Conferences in the time of COVID: notes on organizing and delivering the first Brain Conference

Lucia M Li; Niall J Bourke; Helen H L Lai; Hazel G May; Karl A Zimmerman; Joanne Bell; Eleanor Riches; Safa Abu-Sway; David J Sharp

doi:10.1093/braincomms/fcab142

Conferences in the time of COVID: notes on organizing and delivering the first Brain Conference

Brain Commun. 2021 Jun 26;3(3):fcab142. doi: 10.1093/braincomms/fcab142. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Lucia M Li^{1

2}, Niall J Bourke^{1

2}, Helen H L Lai^{1

2}, Hazel G May^{1

3}, Karl A Zimmerman^{1

2}, Joanne Bell⁴, Eleanor Riches⁴, Safa Abu-Sway⁵, David J Sharp^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Brain Sciences, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, London W12 0NN, UK.
² UK Dementia Research Institute Care Research and Technology Centre, Imperial College London and the University of Surrey, Sir Michael Uren Hub, London, W12 0BZ, UK.
³ Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.
⁴ Brain Editorial Office, Ormond House, London WC1N 3JZ, UK.
⁵ UKRI CDT Centre for Doctoral Training in AI for Healthcare, London SW7 2AZ, UK.

Abstract

To further fulfil their missions of promoting teaching, education and research in neurology and related clinical-academic disciplines, the Guarantors of Brain and the Brain journal family invited delegates to the first Brain Conference in Spring of this year. This event aimed to deliver excellent teaching and scientific presentations across a broad spectrum of neuroscience fields, with the key aim of making the content as accessible as possible. We hoped to capitalize on the benefits of an online format, whilst trying to capture a little of the joy of the in-person meeting. This article reports on the approach and practical choices made to achieve these goals, and we hope this will provide some guidance and advice to others organizing their own online conference.

Keywords: Brain journal; conference; online.