Learning from the Pandemic: the Future of Meetings in HEP and Beyond

Neubauer, Mark S.; Adams, Todd; Adelman-McCarthy, Jennifer; Benelli, Gabriele; Bose, Tulika; Britton, David; Burchat, Pat; Butler, Joel; Cartwright, Timothy A.; Dav'idek, Tom'avs; Dumarchez, Jacques; Elmer, Peter; Feickert, Matthew; Galewsky, Ben; Gill, Mandeep; Gladki, Maciej; Goel, Aman; Guyer, Jonathan E.; Jayatilaka, Bo; Kiburg, Brendan; Krikler, Benjamin; Lange, David; Lee, Claire; Manganelli, Nick; Marchiori, Giovanni; Narain, Meenakshi; Osborne, Ianna; Pivarski, Jim; Prosper, Harrison; Stewart, Graeme A; Rodrigues, Eduardo; Salerno, Roberto; Tonjes, Marguerite; Trnka, Jaroslav; Varanda, Vera; Vassilev, Vassil; Watts, Gordon T.; Zeller, Sam; Zhang, Yuanyuan

The COVID-19 pandemic has by-and-large prevented in-person meetings since March 2020. While the increasing deployment of effective vaccines around the world is a very positive development, the timeline and pathway to"normality"is uncertain and the"new normal"we will settle into is anyone's guess. Particle physics, like many other scientific fields, has more than a year of experience in holding virtual meetings, workshops, and conferences. A great deal of experimentation and innovation to explore how to execute these meetings effectively has occurred. Therefore, it is an appropriate time to take stock of what we as a community learned from running virtual meetings and discuss possible strategies for the future. Continuing to develop effective strategies for meetings with a virtual component is likely to be important for reducing the carbon footprint of our research activities, while also enabling greater diversity and inclusion for participation. This report summarizes a virtual two-day workshop on Virtual Meetings held May 5-6, 2021 which brought together experts from both inside and outside of high-energy physics to share their experiences and practices with organizing and executing virtual workshops, and to develop possible strategies for future meetings as we begin to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. This report outlines some of the practices and tools that have worked well which we hope will serve as a valuable resource for future virtual meeting organizers in all scientific fields.