Conferences and international collaboration revisited in times of the coronavirus: Experiences from a digital transition and lessons for the future

"Everything was booked and ready to go for a two-day scientific workshop on education policies in Europe, scheduled for April 23-24, 2020 at the Hertie School in Berlin. The workshop intended to take stock of developments at the European, national and sub-national levels given the European Union’s wrap up of its decade-long Education & Training 2020 strategy (ET 2020), a framework for cooperation in education and training. However, on March 12, we had to cancel the physical meeting on short notice due to the coronavirus crisis. In the following, we share our experiences with the subsequent transition to an alternative online workshop format that took place on April 23, involving 25 participants from 10 countries, and 16 paper presentations. After sketching the workshop’s virtual setup, we discuss strengths, weaknesses, and challenges related to this digital transition. Furthermore, we explore the prospects of such online formats for future academic conferences and networking.