Abstract
The past 12 months have been an ‘interesting’ time to be in the role of LASA Chair of the Scientific Programme. Emotions ran as something of a rollercoaster ride whilst dealing with the initial uncertainty and understandable personal health concerns associated with the pandemic and at the same time getting used to different working environments, patterns and the impact technology has had on everyone’s communication. Planned LASA workshops in 2020 were either cancelled until ‘further notice’, or those that were initially planned for hotel venues in London had their dates rescheduled several times throughout the year, until the decision was made to hold these online during 2021.
At first the prospect of switching to a purely online virtual meeting delivery for LASA and coordinating this appeared daunting. For example, some aspects of the LASA annual conference experience are impossible to reproduce via an online meeting – in particular, the opportunities that a real-world event provides to catch up with old friends. However, the different format does offer potential advantages in terms of bringing in a wider range of speakers for the scientific lectures and reaching members of the LASA community who may not ordinarily have the opportunity to travel to a meeting or conference.
To Zoom or not to Zoom?
In July 2020, LASA Council approved an annual subscription to a Zoom Pro account, with a view to developing the use of this type of delivery option by LASA Section Convenors for their planned workshops during 2021. The Care and Welfare Section held a virtual coffee-morning meeting using LASA’s Zoom account on Friday 4 December 2020 on the topic of emotional resilience during the coronavirus pandemic and included small breakout discussion groups, resulting in good feedback for LASA’s first use of this format. LASA also circulated a CPD questionnaire to all members during November to gather essential feedback on preferred format, duration and timing of virtual meetings being planned as CPD and training opportunities for LASA in the coming years.
Virtual event platform considerations
Workshop attendees and organisers are currently adopting a ‘suck it and see’ approach to the ‘new normality’: how well can the virtues of in-person workshops and conferences – the ability to run into colleagues spontaneously, identify future research collaborators and socialise with one’s peers – be replicated online?
Virtual events are totally dependent on technical platforms that enable, for example, video streaming and online discussions. With each platform comes new opportunities for engagement, but they all have some serious limitations as well. Each service provider will try to steer the overall design in a way that suits their platform – LASA is currently exploring different technical platform options and obtaining quotations for the online November 2021 LASA annual conference. We will be seeking a company with considerable experience in providing a robust virtual events platform.
Creating the best online meeting environment
A sense of togetherness is necessary to create that memorable place where people dare think outside the box and truly speak their mind. At a physical workshop, participants need only to look around the room to sense this togetherness. To make participation worth their while, organisers must make content appealing. In the case of virtual events where the opportunity for networking is limited, content is truly the key influence that will convince participants to register. Even though it may go against the nature of digital sharing, LASA may consider making some content exclusively available live and not on demand afterwards.
Networking and contact time
There is no way around the fact that virtual CPD events will not offer the same opportunities for building personal relationships and networking as physical events do. This is one of the biggest drawbacks to the format. Virtual events can easily lose one of the best benefits of live events: human connection. To mitigate that, we hope to keep LASA events engaging and get the audience involved by using interactive polling, group discussion work (e.g. breakout rooms) and collaboration ‘thought gathering’ boards (e.g. Jamboard, Padlet). LASA is also investigating technology developed to create online space where delegates can connect with each other in a more spontaneous and social way.
Closing remarks
Being online means that we avoid problems associated with venue hire, travel and accommodation costs, and we can be bolder about who we invite to present. The LASA Animal Science (Transgenic) Section have admirably demonstrated this during the planning of their workshop in April 2021, with expert speakers joining the event from North America and Japan. This will pave the way for us to make use of these new connections in future years. There is also the prospect of being able to offer CPD to the biomedical community in countries beyond Europe, for whom the costs of attending a UK conference would be prohibitive. It is one of LASA’s missions to provide high quality and relevant CPD for as many members of our profession as we can, wherever they may be. Online conferences will make that easier for us to achieve.
To conclude, the challenge of planning virtual events puts a lot of ‘behind the scenes’ work on the shoulders of organisers and LASA Section convenors. Going virtual will certainly help everyone reach their own CO2-emmision goals already this year, but LASA is prepared to treat the first year of online meetings as a learning experience for everybody involved. The full benefits may not come until further down the line. Several reports and publications have indicated that the future will no doubt trend towards more virtual interactions.
We look forward to an excellent year of LASA virtual meetings during 2021 – remember to save 9 September 2021 (13:00h–16:00h GMT) in your diaries for the LASA 3Rs Section virtual workshop Enrichment and Science: A match made in Heaven”. Check the meetings section of the LASA website for more details of speakers and to register on line: https://www.lasa.co.uk/lasameetings/