note and do better in the future.

Conference Differences

To make this easy to compare, I broke up what each conference did into five parts technology, proceedings, talks, posters, and socializing.

ICER

  • Technology, full details on how to use everything were on their website

    • Zoom webinar - Different than a Zoom meeting. Only presenter's videos are visible, no chat room, and Q&A dialog for submitting questions.

    • Discord - For the newbs like me, this is kind of like Slack on steroids. It has text and voice channels (but no voice + text channels). Voice channels could also do video.

    • YouTube - All talks had videos pre-recorded

  • Proceedings - On the ICER main website with the ability to change to your preferred timezone!

  • Talks

    • Before: Single track with a presentation, table discussion, and Q&A

    • This time:

      • Single-track papers - Presentation by streaming video on Zoom with the encouragement of streaming locally off YouTube, discussion in the plenary text channel, Q&A on Zoom webinar.

      • Parallel track papers - Join one of five voice Discord channel "tables," start YouTube video on your local device around the same time, discuss, and author popped into various channels for their paper as best they could. On the third day, each voice channel had a corresponding text channel.

  • Posters - Each poster had it's own video/voice channel with the author streaming their poster in the channel. Some posters also submitted a video in advance.

  • Socializing - 20-minute breaks between sessions and designated other times for Europe and Asia socials, given the time zone differences.

L@S

  • Technology

    • Intellum - Conference platform

    • Zoom meetings

    • Gatherly - A web app kind of like a virtual cocktail party. There's a map where you can see where you and everyone else is. If multiple users are close enough together on the map, Gatherly forms a video chat between them. People can join and leave conversations by moving their icon around on the map.

  • Proceedings - A summary was on the website, but all the information and quick access to the Zoom or Gathelry links were in Intellum. Intellum translated the schedule to your timezone.

  • Talks

    • Before: Single track with a presentation and Q&A

    • Now: Single track in a Zoom meeting, discussion in the Zoom chat while live presenting, and Q&A.

  • Posters - On Gatherly, with the second day having the map include designate "tables" for each poster.

  • Socializing - During the poster sessions on Gatherly and "Chat and Snack Hour" in Zoom.

Goals for Attending

I have three primary goals when attending a conference:

  1. Learn about new work

  2. Networking by reconnecting with people I know

  3. Networking by connecting with people generally and those that would be good to meet for my work

Goal Achievability: Learning about new work

I loved the pre-recorded videos in ICER. I could pause to take care of something (a chore, child, etc.) and then play the video faster to catch up. ICER released the videos in advance, so I could watch in advance to decide what to make sure to attend. Moreover, during a discussion, I could use the videos to scrub around and find points I wanted to discuss. I think I lost track of at least half the L@S's live talks I attended due to some interruption, which meant I was lost for the rest of the talk.


I liked having the text chat in both ICER and L@S to discuss during the presentation. Discord's chat was better, though, because Zoom chat can be difficult to follow (especially if you are also having private conversations) and it's not searchable nor archived like Discord. Discord's richer chat features made conversing easier, like reacting to a message (to signal agreement or applaud) and quoting a message to indicate what your current message was responding to.


I preferred ICER's process for presenting work without a doubt. The main thing I'd want to improve is social norms, such as making sure a participant in a parallel track's video/voice channel is also watching the corresponding text channel.

Goal Achievability: Reconnecting with people

ICER's discord was a little harder to reach out to people because there was no easy way to signal that you were available and happy to chat. People discoverability was also difficult. I tried two tactics. I scrolled through the entire list, hoping people I knew had a good photo or properly formatted their name. I also used the search feature for people that came to mind, which also depends on properly setting up their name (as opposed to username). When I found someone I knew, I direct messaged them  "Hi <friend> 👋, it feels weird not being able to at least wave at people in the hallway, so I'm doing the virtual version 😀" I got two people to chat with me in a voice channel for a bit doing this.


During breaks, I joined voice channels with people I knew and was able to connect that way. I also tried spending time in a voice channel break room by myself in hopes someone would drop by, but it felt a little weird doing this. A friend thankfully did eventually join me, and we had a nice chat. I also did this during my regular work hours at 9:00-17:00 EDT, which were mostly before the conference started (16:30-18:00 EDT). And during this time, not many people were on the server. So that might have contributed to the lack of any engagement.


L@S's use of Gatherly made this feel more natural. Someone's presence in the app was a clear signal that they were open for chatting. I was able to reconnect with multiple people while at L@S. However, the app has a lot of growing to do before it's a full-featured and seamless experience. Discoverability was difficult. Direct chatting was available. If there had been someone I wanted to video chat with, we would have had to resort to messages like "I'm near the elevators on the first floor" to find each other. I think this app has possibilities. However, it currently is trying too hard to simulate what we experience in real life rather than taking advantage of what the virtual space gives us. For example, to connect with someone, my icon has to literally travel across the map to get to them. Why can't my icon just teleport?


L@S also had a session called "Chat and Snack Hour" where anyone could join the zoom room and hangout. This idea was good in theory but was rife with the potential of poor execution. On the first day, very few people showed up. Most likely, this happened because many attendees were at workshops. Also, the few people that did show often left because of a lack of critical mass. Most of the time, there was one organizer and me, but we barely talked. I was hoping to listen in and chime in via chat because I was first dealing with the baby and then later preparing my lunch. The second day was better because more people showed up at the beginning, but then there were too many people to have an engaging conversation with everyone.


Between these two setups, I liked Gatherly the most for this goal. I hope that they work hard to make it more fully-featured. Discord, though, is a reasonable alternative and I have hopes that we will continue using it well beyond the conference.

Goal Achievability: Connect with new people

I was not great at this. I suspect it was because I forgot I should plan what I want to do and who I want to meet due to my excitement that I got to attend when I originally wasn't going to. I did eventually get my act together and managed to meet someone that I had wanted to talk to. At ICER, it was straightforward because I first sent a direct message, and then we met in a voice channel break room. In some ways, Discord made it easier to connect with people because the conference was set up to strongly encourage attendees to be on it. So the message asking for a meeting was more likely to be seen than a cold email.


There was one person I wanted to meet at L@S because of their poster. However, I could never find them in Gatherly! Otherwise, connecting with new people at L@S was more similar to an in-person conference. One option, which I didn't do this time, is email the person in advance, hope they read the email and respond, then plan a meeting time. The meeting would happen in Gatherly during the poster session or outside L@S entirely in a video conferencing app of their choice. The other option is a serendipitous meeting during a talk (Zoom meeting) or a poster session (Gatherly). This time around, I didn't meet anyone new, but that was more due to a lack of trying beyond the one person I couldn't find.


For this goal, I think either setup could work. Discord may be a little ahead because as long as the person you are trying to meet is using Discord, the odds they see your message are higher than a cold email.

Things I Liked/Didn't Like

Here are a few other thoughts I had that didn't fit in the previous structure.

  1. I liked having control over my video and mic. It meant I could engage in the conversation while also dealing with the baby! I won't mention how often I was attending a session while holding, feeding, or diapering her. In addition, my experience was the same as everyone else, as opposed to being trapped in the mother's room if the conference was in person.

  2. I liked that the organizers made it clear that video was optional. I know some people want it on, but I don't think there was ever a lot of pressure to turn it on.

  3. I probably wouldn't have like things as much if I wasn't a Slack native and had a personalized system for handling notification. My default for notifications was to mute everything except what I already knew I wanted to know about.

  4. I missed threaded discussion! Slack has this feature, but Discord and Zoom do not. It made following conversations harder.

Main Takeaways For Virtual Conference Organizers

First and for most, all talks NEED to be pre-recorded. I know we lose some of the spontaneity. However, it's hard to be spontaneous in a live video talk, especially if we aren't going to respond to questions in the moment. Asynchronous consumption has many advantages because stuff happens when we aren't physically sharing the same space from dealing with chores or childcare to a delivery person at the door.


Second, long breaks are good. L@S had short 5-10 minute breaks, and if a talk ran over the break was often lost. I loved the 20-minute breaks in ICER for socializing, chores, childcare, computer break, etc.


Finally, try to find ways for participants to signal they are opening to chatting with someone — presence in Gatherly works. Presence in a Discord voice channel could work but currently feels weird.

Main Takeaways For Virtual Conference Attendees

First, I would not recommend going to two virtual conferences in a single week. In defense of the conferences, L@S was originally going to be in May, but Covid-19 delayed it. The overlapping schedules made things even harder because things didn't start/end at the same time. So the one day they overlapped, I kept having moments of "What times is it?" "What's going on?" "I am frazzled."


Still plan like any other conference. I especially should have done this, considering I wrote a reflection blog post about it! I thought that maybe I'd have time in between to figure things out because no one can bother me if I'm not on the platform. But I didn't account for life getting in the way nor the attractiveness of procrastinating by trying to find someone to talk to on Discord.


And besides planning what to attend and who to meet, it's also essential to plan the time outside the conference schedule, especially if it's not during regular work hours. For me, ICER was in my evening from 16:30-18:00. My spouse was great at handling the 3-year-old, but I still had the 4-month-old during some of it (thank goodness she's cute on video and likes to sleep!). This schedule meant I had no downtime between conference time and putting the kids to bed. I then had barely any downtime happening afterward, but still needed some to sleep. Therefore, I stayed up late. However, I still had to get up on time for the kids. And my biggest mistake was to work during the normal 9:00-16:30 before the conference because I wanted to take advantage of the 3-year-old being in daycare. This schedule translated to no R&R time for four days in a row with still a full workday on Friday. I was a stressed-out, short-tempered monster all weekend and had to resort to locking myself in my office to decompress enough to not take things out on my oblivious and persistent 3-year-old. I should have planned R&R time during the workday to compensate.

Conclusion

Despite everything, I'm still happy I attended both. I think both conferences did a good job under the circumstances. As is always true in life, there is room for improvement. But you can both have done a good job and have ways to do better! This first time was great! Next time I think things will be even better!


Did you attend a virtual conference? What are your thoughts?


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