The document discusses the history and benefits of virtual conferences compared to in-person conferences. It describes some of the earliest virtual conferences in the 1990s that used various pre-Internet technologies. A 1996 virtual conference had over 800 participants from around the world. Studies have shown that virtual conferences can significantly reduce carbon emissions from eliminated air travel as well as reduce costs and time commitments for participants compared to attending in-person. While virtual conferences may have challenges engaging participants and reducing networking benefits, they provide environmental, financial, and convenience benefits over traditional conferences.

1. Atw E Conference
University of Alberta
Virtual Online Conferences:
How good do they have to be to be
good enough?

2. • Challenges and opportunities of face-to-face
professional development
• Paradox of Rural MDs in Northern Ontario

3. Bangkok Project (1992) First ever
Virtual Conference - Pre-Internet
Used BitNet, UseNet, FidoNet, NetNorth and others
• Support of at least two levels of interaction-local,
community-specific interaction and general, network-
wide interaction;
• the use of "porters” to manage/filter the interactions;
• linkage to the face-to-face international conference; -
Not achieved
• a seminar format with separate session topics, each
with a "host” and a "firstspeaker";and
• The use of the networks exclusively for organization
and promotion.
Anderson, T., & Mason, R. (1993).
The Bangkok Project: New tool for professional development.
American Journal of Distance Education, 7(2), 5-18.

4. The very early Internet
• “the construction of a national network with
no pre-ordained purpose– in sharp contrast to
telephone and cable networks. It would
provide whatever services an organization
(public or private) imagined its users might
need or want” (Canarie, ND ),
https://www.canarie.ca/wpdm-package/publication-a-nation-goes-onli

5. International Council for Distance
Education (ICDE95)
• Biannual scholarly and professional
conference
• 550 distance educators from 36 countries
participated in a three week virtual
conference.
• Held 3 weeks before F2F Conference
• Listserv Email (asynchronous) based
• Real time experiment, using MUD
Anderson, T. (1996). The Virtual Conference: Extending Professional Education in
Cyberspace. International Journal of Educational Telecommunications, 2(2/3), 121-135.

6. ICDE 95
Anderson, T. (1996).
The Virtual Conference: Extending Professional Education in Cyberspace

7. Publish or Perish
• Key Interviews
• Activities
• Evaluation
• Costs and Charging
Anderson, L., & Anderson, T. (2010). Online conferences: Professional
development for a networked era. Charlotte, NC Information Age Publishing.

8. Key Advantages
• wide variations in the amount of time
committed by participants to the virtual
conference.
• Virtual conference delegates have the freedom
to shift the time devoted to the conference
to mesh with individual time availability.
• Nonetheless, participants must make time
available to the conference if effective
learning is to result.

10. “For me this virtual conference means that I can attend—I
would be un-able to get the funding to attend the “real”
conference.
It means that I have a permanent record of all dialogue,
to which I can easily refer at a later date.
It means that I can choose when, during the day, I want to
“attend” a session.
It means that I can listen to practitioners and experts in
my field discussing the new developments that I am
interested in and hope eventually to implement myself.”
ICDE 95 Participant

11. Anderson, L., & Anderson, T. (2010). Online professional development conferences: An effective,
economical and eco-friendly option. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology 35(2).
https://www.cjlt.ca/index.php/cjlt/article/view/26390/19572.

12. What if this conference
was held in London?
• Technology, Colleges and Community (TCC)
Worldwide Online Conference.
• annual conference, which began in 1996,
• takes place entirely online over the course of
three days (24 hours/day).
• over 800 participants from around the world.

13. Studied a fully online Conference and
estimated the energy savings by going
online
Supporting Deaf People Conference 2001-2010

14. Method for Estimating the
Carbon Footprint
• The method used for estimating the carbon
footprint savings from (Stohl, 2008).
• The calculations of the carbon footprint
savings of the SDP Online Conference will be
based on emissions caused by air travel,
ground transportation and hotel use.

15. Method for Estimating the Financial
Cost to Participants
• The cost of this conference for participants
travelling to London by air was based on the
following expenditures:
– Taxi fare to nearest airport / parking at nearest airport
– Return airfare to Heathrow
– 3 nights accommodation in London
– Return train fare between Heathrow and London
– Conference Registration

16. Costs to Participants

17. Carbon Footprint to Annual Use

18. Carbon Footprint to Annual Use

19. The Future

20. Similar results as a MOOC??

21. Conclusions - Pros
• Virtual Conferences result in very significant
gains in carbon reduction, cost, and time
commitment of participants
• Cost and time savings for organizers
• Convenience for presenters and participants

22. Conclusions - Cons
• Challenging to engage and retain participants
both in real time or extended time
• the challenges of “continuous partial
attention” (Stone, 2007).
• Likely reductions in networking benefits
• No benefits from “side trips” and reduced
cultural enrichment

23. Conclusions
• If it saves time
• And it saves money
• And it saves the environment
• It doesn’t have to be ‘as good as’ to
be ‘good’.

24. Terry Anderson terrya@athabascau.ca
Blog: virtualcanuck.ca
Skype: Terguy
Your comments &
questions
most welcomed!