What I took away from attending a conference online rather than in-person

Back in September, I attended the HighEdWeb Conference remotely. This was my first experience of attending a conference online and the experience overall was very positive.

My manager, Jennifer Doyle had previously attended the conference and had recommended it to me. Having attended conferences in person for the last couple of years, I thought this was a good opportunity to try something new.

Attending a conference remotely was a first for me and I’d like to talk about my experience of what I thought worked well and what I felt it lacked compared with attending a conference in person.

What I enjoyed about attending a conference online

I attended a conference in the USA (sort of)

With budgets the way they are, there was no chance I would’ve been able to get sign-off on international flights, hotel and a ticket to a conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. So, this was the next best thing.

Unlike the in-person attendees, I didn’t struggle with the altitude of Albuquerque, I attended from the comfort of my kitchen in Edinburgh.

It was also interesting to get a US perspective on the sector and hear the different approaches to content that each institution takes.

Some of my highlights from HighEdWeb 2024

My favourite sessions from the HighEdWeb Conference were:

“Make me think: A common sense approach to better web governance.” Joyce Peralta – I really enjoyed this talk a lot. Interesting bits about developing unified digital standards.
“Five questions to improve your strategy.” Alaina Wiens – As someone with less experience developing content strategies, I found it interesting. Alaina did a really good job of simplifying how to develop an effective strategy.
“Red Stapler | UAD: UX research and testing on that ever-minimal EDU budget” Melanie Lindahl – A nice illustration of how user research and feedback can save you time and money, and help create better products.

The flexibility

The online format does offer greater flexibility. An example of this was when I switched between sessions during the same time slot, so, I didn’t miss either one of them. This would be an extremely awkward experience in person.

Around 2 weeks after the conference we gained access to recordings from the majority of the sessions at the HighEdWeb Conference. This allowed me to watch any sessions I missed and rewatch sessions I enjoyed.

Also having the slides ahead of time and a good description of the sessions helped to inform which sessions I attended.

The variety of sessions

Of all the conferences I’ve attended, I think HighEdWeb might have the widest range of sessions. The majority of the sessions were split into seven different categories:

AI, analytics and integration (in person only)
Development, programming and CMS (most sessions were in person only)
Hot topics in higher ed
Management, teams and leadership
Partners (PAR) (in person only)
Strategy, content and social media
UX/UI, accessibility and design

The previous two years I’ve attended another conference and although I really enjoyed it, one of my frustrations was that I struggled to find sessions that were relevant to my role but I didn’t have this problem at the HighEdWeb conference. I found a lot of the sessions very relatable to my experiences working within a content operations team.

The cost

Super obvious but attending a conference online is significantly cheaper than attending one in person. The ticket is cheaper and you don’t need to worry about travel or accommodation.

The ‘Poster’ sessions

Prior to the conference, we were given access to around a dozen or so ‘Poster sessions’. These sessions were essentially pre-recorded videos that were made available a week before the conference started.

I found these sessions were perfect during the intervals.

Limitations of attending a conference online

The lack of socialising/networking

Personally, I’m a huge fan of doing things remotely, it’s my preferred way of working. It offers enormous benefits for these sorts of events such as flexibility, reduced costs, it saves time and it can open to a wider audience.

That said, I think one of the biggest benefits of attending a conference is the social aspect. Whether it’s spending time with your team outside of the office or meeting people from other institutions/organisations, in my opinion, you really can’t fully replicate these experiences online.

The discussion in the comments section was very quiet in the sessions I attended, so, I did feel like a viewer rather than an active participant in the conference.

There were also a few ‘in-jokes’ during the sessions, so you do feel slightly detached from it all. So, the overall experience without this face-to-face contact, there is definitely something missing which in my opinion is as valuable as the sessions themselves.

The recordings weren’t available until two weeks after the conference

This was a challenging one for someone attending a conference 7 hours ahead. With some sessions going on until midnight (GMT), having to attend these sessions live rather than having the option to catch up on these sessions the next day was tough.

It took a few weeks for the sessions to be edited and posted. By the time these were available, I found it difficult to carve out the time to catch up on the later sessions I missed the first time around.

A lot of the sessions were in-person only

As an online attendee, you didn’t get access to a lot of the sessions. Frustratingly they were in-person only.

Some of the topics I was most looking forward to learning about (AI and UX) were almost exclusively in-person sessions.

I understand workshops don’t always go to plan when conducted in a hybrid format but it would’ve been great to have access to view these sessions.

A positive experience with some limitations

I asked the University’s AI innovation platform, ELM (Edinburgh Language Models) to summarise this blog in 10 words or less and it spat out “Attended an online conference; positive experience with some limitations”. Surprisingly, it is quite an accurate summary of my experience.

If your main focus for a conference is the sessions themselves, then attending a conference online is a great option. There are drawbacks to the sessions when attending online, you’re not on the floor to ask any questions but there is the option to ask your questions within the comments section.

The biggest part of the overall experience I missed from attending online was the social aspect. I think you learn as much if not more from speaking to people in the intervals as you do from the sessions themselves.

Future student online experiences