The Multi-hub Academic Conference: Global, Inclusive, Culturally Diverse, Creative, Sustainable

Abstract

New conference formats are emerging in response to COVID-19 and climate change. Virtual conferences are sustainable and inclusive regardless of participant mobility (financial means, caring commitments, disability), but lack face-to-face contact. Hybrid conferences (physical meetings with additional virtual presentations) tend to discriminate against non-fliers and encourage unsustainable flying. Multi-hub conferences mix real and virtual interactions during talks and social breaks and are distributed across nominally equal hubs. We propose a global multi-hub solution in which all hubs interact daily in real time with all other hubs in parallel sessions by internet videoconferencing. Conference sessions are confined to three equally-spaced 4-h UTC timeslots. Local programs comprise morning and afternoon/evening sessions (recordings from night sessions can be watched later). Three reference hubs are located exactly 8 h apart; additional hubs are within 2 h and their programs are aligned with the closest reference hub. The conference experience at each hub depends on the number of local participants and the time difference to the nearest reference. Participants are motivated to travel to the nearest hub. Mobility-based discrimination is minimized. Lower costs facilitate diversity, equity, and inclusion. Academic quality, creativity, enjoyment, and low-carbon sustainability are simultaneously promoted.

Virtual conference participant’s perceptions of its effectiveness and future projections

“…In this regard, a ‘blended conference’ format can be a solution, where a mix of face-to-face and online formats to support both those attending on-site and those participating at a distance [ 14 ], to meet the needs for social interactions among attendees. Alternative formats for a blended conference have been suggested, such as one hub and node, multi-hub and node, and multilateral hub and node [ 15 , 16 ]. Additionally, the technological development facilitates computer role-playing game-type virtual physical environments with video-conferencing [ 17 ].…”

Flying High in Academia—Willingness of University Staff to Perform Low-Carbon Behavior Change in Business Travel

“…Therefore, action at the institutional level is also called for. For example, in order to help university staff overcome structural barriers, universities need to adapt their travel policies in favor of and to incentivize green travel (Wynes and Donner, 2018;Whitmarsh et al, 2020), and scientific communities should consider virtual or hybrid conference settings (Klöwer et al, 2020;Parncutt et al, 2021;Sarabipour et al, 2021).…”

The future of conferences

“…These bring people together in-person while limiting long-distance travel by organising into a number of hubs, linked together through streaming technologies. Such multihub conferences have already proved successful in other fields (Parncutt et al, 2021). This model could work particularly well for fields such as developmental biology, where many countries already have thriving national societies or regional meetings that could form local hubs within international spatially distributed conferences.…”

“…One particularly promising experimental approach is represented by 'spatially distributed' international conferences (Abbott, 2020;Parncutt et al, 2021). These bring people together in-person while limiting long-distance travel by organising into a number of hubs, linked together through streaming technologies.…”

“…This, in some ways, gives us the best of both worlds, but also shares some of the same problems as fully remote conferences. Hybrid meetings create an additional risk that remote attendees may feel like second-class citizens (Parncutt et al, 2021). Getting the balance right between in-person and online also creates uncertainty for organisers: will there be enough in-person attendees for the meeting to work successfully?…”