Is attending a science conference in person really that important for sharing knowledge and learning new things?

Researchers Misha Teplitskiy (University of Michigan), Soya Park (MIT), Neil Thompson (MIT), and David Karger (MIT) reflected on this very question. To cut to the chase, they think it is.

There are two ways that scientists may benefit from physically being in the same space.

First, we have the chance of collaboration. Put two scientists in the same networking event, and there’s a fair chance that they’ll go on to co-author a grant.

Then there is diffusion - basically when someone watches a presentation. At a science conference, participants will often have a list of presentations that they want to see, but they may also find themselves watching other presentations. For example, in a small conference where there is only one room, participants will stay where they are. In large conferences with multiple presentation sessions going on at the same time, participants may stay in one session, even if they are only really interested in a couple of the presentations.

This diffusion is quite different to how it works when participants are remote. In those cases, participants tend to dip in and out to watch what they are interested in.

Misha and colleagues suggest that by hanging around for presentations that you weren’t really targeting, you can learn as much, if not at times more, than from the presentations you initially earmarked as “must-watch.”

Well, it does make sense. We tend to gravitate to things we have some knowledge of, the things in our field, the things we think are most directly relevant to us. We don’t know what we don’t know.

But what of those attending a conference remotely, either because of accessibility, costs, or concern about climate change (many conferences involve extensive flying for many participants)?

The researchers didn’t look at remote participation directly, but here are a couple of ideas remote participants could try out:

👁️ Make a point of watching presentations that aren’t on your must-see list. Yes, I know that it’s hard when you’re in your place of work not to work, but the more you can treat your remote attendance as not being in the office, the better.

👋 If you see a presentation that makes you think, “Wow, I’d love to collaborate with that person on XYZ idea,” send them an email and see if you can set up a short call. The worst thing that could happen? They don’t reply or you chat and don’t end up collaborating. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

💻 If the conference offers online networking or breakout rooms, give them a try! That email will still be there when the session is over.

Curious to know more?

You can read their (non-peer-reviewed) study here 👇

Teplitskiy, M., Park, S., Thompson, N., & Karger, D. (2022). The effect of conference presentations on the diffusion of ideas. arXiv preprint arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2209.01175