Joint meeting of the Japan Society of Protistology and Korean Society ofProtozoologists (Kobe2020)

Toshinobu Suzaki
Organizer of Kobe2020

Kobe2020 was held online on November 22-23, 2020, with Kobe University as thehost base.
“Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised (Denis Waitley).”
I chose this quote as the motto for
the Japan-Korea Joint Meeting ofthe Protistology Societies (Kobe2020) and displayed it on thescreen

attheentranceofSpatialChat, the venue for theonline poster session (Fig. 1). This
was the first ever meeting held bytheJapaneseandFig. 1. Entrance display of the poster session (SpatialChat).

Koreanprotistology societies as a whole. We, the Japanese members of the preparatory committee,
have exchanged ideas with our Korean counterparts many times, and we tried to prepare forthe event so that the participants can sincerely feelthat it was a good meeting. Online conferences are

Table 1. Participants of Kobe2020

still unfamiliar to both the preparers and theparticipants. We prepared as much as possible so thatthe participants would not get lost in the deep forestof online.

However, there were some points thatwere not fully explained, such as the directions to theposter session room. We must make use of these as asource of reflection for the future.
Now, what did the participants think about"Be prepared to be surprised"? Participants may
have had mixed feelings about it. The advantages and disadvantages of online do not need to
be explained now. However, I think this conference was surprising in many ways, both goodand bad. Our preparatory committee spent a long time and thought we had prepared enough.
So, I actually thought that there would be no surprises now, but contrary to my expectations,the meeting was just a series of wonderful surprises when it started.
First, it was a most pleasant surprise that the number of participants was larger than
expected and that there were participants from many countries (Table 1 and Fig. 2). There
were 18 participants from countries other than Japan and Korea, including China, Bangladesh,
Ukraine, UK, and the United States. It was also nice to see that there were many student
participants. On-site meetings inevitably require travel and participation fees, but this year's
online event was free of charge and could be attended from anywhere. There were also
research presentations by first-year college students and high school students, and I felt therise of young power in the conference.
Kobe2020 began with opening remarks by Dr.
Terue Harumoto, President of the Japan Society ofProtistology. Here, the brief history of the two joint
symposia that the Japanese and Korean societies haveheld so far was presented.
Two plenary lectures and a symposium with six
speakers, and 11 oral presentations were conductedusing Zoom. There were some audio jumbles andsome difficulties with screen sharing, but none ofthese were major problems and in the end all theFig, 2. Group photo of Kobe2020
participants.

presentations went very smoothly. One of the highlights, I think, was when Dr. Ryo Hoshina,
who had broken one of his legs badly two days before his presentation, gave a wonderful
lecture from his hospital bed using a tethered smartphone. One of the great advantages of
online is that you can easily participate and present from anywhere as long as you areconnected to the Internet. I was incredibly surprised and pleased because I never expectedthat such a presentation would be possible at our conference.
The symposium was held under the keyword "diversity”. Six people spoke on the diversityof protists and the diversity of researchers who study them. I was particularly impressed by
the lecture of Dr. Katsuya Shimabukuro, who has been conducting excellent research with hisstudents despite being visually impaired, and he gave us the courage to live our lives. I wasalso impressed when Dr. Jong Soo Park from Korea said after the lecture, "I want to tell andspread this story as much as I can to my students and to all the people I will meet”. We all livewith some kind of obstacle or difficulty in living. COVID-19 or breaking a leg would be one
such trouble. However, the symposium made us feel that by sharing such problems witheveryone, instead of holding them in one person, the power to live is born.

Twenty-eight poster presentations were made using SpatialChat and LINC Biz.
Since the LINC Biz site was launched a week before the congress and the posters posted there
were freely available for viewing, a long and lively discussion took place via text chat. On theday of the conference, SpatialChat was used for a verbal explanation and Q&A. SpatialChat
charges for the number of participants multiplied by the number of minutes used. An
unexpectedly large number of participants stayed in the poster room for an extended periodof time, which led to a lively discussion. As a result, the billing went way over budget. This
was a less pleasant surprise from an accounting standpoint, but a very pleasant one for theconvention. Our expenses for the conference came to about $3,000, mainly for networkrelated use (subscriptions for Zoom, SpatialChat, and LINC Biz). This was about onefifteenth of the estimated cost of holding the conference in Kobe that we had originallyplanned, and we also found that holding the conference online had significant economic
advantages. In addition, the International Society of Protistologists (ISOP) provided us withapproximately $2,000 to subsidize our online hosting costs, as this was a joint international
conference between Japan and Korea. We are deeply grateful for this assistance.
Sixty-four students or postdocs attended this meeting, which was 42% of the total
number of participants. Fifteen of them applied for the Best Presentation Award (BPA), andafter a preliminary screening, six were invited to give oral presentations. As a result of Zoom
voting by all the attendees, three people (Yasuhide Nakamura, Yumeng Wan and KhaoulaEttahi) were awarded the BPA.
Kobe2020 was concluded with closing
remarks by Dr. Young Ok Kim, President of theKorean Society of Protistologists. Dr. Kim thanked
the participants and speakers from more than 10countries who participated in the conference and themany staff members involved in organizing theconference. She was particularly impressed with thedesign featuring a conjugation of Paramecium (Fig.
3), which was created by the preparatory committee
as the logo for the meeting. Paramecium will create a

new generation by conjugation. Dr. Kim's words that
this joint meeting will surely lead to the revitalizationof the Japanese and Korean Protistology societies
must have touched the hearts of all the participants.

Fig. 3 Kobe2020 logo (original designby Dr. Mikihiko Arikawa, JSP)The first ever Japan-Korea joint meeting was conducted with English as the official
language. After the conference, I strongly felt that the time has come for young people inJapan and Korea to be able to present and discuss in English with dignity and confidence. Oursocieties have finally taken a new step toward internationalization. In three years, the next
joint meeting will be held in Korea. I am very much looking forward to seeing more andstronger young people at the next joint conference.
Finally, I would like to list the names below with sincere thanks to the members of
the preparatory committee who helped in various ways in the preparation of this conference.
Organizing Committee (JSP team):Toshinobu Suzaki (Kobe University), Terue Harumoto (Nara Women’s University), RyoHoshina (Nagahama Institute of Bio-Science and Technology), Mayumi Sugiura (NaraWomen’s University), Mikihiko Arikawa (Kochi University), Madoka Kitakawa (KobeUniversity), Chisato Yoshimura (Kobe University), Kisaburo Nagamune (National Instituteof Infectious Diseases), Masashi M. Hayakawa (Kobe University), Euki Yazaki (RIKEN).
Organizing Committee (KSOP team):
Hwan Su Yoon (Sungkyunkwan University), Jong Soo Park (Kyungpook National University),
JunMo Lee (Kyungpook National University).