iDarwin AS 0021 (2021 AD)

Volume 1

Report of scienti c meetin
iDarwin volume 1, page 54-5
Published on March 28, AS 0021 (2021 AD)

Prospects of online scientific meetings
KAWAMURA Shoj
Former president of the Society of Evolutionary Studies, Japan (SESJ
President of the 22nd Annual Meeting of SES
Laboratory of Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Integrated Biosciences
Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Toky
Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8562, Japa
Email: kawamura@edu.k.u-tokyo.ac.jfifl,p)o.

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The 22nd Annual Meeting of Society of Evolutionary Studies, Japan (SESJ) was held online on September 6-9th, 2020. The meeting was originallyplanned to be held in Okinawa as a regular on-site format. But, due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 around March ~ May 2020 in Japan, the SESJ
board of directors gave up the on-site meeting and, instead, decided to host the annual meeting as an online format. We charged no fee for participation.
We con ned participation to our society members except for invited speakers and the press. The organization of an online science meeting was our rstexperience and was a challenge
In this online meeting, the regular oral and poster presentations by society members were united and replaced with a new web-based format using
LINC Biz: posting up to ve self-explanatory poster pieces, each to be expanded by clicking it. We allowed posting together supplementary materials,
such as movies, photos, or sounds (meant to be, e.g., animal vocalizations) to bolster the presentation. Questions, comments, and answers were enteredas a text and posted there. The time constraint has been a matter of concern for regular poster presentation and discussion. This novel system appeared
to promote visiting and discussion and, in a sense, to be a better format for poster presentation. Poster evaluation and award announcements were also
carried out in this system during the meeting period
This meeting, on the other hand, maintained regular programs using Zoom or other online systems that are member-proposed symposia including
invited non-member speakers, international plenary talks, a summer school program for members, society awards ceremonies, and an award lecture.
Council and member assemblies were also held online separately from the meeting dates. This exibility was also a merit of online format. However,
because of time shortage for preparation and arrangements, we gave up including a public symposium for general citizens and high-school posterpresentations
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iDarwin AS 0021 (2021 AD)

Volume 1

The total number of participants was comparable to that of regular meetings of this society in the past despite no high-school programs and exclusionof non-members. In fact, participation of regular members and students outnumbered those to meetings in recent years. The number of newmembership applications also greatly increased for non-members to participate to this meeting. Although the free-of-charge registration would be afactor, the feasibility and exibility of participation without traveling would have motivated, especially, young researchers with need of childcare.
According to feedbacks, while on-site face-to-face meeting is desired by many participants, they also nd possibilities of the new meeting format with
online not only in feasibility of participation but also in ful llment of scienti c content and richer opportunity of discussion. In fact, amount ofcomments and questions posted for the chat space to LINC Biz posters and Zoom oral presentations apparently surpassed those in regular meetings
We have been forced to get used to the various online systems in one year. Systems also made a rapid progress and improvement to meet ourdemands in only one year. I am sure we can manage online meetings better for the next meetings with incorporating outreach and other programs
missed this time. Even after this pandemic is calmed down and on-site meeting is enabled, some components of online formats would be incorporated
to the on-site meetings. By going through a management of this meeting and participation to other online scienti c meetings, I nd bright prospects foronline scienti c meetings================================ ===============================================================Publication history of this articl
March 22, AS 0021: Meeting report manuscript was submitted from Dr. KAWAMURA Shoji to iDarwin (reviewed by SAITOU Naruya
March 26, AS 0021: review result was sent to author with iDarwin formatted manuscrip
March 28, AS 0021: this article is published in iDarwi.

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