IRIS-HEP Blueprint Workshop Summary: Learning from the Pandemic: the Future of Meetings in HEP and Beyond

Published

June 30, 2021

Author(s)

Mark Neubauer, Todd Adams, Jennifer Adelman-McCarthy, Gabriele Benelli, Tulika Bose, David Britton, Ben Galewsky, Bo Jayatilaka, Brendan Kiburg, Maciej Gladki, Aman Goel, Jonathan E. Guyer, Pat Burchat, Joel Butler, Timothy Cartwright, Tomáš Davídek, Jacques Dumarchez, Peter Elmer, Matthew Feickert, Mandeep Gill, Benjamin Krikler, David Lange, Claire Lee, Nick Manganelli, Giovanni Marchiori, Meenakshi Narain, Ianna Osborne, Jim Pivarski, Harrison Prosper, Graeme Stewart, Eduardo Rodrigues, Roberto Salerno, Marguerite Tonjes, Jaroslav Trnka, Vera Varanda, Vassil Vassilev, Gordon Watts, Sam Zeller, Yuanyuan Zhang

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has by-and-large prevented in-person meetings since March 2020. While the increasing deployment of effective vaccines around the world is a very positive development, the timeline and pathway to "normality" is uncertain and the "new normal" we will settle into is anyone's guess. Particle physics, like many other scientific fields, has more than a year of experience in holding virtual meetings, workshops, and conferences. A great deal of experimentation and innovation to explore how to execute these meetings effectively has occurred. Therefore, it is an appropriate time to take stock of what we as a community learned from running virtual meetings and discuss possible strategies for the future. Continuing to develop effective strategies for meetings with a virtual component is likely to be important for reducing the carbon footprint of our research activities, while also enabling greater diversity and inclusion for participation. This report summarizes a virtual two-day workshop on Virtual Meetings held May 5–6, 2021 that aimed to bring together experts from both inside and outside of particle physics to share their experiences and practices with organizing and executing virtual workshops, and to develop possible strategies for future meetings as we begin to emerge from the challenging conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. This report outlines some of the practices and tools that have worked well (or have not but seem like they should have) which we hope will serve as a valuable resource for future virtual meeting organizers in all scientific fields.

Citation

arXiv

Pub Weblink

https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.15783

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Keywords

virtual conference, hybrid conference

Citation

Neubauer, M. , Adams, T. , Adelman-McCarthy, J. , Benelli, G. , Bose, T. , Britton, D. , Galewsky, B. , Jayatilaka, B. , Kiburg, B. , Gladki, M. , Goel, A. , Guyer, J. , Burchat, P. , Butler, J. , Cartwright, T. , Davídek, T. , Dumarchez, J. , Elmer, P. , Feickert, M. , Gill, M. , Krikler, B. , Lange, D. , Lee, C. , Manganelli, N. , Marchiori, G. , Narain, M. , Osborne, I. , Pivarski, J. , Prosper, H. , Stewart, G. , Rodrigues, E. , Salerno, R. , Tonjes, M. , Trnka, J. , Varanda, V. , Vassilev, V. , Watts, G. , Zeller, S. and Zhang, Y. (2021), IRIS-HEP Blueprint Workshop Summary: Learning from the Pandemic: the Future of Meetings in HEP and Beyond, arXiv, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=932825, https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.15783 (Accessed April 20, 2024)