Cornell Jessica, Taj Ariana, Sivinski John, Yin Margaret, Bhatia Parth, Oula Desai, Fatschel Sophia, Franklin Patricia, Noel Jason, Colloca Luana, Seneviratne Chamindi
Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States.
Department of Pain and Translational Symptom Science, University of Maryland School of Nursing, Baltimore, MD, United States.
Front Commun (Lausanne). 2022;7. doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2022.857661. Epub 2022 Aug 18.
The Society of Interdisciplinary Placebo Studies (SIPS) was one of many organizations that hosted a virtual scientific conference in response to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Retaining essential benefits of an in-person conference experience was a primary objective for the SIPS conference planning committee and guided the selection of a virtual platform on which to host the 2021 meeting. This article reports on the methods used to design and analyze an engaging, virtual scientific conference, along with the findings and implications for future meetings.
Participant use of and interaction with different features of the conference platform were recorded and exported for analysis. Additionally, all SIPS conference attendees were invited to complete a brief, online post-conference survey that inquired about their perceptions of the SIPS conference specifically as well as their opinions of virtual and hybrid conferences in general. Using these data, we assessed (1) attendance patterns, (2) level of engagement, and (3) attendee satisfaction.
The platform recorded 438 unique, active conference attendees who used either a mobile app, web browser, or both to participate during the 3-day program. Seventy-four percent ( = 324) of active users attended all 3 days with 30 and 26 new attendees on Days 2 and 3, respectively. The feature offered on the platform was the most utilized function within the online forum. Attendance in the parallel workshop sessions remained constant across the 3 days, with an average of 44.6% (SD = 6.77) of people moving between workshops within a single session. The two poster sessions had an average of 47.6 (SD = 17.97) and 27.8 (SD = 10.24) unique views per poster, respectively. Eleven percent ( = 48) of attendees completed the post-conference survey. Thirty-six percent of these responders stated they were only able to attend because the conference was offered virtually. Further, the quality of the conference had an average satisfaction rating of 68.08 out of 100 (SD = 22.94).
Results of data analyses suggest the virtual platform allowed for those who were unable to attend to join virtually, produced moderate engagement throughout the conference, and that the majority of attendees were satisfied with the quality of the fully-virtual conference. Therefore, incorporating virtual aspects in future in-person conferences could enhance conference experience and participation.
跨学科安慰剂研究协会（SIPS）是众多因应新冠疫情限制而举办虚拟科学会议的组织之一。保留面对面会议体验的基本优势是SIPS会议策划委员会的主要目标，并指导了2021年会议虚拟平台的选择。本文报告了设计和分析一场引人入胜的虚拟科学会议所采用的方法，以及研究结果和对未来会议的启示。
记录并导出会议平台不同功能的参与者使用情况和互动情况以进行分析。此外，邀请所有SIPS会议参与者完成一份简短的在线会后调查，询问他们对SIPS会议的具体看法以及对虚拟会议和混合会议的总体意见。利用这些数据，我们评估了（1）参会模式，（2）参与程度，以及（3）参会者满意度。
该平台记录了438名独特的活跃会议参与者，他们在为期3天的会议期间使用移动应用程序、网络浏览器或两者兼用来参与会议。74%（n = 324）的活跃用户参加了全部3天的会议，第2天和第3天分别有30名和26名新参与者。平台上提供的[具体功能]是在线论坛中使用最多的功能。并行研讨会的参会人数在3天内保持稳定，平均有44.6%（标准差 = 6.77）的人在单个会议期间在不同研讨会之间流动。两场海报展示会每张海报的平均独特浏览量分别为47.6（标准差 = 17.97）和27.8（标准差 = 10.24）。11%（n = 48）的参会者完成了会后调查。这些受访者中有36%表示他们之所以能够参加是因为会议采用了虚拟形式。此外，会议质量的平均满意度评分为68.08（满分100分，标准差 = 22.94）。
数据分析结果表明，虚拟平台使无法亲自参会的人能够在线参与，在整个会议期间产生了适度的参与度，并且大多数参会者对全虚拟会议的质量感到满意。因此，在未来的面对面会议中融入虚拟元素可以提升会议体验和参与度。
