Abstract
Conferences disseminate research, grow professional networks and train employees. Unfortunately, they also contribute to climate change and present barriers to achieving a socially sustainable work environment. Here, we analyse the recent impact of transforming in-person conferences into virtual conferences on improving diversity, equity and inclusion in science and engineering conferences. Factors including cost, gender, career stage and geographic location were evaluated. Virtual conferences demonstrated a clearly discernable and, in some cases, orders of magnitude improvement across nearly all metrics. On the basis of participant survey results, this improvement may be attributed to a combination of reduced financial and personal-life burdens. However, despite this clear impact, further development of virtual networking features and poster sessions is necessary to achieve widespread adoption and acceptance of this new format.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 149-156 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Nature Sustainability |
Volume | 5 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs |
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State | Published - Feb 2022 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Global and Planetary Change
- Food Science
- Geography, Planning and Development
- Ecology
- Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
- Urban Studies
- Nature and Landscape Conservation
- Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law