The Future of Conferences: Adapting to a New Way of Life

Objectives This paper examines the changes to conferences over the past year and a half and recommends a path forward. The authors will discuss the challenges and opportunities of these changes and what that can mean for future conferences. Methods The authors used their own experiences of attending and planning conferences and a review of current literature to develop recommendations for future conference programming. Results We identified several benefits and challenges of online meetings. The benefits include offering similar content at a lower cost, more flexible and dynamic content, and a broader range of speakers and attendees. The challenges include little to no opportunities to network, fewer collaborative opportunities, and employer willingness to pay for virtual meetings or allow total commitment to attend each session. Conclusions Conference chairs and planners can use the knowledge and experiences gained from recent experiences to create more engaging and inclusive conferences that can reach a broader audience. They can accomplish this goal by offering hybrid conferences with synchronous and asynchronous events