The professional meeting is an integral component of the research and academic universe.
Professional meetings are also important in industries such as computing, medicine, and sports.
Overall, meetings or conferences have always been a core component of human existence. In recent times the funds available to hold and attend meetings have shrunk while the number of meeting's has skyrocketed. However, the design and format of the professional meeting is not much different from meetings of 10 or 20 years ago. There is also very little research on professional meetings - one of the primary means for knowledge exchange, socialization, and evolution of scholarly and other communities. It is entirely possible that the professional meeting of the future will look very different.