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Learning from the Lockdown: The Silver

Linings of a Virtual Conference

Lydia R. Bailey, Samantha E. Portnoy, and Alexander B. Prescott*, Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
85721, USA

BACKGROUND urgency to maintain the annual tradition
Due to COVID-19, scientists and students despite being met with initial hesitation and
alike moved from hallway discussions and concern about moving GeoDaze to an entirely
group debates to working in isolation and par- virtual format for the first time in history.
ticipating in online classes. Academic and
professional communities around the world VIRTUAL CONFERENCE FORMAT
have experienced significant cancellations of Considering that participants were uncer-
critical in-person events, including a number tain about the new format, it was apparent that
of scientific meetings. The University of the website needed to be executed in a way
Arizona Department of Geosciences 48th that conveyed professionalism and reassured Figure 1. Formatting and design of the GeoDaze
annual conference, GeoDaze, was no excep- both participants and attendees that the vir- 2020 website home page.
tion. GeoDaze was originally scheduled for tual experience could be equally as effective Presentations were organized by type on
April 2020, but all in-person university events as a traditional conference. In order to achieve two separate webpages, titled Posters and
were cancelled a few weeks prior. As organiz- this goal, we enlisted a GeoDaze committee Talks. All talks and oral poster explanations
ers of the conference, we were initially devas- member with a background in both geosci- were prerecorded using Panopto, an online
tated that we would not see all of our hard ences and graphic design. This integration of video platform often used in e-learning envi-
work come to fruition this year. Within a few multidisciplinary skills was a critical compo- ronments for managing and recording lec-
days of the cancellation, our heartbreak tran- nent lending to the success of the virtual tures. Each poster or talk session was accom-
sitioned to problem solving as we decided to conference. The culminating product, the panied by a live one-hour question-and-answer
redevelop the conference into an innovative GeoDaze 2020 website, was visually engag- session hosted through Video Webinars, a
virtual event. Surprisingly, there were several ing and well organized (Fig. 1). feature of the teleconferencing software,
silver linings in the online conference that The site was built using SquareSpace, a Zoom. These live forums were formatted so
enhanced the event for attendees. As GeoDaze website development platform, and CSS cod- that attendees could pose questions for indi-
concluded, we wondered: What can we learn ing for customization. Conference attendees vidual presenters during moderated time, fol-
from the unprecedented pandemic lockdown were able to easily navigate from the website lowed by a general discussion. Live sessions
to enhance scientific meeting experiences? home page, which served as a welcome plat- were not recorded, and presentations were
Here we outline the benefits of transitioning a form with site navigation information and only available for the duration of the confer-
conference to an entirely virtual format, and sponsor acknowledgments, to pages contain- ence out of respect for unpublished research.
we argue that some elements of online meet- ing detailed conference information and sci- To conclude the conference, an awards cere-
ings are worth incorporating into a post– entific content. Traditional conference fea- mony was held through Zoom, paralleling the
COVID-19 world. tures, such as a welcome address, program, traditional GeoDaze experience. Although
GeoDaze is an annual university event and conference schedule were available on the unexpected, the virtual GeoDaze conference
inaugurated in 1972 that provides graduate About page or in the linked Program, situated highlighted several benefits that align with
and undergraduate students with the opportu- in the site navigation as a downloadable PDF. the American Geosciences Institute objec-
nity to present their latest geoscience research Although attendees could browse conference tives, components of which are easily inte-
to the community. The entirely student-run content at their own pace, the Program grable with future in-person conferences
conference draws in university alumni and offered a suggested schedule to follow if the (American Geosciences Institute, 2015).
geoscientists from industry, government, and attendee wished to have a more traditional
academia. The ability for students to interact conference experience. In addition to these ACCESSIBILITY
with professionals provides opportunities for features, a conference Store was created to One of the major takeaways from this
career and academic growth through collabo- enable e-commerce transactions for confer- experience is the impact the virtual confer-
ration and guidance. This event often serves ence merchandise, a key fundraising effort ence format had on accessibility, which also
as the first opportunity for students to pub- that normally takes place during traditional lends to overall inclusivity. Panopto allows
licly present research, so there was a sense of GeoDaze conferences. users to prerecord, manage, and edit their

GSA Today, v. 30, https://doi.org/10.1130/GSATG468GW.1. Copyright 2020, The Geological Society of America. CC-BY-NC.

*Corresponding author, alexprescott@email.arizona.edu.

44 GSA Today | September 2020