How to Host a Virtual Educational Conference

Abstract

Virtual education is a promising tool for expanding surgical training and continuing education. The authors present their preferred platforms for virtual surgical education, and discuss security and privacy concerns. Maintaining communication and keeping sessions engaging require special consideration when education is done virtually. The limitations to virtual education may soon be mitigated by new technologies. In this article, the authors aim to describe the benefits, current modalities, tips for use, and future directions for virtual education as it pertains to plastic surgeons and trainees during the current coronavirus pandemic.

Astronomy’s climate emissions: Global travel to scientific meetings in 2019

“…Even though online meetings are capable of reducing the barriers we mentioned earlier, they are still perceived as less effective for networking and social opportunities (Doshi et al, 2014). Hence, to foster more collaboration and enable new connections, the emphasis should lie on active rather than passive participation, as well as asynchronous schedules to accomodate for different time zones (e.g., Neubauer et al, 2021;Counsell et al, 2020;Lisiecki et al, 2021;Wagner et al, 2023). An example for a successful recurring online meeting is 'Cosmology from Home', which has been implemented as a virtual conference in 2020 and never went back to the in-person format.…”