Voices of conference attendees: how should future hybrid conferences be designed?

BACKGROUND: With conference attendees having expressed preference for hybrid meeting formats (containing both in-person and virtual components), organisers are challenged to find the best combination of events for academic meetings. Better understanding what attendees prioritise in a hybrid conference should allow better planning and need fulfilment. METHODS: An online survey with closed and open-ended questions was distributed to registrants of an international virtual conference. Responses were then submitted to descriptive statistical analysis and directed content analysis. RESULTS: 823 surveys (Response Rate = 4.9%) were received. Of the 813 who expressed a preference, 56.9% (N = 463) desired hybrid conference formats in the future, 32.0% (N = 260) preferred in-person conferences and 11.1% (N = 90) preferred virtual conferences. Presuming a hybrid meeting could be adopted, 67.4% (461/684) preferred that virtual sessions take place both during the in-person conference and be spread throughout the year. To optimise in-person components of hybrid conferences, recommendations received from 503 respondents included: prioritising clinical skills sessions (26.2%, N = 132), live international expert presentations and discussions (15.7%, N = 79) and interaction between delegates (13.5%, N = 68). To optimise virtual components, recommendations received from 486 respondents included: prioritising a live streaming platform with international experts' presentations and discussions (24.3%, N = 118), clinical case discussions (19.8%, N = 96) and clinical update sessions (10.1%, N = 49). CONCLUSIONS: Attendees envision hybrid conferences in which organisers can enable the vital interaction between individuals during an in-person component (e.g., networking, viewing and improving clinical skills) while accessing virtual content at their convenience (e.g., online expert presentations with latest advancements, clinical case discussions and debates). Having accessible virtual sessions throughout the year, as well as live streaming during the in-person component of hybrid conferences, allows for opportunity to prolong learning beyond the conference days.

Cliques within the crowd: identifying medical conference attendee subgroups by their motivations for participation.

Conferences enable rapid information sharing and networking that are vital to career development within academic communities. Addressing diverse attendee needs is challenging and getting it wrong wastes resources and dampens enthusiasm for the field. This study explores whether, and how, motivations for attendance can be grouped in relation to preferences to offer guidance to organizers and attendees. A pragmatic constructivist case study approach using mixed methods was adopted. Semi-structured interviews completed with key informants underwent thematic analysis. Survey results outlining attendees' perspectives underwent cluster and factor analysis. Stakeholder interviews (n = 13) suggested attendees could be grouped by motivations predictable from level of specialisation in a field and past engagement with conferences. From n = 1229 returned questionnaires, motivations were clustered into three factors: learning, personal and social. Three groups of attendees were identified. Group 1 (n = 500; 40.7%) was motivated by all factors. Group 2 (n = 345; 28.1%) was mainly motivated by the learning factor. Group 3 (n = 188; 15.3%) scored the social factor highest for in-person conferences and the learning factor highest for virtual meetings. All three groups expressed a preference for hybrid conferences in the future. This study indicates that medical conference attendees can be clustered based on their learning, personal and social motivations for attendance. The taxonomy enables organizers to tailor conference formats with guidance on how to utilize hybrid conferences, thereby enabling better catering to attendees' desires for knowledge gain relative to networking.

Eliciting Insights From Chat Logs of the 25X5 Symposium to Reduce Documentation Burden: Novel Application of Topic Modeling.

BACKGROUND: Addressing clinician documentation burden through "targeted solutions" is a growing priority for many organizations ranging from government and academia to industry. Between January and February 2021, the 25 by 5: Symposium to Reduce Documentation Burden on US Clinicians by 75% (25X5 Symposium) convened across 2 weekly 2-hour sessions among experts and stakeholders to generate actionable goals for reducing clinician documentation over the next 5 years. Throughout this web-based symposium, we passively collected attendees' contributions to a chat functionality-with their knowledge that the content would be deidentified and made publicly available. This presented a novel opportunity to synthesize and understand participants' perceptions and interests from chat messages. We performed a content analysis of 25X5 Symposium chat logs to identify themes about reducing clinician documentation burden. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to explore unstructured chat log content from the web-based 25X5 Symposium to elicit latent insights on clinician documentation burden among clinicians, health care leaders, and other stakeholders using topic modeling. METHODS: Across the 6 sessions, we captured 1787 messages among 167 unique chat participants cumulatively; 14 were private messages not included in the analysis. We implemented a latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic model on the aggregated dataset to identify clinician documentation burden topics mentioned in the chat logs. Coherence scores and manual examination informed optimal model selection. Next, 5 domain experts independently and qualitatively assigned descriptive labels to model-identified topics and classified them into higher-level categories, which were finalized through a panel consensus. RESULTS: We uncovered ten topics using the LDA model: (1) determining data and documentation needs (422/1773, 23.8%); (2) collectively reassessing documentation requirements in electronic health records (EHRs) (252/1773, 14.2%); (3) focusing documentation on patient narrative (162/1773, 9.1%); (4) documentation that adds value (147/1773, 8.3%); (5) regulatory impact on clinician burden (142/1773, 8%); (6) improved EHR user interface and design (128/1773, 7.2%); (7) addressing poor usability (122/1773, 6.9%); (8) sharing 25X5 Symposium resources (122/1773, 6.9%); (9) capturing data related to clinician practice (113/1773, 6.4%); and (10) the role of quality measures and technology in burnout (110/1773, 6.2%). Among these 10 topics, 5 high-level categories emerged: consensus building (821/1773, 46.3%), burden sources (365/1773, 20.6%), EHR design (250/1773, 14.1%), patient-centered care (162/1773, 9.1%), and symposium comments (122/1773, 6.9%). CONCLUSIONS: We conducted a topic modeling analysis on 25X5 Symposium multiparticipant chat logs to explore the feasibility of this novel application and elicit additional insights on clinician documentation burden among attendees. Based on the results of our LDA analysis, consensus building, burden sources, EHR design, and patient-centered care may be important themes to consider when addressing clinician documentation burden. Our findings demonstrate the value of topic modeling in discovering topics associated with clinician documentation burden using unstructured textual content. Topic modeling may be a suitable approach to examine latent themes presented in web-based symposium chat logs.

The Third Annual US Celebration of World Hospice and Palliative Care Day: A virtual coming together to unify the global palliative care community.

OBJECTIVES: On 3-4 October 2022, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Supportive Care Service and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences hosted the Third Annual United States (US) Celebration of World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (WHPCD). The purpose of this article is to reflect on the event within the broader context of the international WHPCD theme: "healing hearts and communities." We describe lessons learned in anticipation of the fourth annual conference to be held on 3-4 October 2023. METHODS: Description of the third annual event, conference planning team reflection, and attendee evaluation responses. RESULTS: The Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance launched WHPCD in 2005 as an annual unified day of action to celebrate and support hospice and palliative care globally. Since 2020, the conference has attracted an increasing number of attendees from around the world. Two primary aims continue to guide the event: community building and wisdom sharing. Fifty-two interprofessional palliative care experts, advocates, patients, and caregivers provided 13 unique interactive sessions. Four hundred and fifty-eight multidisciplinary registrants from at least 17 countries joined the program. Free registration for colleagues in low- and middle-income countries, students and trainees, and individuals experiencing financial hardship remains a cornerstone of inclusion and equitable access to the event. SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS: The US WHPCD celebration provides a virtual platform that offers opportunities for scientific dissemination and collective reflection on hospice and palliative care delivery amid significant local and global changes in clinical practice, research, policy and advocacy, and population health. We remain committed to ensuring an internationally relevant, culturally diverse, and multidisciplinary agenda that will continue to draw increased participation worldwide during future annual events.

Virtual conference participant's perceptions of its effectiveness and future projections.

BACKGROUND: The virtual conference format has become an essential tool for professional development of researchers around the world since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to identify empirical evidence of the benefits and challenges of virtual conferences by investigating participants' experiences with them. METHODS: The study participants were delegates to the 40th annual meeting of the Korean Society of Nephrology, which was held virtually in September, 2020. A questionnaire was developed and implemented among the conference attendees. The 44-item questionnaire included five sub-scales related to participant perceptions of the virtual conference, which were (a) convenience and accessibility, (b) planning and organization, (c) technology use, (d) social exchanges, and (e) overall satisfaction, their preferences of conference formats, and their views of future projections for a virtual conference. RESULTS: A total of 279 delegates completed and returned the questionnaires (18.8% response rate). Participants varied in gender, age, profession, work location, and prior experience with conferences. On a four-point Likert scale (1 = "strongly disagree" and 4 = "strongly agree"), participants showed positive perceptions of the virtual conference in general, where the total mean (M) was 3.03 and less positive perceptions on social exchanges (M = 2.72). Participant perceptions of the virtual conference differed across age groups, professions, and prior experience with conferences (p < .05). Approximately half of the participants (n = 139) preferred the virtual format, and 33% (n = 92) preferred the conventional format. Participant preferences for the virtual format were somewhat evenly distributed between asynchronous (32.9%) and synchronous (29.1%) modes. Participants predicted a virtual conference would continue to be a popular delivery format after the end of the COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS: Although participants had positive perceptions of the virtual conference, more support needs to be offered to those who may be less comfortable with using technology or with online interactions, and there is a need for improvement in supporting social exchange among attendees. Also, it is suggested that a blend of asynchronous and synchronous delivery methods should be considered to meet the varied needs of attendees.

The 2nd Annual US Celebration of World Hospice and Palliative Care Day: A virtual coming together to support equity in palliative care access.

OBJECTIVE: On October 5-6, 2021, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Supportive Care Service and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences hosted the 2nd Annual United States (US) Celebration of World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (WHPCD). The purpose of this article is to describe the event within the broader context of the international WHPCD theme: "Leave No One Behind - Equity in Access to Palliative Care." We reflect on lessons learned in anticipation of the 3rd annual conference to be held October 3-4, 2022. METHODS: Description of the 2nd annual event, conference planning team reflection, and attendee evaluation responses. RESULTS: The Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance launched WHPCD in 2005 as an annual unified day of action to celebrate and support hospice and palliative care around the world. The 2021 US-based innovative virtual conference featured 37 interprofessional hospice and palliative care specialists and patient and family caregiver speakers across 11 diverse sessions with a focus on health equity and COVID-19 considerations. Two primary aims continue to guide the event: community building and wisdom sharing at the intersection of art and science. 278 registrants from at least 14 countries and 21 different states across the US joined the program, which served as a global debriefing for hospice and palliative care workers from diverse settings, contexts, and disciplines. SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS: The US WHPCD Celebration creates a virtual coming together for collective reflection on hospice and palliative care delivery amid vast changes in clinical practice, research, and policy, both locally and globally. In addition, our goal to ensure an internationally relevant, culturally inclusive, and multidisciplinary agenda will continue to draw increased participation worldwide during future annual events.

Online Neuroscience Instruction: Insights, Lessons Learned, and Moving Forward.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, most of us had little to no experience with online teaching. With the realization that we would need to teach our students remotely during the pandemic, we needed to develop our online teaching skills and apply this knowledge to create effective online classes for our students. Tulane University's Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching (CELT, http://celt.tulane.edu) and its Innovative Learning Center (ILC, http://it.tulane.edu/innovative-learning-center) partnered to teach an Online Teaching Training (OTT) course for all instructors. This five-week session covered many of the topics needed to teach an engaging and interactive online course. The training included not only the theory but also practical applications of many resources available to online course instructors. This training prepared me to teach a fully online course for the first time in Summer, 2020 and again the following summer. Student evaluations compared between the Emergency Remote Learning done in quick response to the COVID-19 pandemic (Spring 2020) and the online course after completion of the OTT (Summer 2020) indicated that student experiences were much more positive when taught by a trained instructor. Many of the resources/techniques for online courses can be incorporated into in-person or hybrid classes, and vice versa. Further, sharing ideas among colleagues, especially as new resources become available, is critical for the success of all instructors. In this article I share my lessons learned, insights, and thoughts for moving forward as we approach a new era of neuroscience instruction.

Reinventing Yourself Virtually: Fifth Annual Society of Asian Academic Surgeons Virtual Conference.

Virtual forms of communication have been integrated into academic surgery now more than ever. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated its implementation in an effort to support social-distancing. Academic surgery is now learning valuable lessons from early experiences to optimally integrate this communication mode. The Society of Asian Academic Surgeons convened an expert panel during the society's fifth annual meeting that explores these lessons. Realms of virtual communication including meetings, networking, surgery department administration, social media, application processes, and advice for early or mid-career academic surgeons are explored. Virtual conferences pose a new challenge by removing the in-person component that is evident to be integral to networking, collaboration, and all aspects of academic socialization. Strategies such as creating virtual chat rooms, mentor-mentee virtual introductions, and deliberate interactions can enhance the experience. Virtual administrative meetings require special attention to preparation and strategies to insure engagement. Social media can be a valuable tool to integrate into academic careers but special attention needs to be made to utilize it deliberately and not to shy away from our individuality. The interview process can be enhanced when made virtual to give opportunities to those typically disadvantaged in the usual, in-person process.

Participation in Virtual Urology Conferences During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-sectional Survey Study.

BACKGROUND: Due to the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, conventional face-to-face academic conferences have been restricted, and many of these conferences have moved onto the internet. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the virtual conferences in the field of urology during the COVID-19 pandemic and provide suggestions for better organization of such conferences. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from May 30 to June 15, 2020, in China. Our team designed a 23-item questionnaire to investigate the conferences attended by urologists during the COVID-19 pandemic. SPSS 22.0 (IBM Corporation) was applied to analyze the data collected. RESULTS: A total of 330 Chinese urologists participated in our survey, and the response rate was 89.7% (330/368). Among the participants, 40.9% (135/330) were associate chief physicians. The proportion of participants who took part in conventional face-to-face academic conferences decreased from 92.7% (306/330) before the COVID-19 pandemic to 22.1% (73/330) during the pandemic (P<.001). In contrast, the proportion of urologists who took part in virtual conferences increased from 69.4% (229/330) to 90% (297/330) (P<.001). Most urologists (70.7%, 210/297) chose to participate in the virtual conferences at home and thought that a meeting length of 1-2 hours was most appropriate. Among the urologists, 73.7% (219/297) reported that their participation in the virtual conferences went smoothly, while the remaining respondents reported that they had experienced lags in video and audio streaming during the virtual conferences. When comparing conventional face-to-face conferences with virtual conferences, 70.7% (210/297) of the respondents thought that both conference formats were acceptable, while 17.9% (53/297) preferred virtual conferences and 11.5% (34/297) preferred conventional face-to-face meetings. CONCLUSIONS: Virtual conferences are increasing in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, many aspects of these conferences could be improved for better organization.

Global snapshot of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the research activities of materials scientists between Spring and Autumn 2020.

We conducted a global survey on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the research activities of materials scientists by distributing a questionnaire on 9 October 2020 with a response deadline of 23 October 2020. The questions covered issues such as access to labs, effectiveness of online conferences, and effects on doctoral students for the period covering the first lockdowns until the relaxation of restrictions in late September 2020 in many countries. The survey also included online interviews with eminent materials scientists who shared their local experiences during this period. The interviews were compiled as a series of audio conversations for The STAM Podcast that is freely available worldwide. Our findings included that the majority of institutes were not prepared for such a crisis; researchers in China, Japan, and Singapore were able to resume research much quicker - for example after approximately one month in Japan - than their counterparts in the US and Europe after the first lockdowns; researchers adapted to using virtual teleconferencing to maintain contact with colleagues; and doctoral students were the hardest hit by the pandemic with deep concerns about completing their research and career prospects. We hope that the analysis from this survey will enable the global materials science community to learn from each other's experiences and move forward from the unprecedented circumstances created by the pandemic.

Online conferences as an opportunity to enhance inclusiveness in animal behaviour and welfare research: A case study of the ISAE 2020 virtual meeting.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused worldwide disruptions and changes, including in the way research was conducted. One aspect was the cancellation of in-person scientific conferences and the rapid replacement of some into virtual conferences. The aim of this study is to highlight the opportunities that virtual conferences can bring to animal behaviour and welfare research, with a focus on regional diversity and early career researchers (ECRs). The ISAE 2020 virtual meeting was used as a case study. Firstly, conference attendance was compared to the ISAE 2019 in-person international congress. Secondly, a post-conference survey was conducted (n = 142 responses). Data were analysed quantitatively (multinomial models) and qualitatively (word classifications). The organisation by geographical region attracted many non-local attendees and positive feedback was received on the global perspective. The participation from the ISAE developing regions AFRICA (Africa/Central Asia/Middle East), ASIA (South/East/Southeast Asia) and LATAM (Latin America) was higher as compared to the in-person conference (p < 0.001). The most valued advantage for the virtual conference was the reduced cost, followed by the increased ability to participate and the reduced environmental footprint. The most valued advantages did not differ between regions or attendees of different career stages, but an interaction showed that the ability to participate was more appreciated by ECRs in developing regions (p < 0.05). Over 75 % of the respondents ranked the absence of social interaction as the most important disadvantage. Respondents from developed regions were more likely to attend a future virtual conference with a registration fee as compared to those from developing regions (p < 0.05). Respondents most enjoyed the organisation, flexibility, quality of presentations and regional diversity from their virtual experience. This study showed that within applied animal behaviour and welfare science, the virtual format of an international conference can promote participation from diverse regions, especially from less financially privileged groups, but attention should be paid to enhance the social element of a virtual conference.

The inaugural United States World Hospice and Palliative Care Day Celebration: A virtual coming together.

OBJECTIVE: On October 10, 2020, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Supportive Care Service hosted their first-ever United States (US) World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (WHPCD) Celebration. The purpose of this article is to describe the US inaugural event in alignment with the broader goals of WHPCD and provide lessons learned in anticipation of the second annual conference to be held on October 5-6, 2021. METHODS: Description of the inaugural event in the context of COVID-19 and WHPCD, co-planning conference team reflection, and attendee survey responses. RESULTS: The Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance initially launched WHPCD in 2005 as an annual unified day of action to celebrate and support hospice and palliative care around the world. The US-based innovative virtual conference featured 23 interprofessional hospice and palliative care specialists and patient and family caregiver speakers across nine diverse sessions addressing priorities at the intersection of COVID-19, social injustice, and the global burden of serious health-related suffering. Two primary aims guided the event: community building and wisdom sharing. Nearly 270 registrants from at least 16 countries and one dozen states across the US joined the free program focused on both personal and professional development. SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS: Unlike many other academic conferences and professional gatherings that were relegated to online forums due to pandemic-related restrictions, the US WHPCD Celebration was intentionally established to create a virtual coming together for collective reflection on the barriers and facilitators of palliative care delivery amid vast societal change. The goal to ensure a globally relevant and culturally inclusive agenda will continue to draw increased participation at an international level during future annual events. Finally, the transparent and respectful sharing of palliative care team experiences in the year preceding the conference established a safe environment for both individual expression and scholarly discussion.

Maximizing virtual meetings and conferences: a review of best practices.

PURPOSE: In the current COVID-19 pandemic, it is more important than ever to maximize communication in the scientific and medical community. In the context of academic meetings and conferences, there is the growing need for a set of guidelines secondary to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the growing environmental and economic challenges that large academic and medical conferences face. These Virtual Meetings Best Practices were established in response to the scant evidence and guidance on the topic. METHODS: These best practice guidelines were developed from a scoping review of peer-reviewed literature, grey literature and lay literature. MEDLINE and Embase databases were scoped for relevant, non-duplicate articles. For lay articles, Google searches were utilized. The recommendations that comprise this document are a compilation of nonexperimental descriptive studies (e.g. case studies) and expert committee reports, opinions and/or experience of respected authorities, and lay articles. RESULTS: We identified four phases of the meeting cycle: Pre-planning considerations, Planning, Accomplishing conference goals through execution, gauging Response and Engaging the target audience for future cycles (PrePARE). Akin to the Plan, Do, Study, Act Cycle of quality improvement interventions, this document is meant to drive meaningful initial and subsequent interventions in the meetings of the medical and academic community. This covers actions and preparation for registration, scheduling, speakers, attendees, event type, technology, monetization/marketing, dealing with disruptions, post-event deliverables, response and engagement strategies. Enhanced access to integrated, high-quality and efficient virtual meetings will establish a new norm as an effective alternative for innovative health research, education and information dissemination in orthopaedics and beyond. CONCLUSIONS: Given the uncertainty of whether large in-person gatherings will be permitted, advisable or responsible later into the summer of 2020 and beyond, these guidelines will aid events being converted and scheduled as virtual-only meetings. As we move forward in the era of increased utility and utilization of virtual conferencing, these guidelines will serve as a benchmark and standard for surgeons in the field.

The value of virtual conferencing for ecology and conservation.

The objectives of conservation science and dissemination of its research create a paradox: Conservation is about preserving the environment, yet scientists spread this message at conferences with heavy carbon footprints. Ecology and conservation science depend on global knowledge exchange-getting the best science to the places it is most needed. However, conference attendance from developed countries typically outweighs that from developing countries that are biodiversity and conservation hotspots. If any branch of science should be trying to maximize participation while minimizing carbon emissions, it is conservation. Virtual conferencing is common in other disciplines, such as education and humanities, but it is surprisingly underused in ecology and conservation. Adopting virtual conferencing entails a number of challenges, including logistics and unified acceptance, which we argue can be overcome through planning and technology. We examined 4 conference models: a pure-virtual model and 3 hybrid hub-and-node models, where hubs stream content to local nodes. These models collectively aim to mitigate the logistical and administrative challenges of global knowledge transfer. Embracing virtual conferencing addresses 2 essential prerequisites of modern conferences: lowering carbon emissions and increasing accessibility for remote, time- and resource-poor researchers, particularly those from developing countries.

Identifying Factor Associations Emerging from an Academic Metaverse Event for Scholars in a Postpandemic World: Social Presence and Technology Self-Efficacy in Gather.Town.

COVID-19 has prompted conferences to transition to online formats, inadvertently diminishing their emphasis on the social element. In online events, a sense of presence leading to a sense of companionship is limited in conventional conferencing platforms. Although the extant body of research on virtual conferences is growing, academic events in the Metaverse get little attention. Such events and their relevance to social presence within the Metaverse and associations among observable factors are seldom discussed. This study examined the perspectives of scholars in an online seminar during COVID-19 hosted in Gather.Town, a Metaverse-like conferencing environment. A hypothetical model was built to determine whether social presence and technology self-efficacy impact scholars' satisfaction and facilitate academic interactions. Ninety-three scholars in an academic seminar for research projects in information and computer education were polled to obtain data, which was then evaluated using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The proposed model explained 57.1 percent of the variables, and the findings showed that social presence and technology self-efficacy had a positive and significant impact on academic interactions and exchanges, as well as technology self-efficacy playing an essential role in determining overall satisfaction. However, social presence does not appear to have a direct impact on satisfaction, implying that a positive academic experience may still be achieved with or without the feature of being with others supported by the Metaverse. Although digital communication will only become more diverse and intense, it is important to understand how to maintain the basic character of human interactions virtually, even amid a pandemic. This research attempts to shed light on some critical factors in creating a conducive environment for future Metaverse-like academic events.

What Is It Like to Chair the ONS Bridge™ Content Planning Team?

When I was invited to ponder over an opportunity to be chair of the 2022 Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) Bridge™ Content Planning Team, my chronic impostor syndrome festered. Could I do it? And more importantly to me, would.

Bilateral trauma case conferences: an approach to global surgery equity through a virtual education exchange.

Purpose: With increased interest in international surgical experiences, many residency programs have integrated global surgery into their training curricula. For surgical trainees in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), physical exchange can be costly, and laws in high-income countries (HICs) prevent LMIC trainees from practicing surgery while on visiting rotations. To enrich the educational experience of trainees in both settings, we established a monthly virtual trauma conference between surgery training programs. Methods: General surgery teams from two public institutions, a public university with two surgical training programs in Kenya and a public university with two level I trauma centers in the United States, meet monthly to discuss complex and interesting trauma patients. A trainee from each institution presents a clinical case vignette and supplements the case with pertinent peer-reviewed literature. The attendees then answer a series of multiple-choice questions like those found on surgery board exams. Results: Monthly case conferences began in September 2017 with an average of 24 trainees and consultant surgeons. Case discussions serve to stimulate dialogue on patient presentation and management, highlighting cost-conscious, high-quality care and the need to adapt practice patterns to meet resource constraints and provide culturally appropriate care. Conclusion: Our 5-year experience with this virtual case conference has created a unique and robust surgical education experience for trainees and surgeons who have withstood the effects of the pandemic. These case conferences have not only strengthened the camaraderie between our departments, but also promoted equity in global surgery education and prioritized the learning of trainees from both settings.

The impact of COVID-19 on the format and nature of academic conferences in mathematics education.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has provided an opportunity to re-examine the possibility of organising virtual conferences in mathematics education, in which the social needs of participants can also be addressed. In this study we investigated the future impact that this change may have on the format and nature of mathematics education conferences. The study was conducted in two phases. We used an online questionnaire in which we asked participants to give us some input on the issues above. In the second phase of the project, focus group interviews were conducted with international mathematics education researchers. This study is an exploratory study, in which the sample was not developed in a way that could generate comparisons. The aim of the study was to raise possibilities about what may be the future of mathematics education conferences. Findings indicate that although academics are pro-actively thinking about alternative conference formats, the proven value of face-to-face conferences is still very real, showing that it is too early for us to have a clear vision of the future format of academic conferences.

An Engaged Community of Faith to Decrease HIV Stigma in the U.S. South.

Community members from a city in the U.S. Deep South identified root causes of HIV racial disparities, including stigma. This meeting report describes how we developed and implemented a conference series to address HIV stigma. We used community feedback and bidirectional learning to host two meetings in observance of National HIV Testing Day (June 2021) and National Southern HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (August 2021). We established a 10-member organizing committee workgroup that met monthly to plan the Faith Summit in honor of National Black HIV Awareness Day (February 2022). Lessons learned include (a) the effectiveness of different community engagement strategies, including participatory evaluative approaches, and (b) strategies to maintain engagement and increase participation, such as reliance on personal and professional networks and prompting the community about forthcoming interventions. Sustaining a conference series to end HIV stigma requires commitment and inclusive participation. This collaborative project offers additional evidence that faith communities can be a part of the solution to ending the HIV epidemic and related health disparities.