Dear all conference organizers, looking for ideas on how to run a fully online conference VERY WELL? Look @NACIS. They have literally thought of everything and are making sure you get what we really WANT/NEED from conference attendance (hint: it's not talks, it's social time!)

Since people outside of @NACIS are liking this, I thought I would tell you what's going on! Follow this thread for info!

There is a "morning meeting" which is short and lays out the plan for the day.

Talks are a coordinated by an awesome company called e3 which has a "green room" Zoom meeting for speakers so you can test your technology, get answers to questions, and the moderator can explain the deal

Right before your talk you leave the green room Zoom and go to the presenter Zoom. You are introduced and then give your talk.

Then there is a Slack for @NACIS where there are channels for each of the sessions, a "hallway-chats", "announcements" from the organizers, "nacis-memories" among many others!

Questions for speakers are sent by attendees through the session chats and if there is time, the moderator will ask these questions to the presenter, or if there isn't time the presenter goes over to the Slack to answer these questions

Oh wait! There's more! Each night there is a Remo (coolest web app ever for COVID times) where you can move yourself around a "bar" and sit with friends at a "table". You video chat with these friends but can be scanning the "room" to find other people you want to meet with!

Talks are between 9am-3pm PDT (noon-6pm EDT) so the day is long, but reasonable. The day ends with a short closing meeting to recap, tell you about the Remo happy hour for the night, and give a quick primer for the next day.

It is truly the best thing I have done professionally since COVID started. I am feeling revived and excited about my work. I will definitely go back to the in-person conference when we can, but this is an incredible way to do things in the meantime

For those following this thread, check out the @NACIS website for more info https://nacis.org/annual-meeting/current-meeting/welcome-to-nacis-2020/