Within scientific discourse, conferences and workshops are held up as beacons of collaboration and innovation.
Yet, beneath the surface, many in our scientific community have experiences that differ from the ideal.
Introverts may struggle to connect with strangers and spend the time alone pretending to be engrossed in their phones. Neurominorities may be overwhelmed by the sounds, lights, or crowded environments. People who don’t know all scientific terminology or acronyms can feel left out.
Scientific meetings often suffer from these issues:
-- Information Overload: The deluge of data often dilutes meaningful takeaways. Listeners don’t have time to process how the information might be useful in their own context.
-- Relentless pace: Conferences can also be packed with back-to-back concurrent sessions, poster sessions and plenary sessions which mirror our often-hectic professional lives. This makes it hard to have spontaneous conversations.
-- Crowded sessions: Conference sessions can be so skewed toward one-to-many presentations (emphasis on “many”) with limited time for questions, that the opportunity for meaningful dialogue dwindles. Participants, sitting in rows, may struggle to find space for genuine engagement among the crowd.
-- Predominance of established authorities: Often, conferences replicate a familiar hierarchy, spotlighting the same constellation of influencers. This sidelines minority perspectives who are the source of innovation.
How do we improve science conferences?
Let's explore these concerns with a mindset geared towards iterative improvement.
What if we....
...prioritized clarity and conciseness in our communications, ensuring our messages not only reach but resonate with our audience?
...integrated intentional pauses and conversations to allow room for valuable connections that might otherwise never occur?
...encouraged smaller, more interactive formats to enhance the depth of our exchanges?
...fostered a richer, more diverse scientific dialogue by encouraging every attendee to truly participate?
To create truly collaborative science conferences that move both research and policy forward significantly, here are five things meeting planners can do:
Stay closely aligned to the purpose of the meeting.
Deliberately include more time for personal conversations and connection.
Encourage shorter talks that have clear takeaways.
Find ways for scientists to contribute other than by doing presentations.
Choose activities that invite everyone to actively shape the outcome of the meeting.
This blog post will address the first point, staying aligned with purpose. Future blog posts will address the other four points.
Anchor in Purpose
In the core of every scientific meeting lies a powerfully simple concept – purpose. It may not be stated explicitly, but it's what guides us, shapes our discussions, and drives forward both groundbreaking research and science-based policy. Why are we all gathering, at great expense, really?
But how do we harness purpose when planning a meeting around an important scientific topic? The first step is to not plan anything (such as the agenda) until the purpose of the meeting is clearly articulated.
For example, the purpose may be to raise awareness about a topic, to explore research needs, to bridge policy gaps, to foster collaborations, to attract funding, to make decisions, to offer field experiences, or to do several or all of these.
Each objective will influence the eventual agenda significantly. Your chosen purpose(s) will determine how you structure the meeting, who and how many will speak and how long they speak, who and how many you invite to attend, what other things you will do, how much room you need and how to lay out the space.
For each planning decision, from the choice of speakers to the design of sessions, you must answer one critical question: “How well does this decision support our main objectives?” The converse question, “Will this decision detract from other objectives?” also applies
When your purpose is clear, and you have fleshed out your plan for how to accomplish it, THEN you can create the agenda, which is the part of the plan you choose to share with the meeting participants.
For more on planning meetings, read Brush Up on Your Meeting Preparation, and What’s Essential for an Agenda?
Future blogs will address practical things planners of scientific conferences can to that will invite people to engage and contribute to the outcome of the meeting. Stay tuned!
Photo credit: Kato on Canva Pro
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