Evaluating features of scientific conferences: A call for improvements

Sarvenaz Sarabipour; Benjamin Schwessinger; Fiona N. Mumoki; Aneth D. Mwakilili; Aziz Khan; Humberto J. Debat; Pablo J. Sáez; Samantha Seah; Tomislav Mestrovic

The global market size for all academic meetings and events is currently estimated at US$11.5 billion per year, growing annually (31, 154) . The cost of a recent academic conference of 20,000 attendees in Mexico reached over US$190 million (82) . A total of ~859,114 attendees of the 270 conferences we examined, collectively spent over US$1.288 billion during 2018-2020 to attend these meetings (with a total attendance cost average at US$1,500 per attendee) (8) . This is over 3.3% of the NIH total annual budget. Conference organizing has become a global industry, generating income to a range of commercial or society conference organizers; travel, hotel and catering industries; and local tourist attractions that have little interest in inclusivity or the academic content being discussed. Researchers who attend, expect many benefits, such as diverse early career researcher training sessions or finding their next collaborator, but most conferences have never been evaluated for their actual impact on their field. A fraction of research funds used to cover attendance of in person conferences can be devoted to establishing digital facilities at universities and other research institutions so that scientists globally can attend meetings online. These resources do not require large funds and will be of benefit to the researchers and institutions that invest in them, long after the conferences have ended. This will also shift the economic benefits a handful of corporations enjoy to local research laboratories and sustainable economies as most conferences become regional with digital broadcasting to hubs nationally and around the world. Eliminating the large in-person national and international conference bubble and their ballooning costs will return funds to research labs and enable more trainees and underrepresented minorities to attend and exchange their ideas, democratizing access to knowledge and accelerating innovation.