Running a scientific conference during pandemic times

May 4, 2022

The paper “Running a scientific conference during pandemic times” was recently published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society by authors René Garreaud (Departamento de Geofísica, Universidad de Chile), M. Ralph and A Wilson, (CW3E), A.M. Ramos (Instituto Dom Luiz, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa), J. Eiras-Barca (Universidade de Vigo), H. Steen-Larsen (University of Bergen), J.Rutz (NWS Western Region), C. Albano (Desert Research Institute), N. Tilinina (Shirshov Institute of Oceanology), M. Warner (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers), M. Viale (Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales), R. Rondanelli (Departamento de Geofísica, Universidad de Chile, Center for Climate and Resilience Research), J. McPhee (Departamento de Ingeniería Civil, Universidad de Chile), R.Valenzuela (CW3E, Universidad de O’Higgins) and I. Gorodetskaya (Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, Department of Physics, University of Aveiro). The paper contributes to the goals of CW3E’s 2019-2024 Strategic Plan to support Atmospheric River (AR) Research and Applications and Emerging Technologies by sharing insights from the 2020 Virtual International AR Symposium on running effective scientific events virtually during the pandemic.

Number of 2020 IARC participants by country.

This publication provides an overview of the 2020 IARC Virtual Symposium, the challenges faced in hosting an event during the pandemic, and the lessons learned in running virtual events. IARC, a bi-annual convening first hosted in 2016, aims to create, sustain, and bring together the rapidly growing community of experts on ARs, connect different disciplines and stakeholders, link scientists to practitioners, users and decision makers, establish international cross-disciplinary collaboration, train the next generation of scientists, and advance the state of AR science.

Originally scheduled for the first week of October 2020 at the Universidad de Chile campus in Santiago, Chile, the 2020 IARC, as with most events across the world, faced significant obstacles in the ability to convene due to COVID-19, and ultimately was hosted as a virtual event. As summarized in Garreaud et al., holding the 2020 IARC Virtual Symposium posed many challenges logistically in terms of planning, organization, technology, and structure of the event. However, despite these challenges, the symposium virtually brought together over one hundred international, cross-disciplinary and diverse AR researchers, providing a valuable opportunity to the research community to convene and share important scientific advancements (Figure). The paper outlines the many lessons learnt and outcomes from the 2020 IARC Virtual Symposium, including logistical lessons in structuring a virtual event, presentation organization, and virtual participant interaction.

This work highlights the important implications from the 2020 IARC, providing a resource for planning effective and successful virtual events and continuing the advancement of scientific research during pandemic times.

Garreaud, R., Ralph, M., Wilson, A., Ramos, A.M., Eiras-Barca, J., Steen-Larsen, H., Rutz, J., Albano, C., Tilinina, N., Warner, M., Viale, M., Rondanelli, R., McPhee, J., Valenzuela, R., & Gorodetskaya, I. (2022). Running a scientific conference during pandemic times, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, (published online ahead of print 2022). https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/bams/aop/BAMS-D-22-0023.1/BAMS-D-22-0023.1.xml.