I am pleased to see you are considering alternatives - after listening to the Public Health directors for Canada and for BC, it seems doubtful that the convention will be permitted to be held in Vancouver. Our authorities seem to be holding back on the concept of a return to normal - particularly for group gatherings- until a vaccine is available.
One idea for some of the sessions - have the presenter, present the paper as per normal and then have the responses of the panel providing the feedback with it all on video. If each paper was separately posted - that would allow us to watch a webcast for the paper. In some ways this would be awesome as many times i have found there were multiple papers i wanted to see presented on the schedule at the same time. And often i resolved the conflicts on a location basis - being unable to move between the hotels/convention halls fast enough!
The other advantage is that time is no longer a factor - we could "attend" for a month !
We lose the ability to ask questions if it is not live, but it would be possible to have questions posted and require that presenters respond. This would work well if there was a system so everyone who "attended" had the option of being notified when questions were posted and responded to. And an applauding sign (instead of a heart) might provide some indication of audience feedback? Or maybe we can watch live or taped ?
The symposia are easily taped for observation.
Thanks to the executive and the conference team for all their work - we are living in strange times!
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Barbara Wilkes
Toronto ON
(416) 486-6698
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