Moving #ISA2021 entirely online is obviously the right call, but I hope more senior folks (esp. on search committees and job panels) appreciate that junior folks have lost at least two years worth of networking opportunities

coffee breaks and receptions at large international conferences are where you can best connect to academics from other institutions for feedback, mentoring, collaborations...

virtual receptions in wonder etc are great but just not the same. there are also no more coincidental encounters, fewer (no?) random introductions and happy accidents

we can still cold-email people we want to connect with, but with everyone working from home and not automatically setting time aside while being away at a conference makes it more difficult to start building a relationship than just a chat over coffee...

I don’t suppose there is a good solution to this but I am hoping people with power over job decisions, funding applications and all that jazz where strong networks help will consider that the current conditions are not conducive to building a network