Since we& #39;ve cancelled academic conferences this year, be honest. What is the main function of academic conferences for you? Catching up w/ friends or catching up w/ science/scholarship? For me, I& #39;ve never exchanged a single idea at a conference, they mostly seem like big parties

There& #39;s nothing wrong with wanting to see friends, BTW, I just don& #39;t know is conferences provide much actual benefit to science and scholarship. If they go away (or are greatly scaled down) I don& #39;t think we& #39;re not losing much on that front.