Retrospective of a virtual experience: ESA 2020 Annual Meeting

Authors: Simmons, Alvin; CHONG, JUANG-HORNG - Clemson University; Pitts Singer, Theresa

Submitted to: American Entomologist
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/15/2021
Publication Date: 12/9/2021
Citation: Simmons, A.M., Chong, J., Pitts Singer, T. 2021. Retrospective of a virtual experience: ESA 2020 Annual Meeting. American Entomologist. 67(4):57–64. https://doi.org/10.1093/ae/tmab053.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ae/tmab053

Interpretive Summary: Many in-person scientific meetings were canceled or postponed with the arrival of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Other scientific in-person meetings converted to a virtual meeting format. This paper provides a look at the challenges and opportunities experienced by the organizers and attendees of the Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America when the 2020 meeting was switched from an in-person to a fully virtual meeting. The authors reflect on lessons learned, feedback from some of the participants, and statistics associated with this event. The meeting provided live presentations on different channels at the same time as well as on-demand recorded presentations and social interactions that focused on "Entomology for All" -- the meeting theme. This was the largest gathering of Entomologists in a virtual format (over 3,000 participants from 52 countries attended). Information in the paper is useful for the scientific community in the future when there may be a need to change a large in-person meeting to a successful interactive virtual meeting for all who wish to attend. Information in this paper provides a record of how challenges were met and will be a useful resource when the the scientific community faces similar obstacles in the future.

Technical Abstract: Due to the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic, many in-person scientific meetings were canceled or postponed. Other scientific in-person meetings converted to a virtual meeting format. This paper provides a retrospective of the challenges and opportunities experienced by the organizers and attendees of the Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America when the 2020 meeting was switched from an in-person to a fully virtual meeting. The authors reflect on lessons learned (positives and negatives), feedback from some of the participants, and statistics associated with this event. The meeting program provided live presentations on multiple channels as well as on-demand recorded presentations and social interactions that focused on the meeting theme "Entomology for All". The meeting resulted in the largest gathering of Entomologists in a virtual format (over 3,000 participants from 52 countries attended), and over 2,300 paper presentations. Information in this paper provides a record of how challenges were met and will be a useful resource when the the scientific community faces similar obstacles in the future.