Welcome!  The purpose of this website is to advocate for, to illustrate, and to give technical and logistical advice on the implementation of hybrid seminars and twinned conferences, to a high standard of interactivity and inclusiveness.

Before saying how to implement a hybrid seminar or twinned conference, we must agree what constitutes a hybrid scientific interaction.  Simply recording a webinar and streaming it to YouTube is not, in my view, enough.  We require of a hybrid or twinned event the following benchmarks:

1. Online audience members must experience the talk at least as well as were it purely online.  They must:
   • Be able to clearly see and hear the primary content being presented.
   • Be able to clearly see and hear the online and in-person audience members, e.g. during Q&A.
   • Be seen and heard by speaker and online and in-person audience members alike when they ask a question.
2. In person audience members must experience the talk at least as well as were it purely in-person.  They must:
   • Be able to clearly see and hear the primary content being presented (be it in the room, or from a remote speaker).
   • Be able to clearly see and hear online audience members, e.g. during Q&A.
   • Be seen and heard by speaker, online, and in-person audience members.
3. As much as possible, accommodation must be given to online participants to compensate for their remoteness; for instance, Q&A sessions should begin and end by inviting online participants to ask questions.  Online participants should be explicitly invited to keep cameras on, and to unmute themselves when asking questions (but also allowed to post to chat), and so on.
4. The technological and organizational overhead for scientific organizers must be no worse than running a purely online seminar.

While these are clearly the benchmarks to which any hybrid seminar should meet, let me note that essentially every attempt at a hybrid seminar so far has failed to meet at least one of these benchmarks.

This is because these simple requirements are difficult to deliver.  In order of difficulty,

Video  <<  Audio  <<  Stress

The purpose of this website is to equip you -- be you a seminar organizer, a conference center director, a leader in your School of University -- with the know-how and the tools to deliver hybrid activity to these standards, and with no stress for the organizers.

This website is very much under construction, but please see the links above for walkthroughs on:

1. Some tips on Zoom settings for anyone trying to run a hybrid seminar on any budget.
2. A walkthrough of a low-budget technological solution to enable hybrid seminars in a mobile location for under £3k.
3. A walkthrough of a high-budget technological solution to enable hybrid seminars is a fixed location for under £30k.

Nov 29, 2021