Journal
FRONTIERS IN VIRTUAL REALITY
Volume 2, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
DOI: 10.3389/frvir.2021.648575
Keywords
social VR; conferences; media appropriateness; social presence; avatars; virtual reality
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation [2032474]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The global COVID-19 pandemic has led to the transition of conferences to virtual formats, with IEEEVR2020 being one of the first academic conferences to do so. This article examines issues, new data, and future directions for virtual conferences using the recent IEEEVR2020 conference as a case study.
The global COVID-19 pandemic forced all large in-person events to pivot to virtual or online platforms. IEEEVR2020 coincided with rising concerns and restrictions on travel and large gatherings, becoming one of the first academic conferences to rapidly adapt its programming to a completely virtual format. The global pandemic provided an impetus to re-examine the possibility of holding social interactions in virtual worlds. This article aims to: (1) revisit the issues of virtual conferences noted in earlier studies, focusing specifically on academic conferences, (2) introduce new survey and observational data from the recent IEEEVR2020 conference, and (3) present insights and future directions for virtual conferences during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings from a field observation during the conference and a post-conference survey point to complex relationships among users, media platforms selected, and social constraints during the virtual conference.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available