As borders reopen and Covid-related restrictions are relaxed, lots of academics are celebrating the return of in-person conferences. I’m not one of them. Although I miss a lot of aspects of conferences, I’ve tried to avoid indoor meetings since the pandemic began, and there’s no reason to change that yet. And with the climate disaster getting worse all the time, I want to minimise, or at least reduce, air travel.
Having just returned to my international standards circuit (3 p.a.) and had a sequence of covid scare incidents, alongside long haul flight masked up, I can relate to both sides of this discussion. The opportunity cost of not going is to miss the incidentals which are undoubtedly the highest value non-predictable outcome. Almost all of the predictable outcome can be done in Zoom but I found critique of the student presentations in the associated workshop by far the most rewarding. It entirely "justified" the trip for me. There's hope in the new blood for tired old zombies like me.
Having just returned to my international standards circuit (3 p.a.) and had a sequence of covid scare incidents, alongside long haul flight masked up, I can relate to both sides of this discussion. The opportunity cost of not going is to miss the incidentals which are undoubtedly the highest value non-predictable outcome. Almost all of the predictable outcome can be done in Zoom but I found critique of the student presentations in the associated workshop by far the most rewarding. It entirely "justified" the trip for me. There's hope in the new blood for tired old zombies like me.