Discussion: View Thread

• The most obvious being that it is easier to attend a conference that is far away or at a non-ideal time due to a lack of travel required.
• Additionally, the overhead for virtual events is less, allowing lower prices.
• Another benefit of virtual events is the ability to have all questions and voices have an equal say (in chatboxes and such).
• If you don't find the lecture interesting you can always log off and find a lecture that does pique your interest.
• I think virtual networking can utilize face-to-face interaction to allow connections that would have never occurred. Perhaps an event where you "speed date" 4 or 5 other professionals for a quick one-on-one interaction then swap contact info after. 

• The most obvious being that it is easier to attend a conference that is far away or at a non-ideal time due to a lack of travel required.
• Additionally, the overhead for virtual events is less, allowing lower prices.
• Another benefit of virtual events is the ability to have all questions and voices have an equal say (in chatboxes and such).
• If you don't find the lecture interesting you can always log off and find a lecture that does pique your interest.
• I think virtual networking can utilize face-to-face interaction to allow connections that would have never occurred. Perhaps an event where you "speed date" 4 or 5 other professionals for a quick one-on-one interaction then swap contact info after. 

• There is a different level of connection possible when dealing with people in person. If attending a virtual conference, make sure video is possible for networking.
• You "get to" travel. (There is a con associated with this also.) I always enjoyed visiting other places.
• Less chance for technical issues. The virtual conferences are still often a little clumsy from a technical perspective.

• {cough, cough} (Spread of disease was already a concern before a pandemic. Now it's just a deal-breaker. I don't care whether there are official restrictions in place. I'm not going to a large gathering until COVID-19 is a distant memory I get to joke about with people.)
• Higher cost - the cost of the conference is almost always significantly higher for an in-person event, but there are also many ancillary costs like travel, food, pet care, etc.
• You *have to* travel. Even though I like being other places, getting there almost always stinks. Air travel is just not going to be the same for a while, and driving limits comfortable distances. Of course, I don't want to be in a space with strangers now anyway, so...
• Technical difficulties - these are largely avoidable with a little practice and planning, and a good service provider.

• Lower cost - while the cost may seem high for these conferences now, having been on the back end of two of them, I think generally they are very cheap. Plus, you don't have the costs associated with travel, so the reduced ticket/registration price is actually a greatly reduced overall price. It looks like the ASCE V-Tech conference is roughly $50/day. This is a great deal, generally. Any in-person conference I have ever attended was minimum $125/day, and as much as $250-300/day. There is still cost to organize and deliver a virtual conference. (Can't use the free versions of anything, and there's a lot of staff time.)
• No travel / You can attend from the comfort of wherever you are. This means so many different things to different people.
  • No risk of disease spread.
  • Eat your own food. This is lower cost, and much better for people with food allergies, preferences, dietary restrictions, etc. Try being gluten-free or vegan at a 3D conference. Then try that, with maybe 6 food allergies on top. Or try eating ethically! 98% of the time, not even the caterer knows where the food came from, apart from "the truck."
  • It doesn't disrupt your other routines or necessities. You can break for pet or child care. You don't have to hunt for a restroom. You get to sleep in your own bed.
• Recordings! One of the biggest problems with in-person events is choosing which sessions to attend. With virtual conferences, often recordings of ALL sessions are made available to attendees. Of course, this benefit assumes you have time to go back and watch later. :-)
• Can draw a much broader and/or larger attendance. A 3D conference in Australia is not an option for me, but I could attend online. A 3D conference in California would be an option, but a difficult one, but online it's easy. Between lower cost and greater geographic diversity, there is potential for a much greater attendance, and greater mix of people.

• Networking takes real thought and planning on the part of the organizers. I rarely see this executed well. There are relatively simple ways to do it, but often the platform a conference provider uses constrains them in other ways, and the networking piece is the one i consistently see fall short.
• Not everyone has good internet. This is still a very real problem in many areas. I live in a very rural area, and happen to be very lucky with 10 Mbps internet. There are plenty of people near me without broadband, or with very slow "broadband." If your internet is no good, your conference is no good.
• It can be harder to stay focused/engaged with a smaller screen and no actual people around, especially in the middle of the day for me.
  • Coffee, or a little brief intense cardio exercise to get the blood flowing, can help.

As a former undergraduate and graduate student, then faculty professor in the US and other countries and finally ocasional speaker in engineering conferences, I don´t believe that virtual events can replace the effect of face-to-face interactions and community sharing during actual conferences.

My opinion is not just related to the obvious convenience of technical and political networking during real events, but also to the importance of spontaneity in interacting with the speaker or presenter, and exchanging thoughts and opinions with colleges sharing the event, even during the presentations.

Also when I attend a conference, my mind is set in a way that allows me to concentrate in the event and all that comes with it, during the days it lasts. Instead, the attention to virtual events on the part of the attendee, is frequently shared with other issues that are normally going on at the remote location (home, office, special facility, etc.) from where the attendee is connected.

I acknowledge that virtual events can be accommodated to a more convenient time during the day, and that the costs of transportation, room and board are avoided, but we engineers are often deprived from expressing opinions at home, so taking a trip to attend a conference is something we normally look forward to, just for the joy of having an opportunity to talk, discuss and being listened to by our peers.

As a former undergraduate and graduate student, then faculty professor in the US and other countries and finally ocasional speaker in engineering conferences, I don´t believe that virtual events can replace the effect of face-to-face interactions and community sharing during actual conferences.

My opinion is not just related to the obvious convenience of technical and political networking during real events, but also to the importance of spontaneity in interacting with the speaker or presenter, and exchanging thoughts and opinions with colleges sharing the event, even during the presentations.

Also when I attend a conference, my mind is set in a way that allows me to concentrate in the event and all that comes with it, during the days it lasts. Instead, the attention to virtual events on the part of the attendee, is frequently shared with other issues that are normally going on at the remote location (home, office, special facility, etc.) from where the attendee is connected.

I acknowledge that virtual events can be accommodated to a more convenient time during the day, and that the costs of transportation, room and board are avoided, but we engineers are often deprived from expressing opinions at home, so taking a trip to attend a conference is something we normally look forward to, just for the joy of having an opportunity to talk, discuss and being listened to by our peers.

As a former undergraduate and graduate student, then faculty professor in the US and other countries and finally ocasional speaker in engineering conferences, I don´t believe that virtual events can replace the effect of face-to-face interactions and community sharing during actual conferences.

My opinion is not just related to the obvious convenience of technical and political networking during real events, but also to the importance of spontaneity in interacting with the speaker or presenter, and exchanging thoughts and opinions with colleges sharing the event, even during the presentations.

Also when I attend a conference, my mind is set in a way that allows me to concentrate in the event and all that comes with it, during the days it lasts. Instead, the attention to virtual events on the part of the attendee, is frequently shared with other issues that are normally going on at the remote location (home, office, special facility, etc.) from where the attendee is connected.

I acknowledge that virtual events can be accommodated to a more convenient time during the day, and that the costs of transportation, room and board are avoided, but we engineers are often deprived from expressing opinions at home, so taking a trip to attend a conference is something we normally look forward to, just for the joy of having an opportunity to talk, discuss and being listened to by our peers.