Ten simple rules for switching from face-to-face to remote conference: An opportunity to estimate the reduction in GHG emissions

In 2020, the world faced the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic that drastically altered people's lives. Since then, many countries have been forced to suspend public gatherings, leading to many conference cancellations, postponements, or reorganizations. Switching from a face-to-face to a remote conference became inevitable and the ultimate solution to sustain scientific exchanges at the national and the international levels. The same year, as a committee, we were in charge of organizing the major French annual conference that covers all computational biology areas: The Journees Ouvertes en Biologie, Informatique et Mathematiques (JOBIM). Despite the health crisis, we succeeded in changing the conference format from face to face to remote in a very short amount of time. Here, we propose 10 simple rules based on this experience to modify a conference format in an optimized and cost-effective way. In addition to the suggested rules, we decided to emphasize an unexpected benefit of this situation: a significant reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to travel for scientific conference attendance. We believe that even once the SARS-CoV-2 crisis is over, we collectively will have an opportunity to think about the way we approach such scientific events over the longer term.

Automated summary

In 2020, the world faced the challenge of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, changing people's lives and forcing many conferences to switch to remote formats. Despite the crisis, the committee successfully transformed the JOBIM conference into a remote event, proposing 10 simple rules for modifying conference formats and highlighting the unexpected benefit of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from scientific conference travel.