Is digital partnering a viable alternative to attending conferences? Will it stay with us post-pandemic?

Due to the current situation, most conference organisers have found themselves confronted with a dilemma, to either cancel their events or postpone them… until they came with the clever idea to turn them into a digital partnering platform.

I have now attended two conferences this way, Bio Europe and BioTrinity London. From the outset, I should say that both are technically viable, with a few glitches here and there; some improvements are to be thought through.

So here you are, launching yourself on the treadmill, and every 20 or 30 minutes you have a new partner staring at you on the screen. 

Everyone has of course an interest to partner, and during the pandemic, all of us want to get going, keep working… no matter what. There is a great community of spirit, a sense of belonging. We all end up helping each other. This is the upside of the system, possibly due to the global situation we all have found ourselves in. 

Would this still be the case if we had the possibility to be either physically there at the conference? 

The main question however, is whether this is a conference or not. And clearly it isn’t. At best, it is an efficient speed dating system, set up to alleviate the financial pressure of cancelling the events altogether, and the desire to offer the best possible solution to customers. I get it and I fully support the initiative.

It doesn’t however, in any shape or form replace the social interactions of the conferences, the lectures and the conversations around interesting scientific posters, the random bumping into an old acquaintance or the keen introduction from a friend - all this often leading to new business and increasing one’s network. 

Conferences are the place to partner in an organised and scheduled way of course, yet they are also the place to interact socially on a larger scale, internationally; something the digital platform doesn’t allow. Conferences are tiring, yet exhilarating. The sky is the limit!

This unprecedented crisis has proven that we can efficiently partner through a digital platform, saving time, money and some tiredness through less traveling. I would however argue that speed dating is also exhausting. The format makes it rather relentless as one stays still, glued to the computer for hours.

This crisis has also demonstrated that after two months of confinement, all we aspire to is to meet up, see people, have an informal drink, exchange news casually, which is exactly the environment conferences mostly provide us with.

So hopefully, let’s meet up at the next conference we can physically attend!