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General
People have always come together
to discuss a specific issue, and our need to do this
has not changed. Traditionally, this involved everyone
having to meet at an agreed location and at a set time.
Those that were too far away, who could not afford the
time or the travel and accommodation costs, were simply
excluded from the discussion.
The explosion in the quantity of information at an ever-increasing
pace is a hallmark of our times. Attending even more
international meetings to keep up with current progress
is not a practical solution, especially in the current
business climate of restricted budgets. So, we face
the challenge of how to get all the benefits of meeting
together with our peers, wherever they may be, without
the drawbacks of being away from our offices and homes
for extended periods.
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Advantages
of Virtual Conferences
Developments in internet and telecommunications technology
now make virtual conferences a truly viable alternative.
Although some things you get at physical conferences
are not yet easily possible via the internet (such as
refreshments and lunch), virtual conferences offer several
advantages over physical ones.
Here are just a couple of examples:
- virtual
space doesn’t have to be vacated at a given
time so that the hotel or conference centre can prepare
for their next booking. Lectures are recorded digitally
so you can listen to any lectures you missed at the
live event, or listen to one again (this can be very
valuable if you have missed a point or the lecture
was not in your native language). And you can even
do this several months after the conference. Needless
to say, the same goes for all other conference materials
which can be found in the Conference Library. And,
these presentations remain available on the site so
new members can access them.
- the
platform we have chosen, colayer, also provides facilities
for further discussions between participants. These
can be synchronous or asynchronous, but either way,
they are context-sensitive and keep each discussion
thread separate, so you won’t get lost trying
to sort out which response in your mail inbox relates
to which query in your outbox. They can be directed
generally to all participants, or discussion groups
about a specific topic can be created. There is also
a possibility to have 'private' chats with individuals,
just as you could at any conference.
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How do our virtual conferences
work?
Our invited speakers, who come from all kinds of organisations
ranging from large multinational pharmaceutical companies,
through smaller but highly innovative specialist enterprises,
to top academic institutions, present their topic live
from their desktop and by speaking into a telephone or VOIP.
These presentations are recorded and accessible through the site, along with the speaker's accompanying visual materials and community members can listen and see them at their own convenience. We usually hold teleconferences a couple of weeks later for discussions, Q&A etc. These are also recorded and made available to those unable to participate directly.
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