Transforming Conferences to an Online Format: Framework and Practices

Abstract

End of March 2020 Statista reported on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on formats of conferences, where only 35% of selected conferences moved to an online format, whereas 32% were either cancelled or postponed [1]. As conferences of any type aim at networking and knowledge exchange, cancellation or postponement of such events harm a collaboration among possible conference participants. An online format of conferences is not a new sensation but due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions this becomes an emerging trend and must-have element in academia. Thus, in this paper best practices and success factors on online conferences development will be considered, based on which an agile framework of conference transformation will be proposed. The framework was further tested on two conferences organized by a German Higher Education Institution and a Chapter of the IEEE Society, and validated through surveys. Currently this framework is continuously used by the authors. Based on a positive feedback from last conferences, the framework could be further adopted by conference organisers, who may lack experience and resources in online events organisation.