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Website visits by day
483 Visits by device type Visits by continent
432 Tablet
388
Mobile
280
218
61
Desktop 1765
Figure 2. The virtual
51 format made the world
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri a smaller place, bring-
Talk views by day Popular content ing people together
from opposite ends of
381 Store 13 the globe to discuss
About science.
289 295
237 Home page 8
209 Live Q&A
Posters
Talks
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
presentations, and recordings can be made career professionals often lack the financial developing a virtual conference. Given the
available to a public audience or solely to resources to attend conferences, which can positive takeaways outlined here, we believe
those given access. The aspect of this tech- inhibit career and academic advancement, that future in-person conferences could bene-
nology that contributes the most to accessi- but virtual formatting alleviates this issue. fit from incorporating elements of virtual
bility is the use of disability access features, Under the traditional conference format, conferences, like ours, into the traditional for-
such as video captioning and screen reader attendees must adhere to the conference mat. With this suggestion, consider these key
support, which enhance engagement of schedule in order to participate. The virtual takeaways:
viewers with visual or auditory impairments. format allowed for asynchronous viewing of 1. Virtual recording software, such as
Many lines of evidence suggest that video presentations; attendees were able to access Panopto, offers disability features that
captioning also improves retention of video and view prerecorded presentations at their increase accessibility for both presenters
content and viewer attentiveness for all own convenience and pace during the week and viewers, an option that often does
(Gernsbacher, 2015). The additional function that the website was live. This flexibility led not exist for traditional conferences.
of variable speed playback can improve to noticeably increased engagement during 2. The asynchronous and virtual viewing for-
viewing for everyone, especially those with interactive sessions, likely because viewers mat of our conference encouraged geo-
learning deficits, as it allows viewers to slow could rewatch particularly complex presenta- graphic viewer diversity, indicating that
down or speed up recordings. These fea- tions, improving comprehension, and they this format allows for increased accessibil-
tures, which were utilized during our virtual had time to postulate questions for the pre- ity and inclusivity.
conference, are typically not available dur- senters. The use of a video conferencing plat- 3. The combination of accessibility features
ing in-person events, ultimately emphasizing form gave attendees the option to ask ques- and self-paced conference attendance
the impact of virtually formatted scientific tions vocally or to type questions in the Chat allows for better comprehension of scien-
conferencing on accessibility. or Q&A software features. In our experience, tific information, which can stimulate
this provided an environment that encouraged
INCLUSIVITY questions from all participants, including engagement during live session discus-
The virtual format of GeoDaze made the those who would normally feel too intimi- sions, ultimately leading to increased sci-
conference available to people around the dated or embarrassed to ask in person. entific advancement.
globe, compared to the normal in-person Although virtual interactions may not provide 4. This virtual conference serves as an exam-
crowd of local attendees. Over the past five the same social gratification as face-to-face ple of how integrative collaboration of
years, GeoDaze has averaged 130 registered conversations, we found that the virtual Q&A visual arts and science can produce innova-
attendees per year. This year the GeoDaze sessions provoked interesting, and sometimes tive means for conveying scientific infor-
website had more than 1,300 unique visitors extensive, discussions that the traditional mation that are highly effective due to the
(a statistical count of non-repetitive website three-minute post-talk timeframe sometimes effects of enhanced visual literacy.
viewers). The Talks and Posters pages had fails to encourage. On top of all of the afore-
more than 800 and 700 unique visitors, mentioned benefits for inclusivity, virtual REFERENCES CITED
respectively. Website statistics recorded conference formatting also addresses the American Geosciences Institute, 2015, Disability
Consensus Statement: https://www.american
visitors from five continents (Fig. 2), pro- growing concern for scientific meetings to geosciences .org/community/disability-consensus
viding for a much more geographically reduce their carbon footprint. -statement (accessed May 2020).
diverse audience than those of prior confer- Gernsbacher, M.A., 2015, Video captions benefit
ences. Additionally, website organization, FUTURE INTEGRATION everyone: Policy Insights from the Behavioral and
formatting, and design all made it possible GeoDaze was one of many events around Brain Sciences, v. 2, p. 195–202, https://doi.org/
for people to access the conference on any the globe that was disrupted by COVID-19. 10.1177/2372732215602130.
device, which was ultimately beneficial The goal of this piece was to highlight the Manuscript received 4 June 2020
considering that 27% of attendees tuned in fortuitous silver linings that came out of our revised Manuscript received 8 July 2020
on their mobile devices. Students and early means of adapting to the circumstances by Manuscript accepted 12 July 2020
www.geosociety.org/gsatoday 45