I have just returned from ARCHES, a small European conference in audiology. The organizing comittee (which my team is part of) follows a set of self-imposed ruled which I think should be a model for other international scientific meetings: (1/7)
1 - minimal registration fees, we don't need fancy dinners or luxurious venues; (2/7)
2 - senior members do not present their own work but an overview of the work of their research team members; (3/7)
3 - friendly atmosphere and respectful scientific interactions so that junior attendees don't feel afraid to present their work or to ask question. (4/7)
Yet, I realized that most of the questions were asked by senior researchers. I discussed this with two PhD students from my group who told me that they don't feel comfortable asking questions about topics they may not be familiar with. (6/7)
So we may add a 4th rule for next year's meeting: a short crash course in audiology the week before so that everybody can follow the talks. (7/7)
As a bonus, this is an European meeting, which makes it possible to travel by train instead of plane (8/7)
I forgot to add the germane keywords to this thread: https://qoto.org/@leovarnet/109393773407069729
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4 - Of course the last one is an implicit rule arising from
the fact that ARCHES is a small "private" conference (only members of the organizing teams can attend). (5/7)