Lessons of COVID-19: Virtual conferences

Abstract

COVID-19 abruptly halted scientific conferences and seminars in mid-March, forcing the scientific community to either postpone or adapt to a virtual format. We caught up with Carla V. Rothlin, Elina I. Zúñiga, Hongbo Chi, Rino Rappuoli, and Matthew Krummel to find out about the pros and cons of virtual conferences and seminars and how these could change the nature of scientific conferences. Carla (CVR) and Elina (EIZ) established Global ImmunoTalks in April this year; Hongbo (HC) helped organize the Immunometabolism Mini-Symposia series in May and June; Rino (RR) was one of the scientific organizers of the Transforming Vaccinology Keystone, which moved to a virtual format in June; and Matthew (MK) has been organizing Eco Seminars at the University of California, San Francisco since 2019.

Top row: Carla V. Rothlin, Matthew Krummel, and Elina I. Zúñiga. Bottom row: Hongbo Chi and Rino Rappuoli.