SETAC North America Makes the Best of Both Worlds
Sabine Barrett, SETAC
Both in-person and virtual events have their benefits. That is one of the main lessons we have learned at SETAC over the past year. While a virtual meeting breaks down barriers by virtue of being accessible, most of our members and colleagues missed the personal experiences that are unique to in-person events. These are things we considered as we mapped out the SETAC North America 42nd Annual Meeting. As we planned the meeting, we were aware that some of our members are ready to come to an in-person meeting and reconnect with their network, and we were also conscious that many are reticent or simply do not have the support to come to an in-person event this year. Therefore, we took up the challenge of creating a unique, engaging program for both a virtual audience online and in-person participants in Portland, Oregon. The format of this year’s meeting is exceptional and will likely change after the pandemic is behind us. However, we do hope all meeting participants will find aspects that they will enjoy even if they miss some that we simply cannot bring back under current conditions.
Keeping On-Demand
Based on all the surveys and interviews we have conducted after our last two virtual meetings, what participants appreciated most is being able to watch presentations on their own time and without worrying about missing presentations due to time conflicts. So, we are keeping on-demand presentations. All individual presentations will be made available on-demand starting a week in advance of the live meeting and for three months afterwards. We have compiled lots of tips on how to make a compelling on-demand presentation. We are also asking presenters to include closed captioning with their presentations this year in our journey to make our meetings more accessible to a larger audience.
Daily Schedule
We have adjusted the live daily schedule to accommodate audiences across different time zones and to take better advantage of long-awaited networking opportunities for in-person participants. The daily schedule features six parallel live-session discussions, which will be streamed for the virtual audience. The sessions will be held in 50-minute time blocks between 9:30–11:30 and 13:00–15:00 PST from 14–18 November.
Improved Live Session Discussions
To make the most of our time together, participants are asked to view on-demand presentations beforehand so that the live sessions can be used to advance science through discussions with colleagues and peers. Session chairs are identifying thought-provoking issues for their session. For context, some sessions may kick off with several 5-minute lightning talks given by in-person attendees, briefly highlighting on-demand presentations, followed by a moderated discussion. The goal of live session discussions is to stimulate deliberations and engagement about a specific scientific topic broadly. Live sessions will be conducted in person and streamed via Zoom (screen and audio) for the virtual audience. One of the session chairs who is present in Portland will interact with the virtual audience via chat and act as the voice of online participants in person and may relay questions or comments posted online to the in-person participants, as pertinent.
Focus on Personal Connections in Portland
For in-person attendees, we are creating additional opportunities to facilitate one-on-one connections, for example through daily “Meet the Presenter” events in the exhibit hall. Presenters who register to attend in person by the pre-registration deadline (22 September) will be assigned a poster number to display a poster brief and highlight their on-demand presentation.
To provide participants the chance to connect with others with similar interests, SETAC members are encouraged to host “Topical Mixers,” which will be organized in-person and online. If you’d like to host a topical mixer, please propose one using this form.
We have also planned ample time at the end of the day, so you can continue discussions with colleagues and peers while socializing. There are many local eateries and hangouts in Portland's Northwest District that are perfect backdrops for such discussions and are just a free streetcar ride away. You can catch the streetcar or light rail from right outside the convention center and if you book your hotel room through the SETAC housing system, you will receive a free transportation pass that is good for unlimited rides the entire week of the conference.
Registration for the SETAC North America 42nd Annual Meeting is now open.
Support SETAC by Staying in Our Hotel Block
If you decide to join us in-person for the SETAC North America 42nd Annual Meeting, there’s one more aspect we’d like to highlight, namely the importance of booking your hotel room through the SETAC housing system.
SETAC makes every effort to keep expenses for participants as low as possible. We work with cities and convention centers to secure discounted hotel room rates for our attendees. In addition, the group booking helps us negotiate discounted rates at the convention center, which as a non-profit organization, we pass on to our meeting attendees through lower registration fees. So, when you reserve a room, we urge you to use the official SETAC housing system to help SETAC provide affordable registration rates for this and future meetings. Want more details?We are updating the portland.setac.org website continuously as details are confirmed. For questions about the meeting, please contact [email protected], and our dedicated team will get back to you quickly.
Author’s contact information: [email protected]