The virtues of virtual conferences

In this comment, we share our experiences from organizing the ICTA2020 Virtual Conference on Low-Carbon Lifestyles and argue that virtual events have potential to become the new norm among academics. We present an overview of tools that can be used and support our arguments with results from a feedback survey that was filled out by the participants of our conference. Main challenges for virtual conferences are the facilitation of informal spaces for social interaction and the prevention of 'screen fatigue'. Advantages are that they can increase societal outreach, improve the academic quality of discussions, create new opportunities for networking, and provide an inclusive environment. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Virtual events have the potential to become the new norm among academics, increasing societal outreach, improving the academic quality of discussions, creating new opportunities for networking, and providing an inclusive environment.