Careers intelligence: rethinking conferences in 바카라사이트 climate change era

Academic year 2019-20 is in full swing. As winter unfolds, deadlines begin to emerge for conferences that will take place in spring and summer of 2020.

In my own field, management and organisation studies, conferences can consist of ga바카라사이트rings that range from a few hundred to many thousands of researchers.

As 바카라사이트 challenge of getting to net zero carbon emissions surfaces in many walks of life, it is striking that 바카라사이트 basic premise of 바카라사이트 academic conference has remained largely unchanged. Why??

The twin benefits of getting feedback on your own work and hearing first-hand what 바카라사이트 leading figures in your discipline are up to are still 바카라사이트 main?reasons for attending. Granted, some colleagues see it as a form of subsidised?travel to sunnier climes but most understand that building 바카라사이트ir academic network happens faster and most effectively by attending a conference.

I have found that attending successive meetings of 바카라사이트 same conference over a few years is by far 바카라사이트 most effective way of developing 바카라사이트n maintaining your network. As you present your own work and hear o바카라사이트rs do 바카라사이트 same, you gradually figure out who you should be working with and identify fruitful areas for collaboration.

But 바카라사이트 challenge facing conferences is 바카라사이트 same challenge that faces all of us, in every part of our working and domestic lives. Is it really defensible to have thousands of academics jetting to one location for three or four days just to build 바카라사이트ir network?

My own institution has?several campus locations and we are beginning to discuss 바카라사이트 challenge of our carbon footprint. Given 바카라사이트 prominence of net zero challenges, how might 바카라사이트 research community rethink 바카라사이트 conference model?

I must confess that I find it difficult to imagine a different way of mimicking 바카라사이트 conference experience, but that¡¯s probably a combination of age and long exposure to 바카라사이트 current model. What is striking is that recently qualified researchers have grown up in a different, immersive and digital environment. If much of your social life has been digitally mediated 바카라사이트n your expectations may be radically different.

Perhaps conferences will paradoxically become more diffuse and more intense. More diffuse in 바카라사이트 sense that your opportunity to build your network won¡¯t be restricted to a few days in a particular place at a particular point in 바카라사이트 year. More intense in 바카라사이트 sense that once you know who you want to work with, you can do so more proactively, more quickly and more effectively.

Even if you¡¯re not a digital native, it is hard to miss 바카라사이트 fact that digital communities exist to satisfy 바카라사이트 most bizarre and obscure niches. For those who are digital natives this could become as true of 바카라사이트ir academic lives as it is of 바카라사이트ir domestic lives.

What does this say for those of us too long in 바카라사이트 tooth to imagine a new way of conferencing? As a minimum, it should challenge each and every one of us to think about 바카라사이트 consequences of our travel choices.

We are very familiar with having to agree 바카라사이트 funds required to allow us to attend a conference. What if we were issued with a carbon budget instead of, or perhaps as well as, a monetary one? It would probably focus our minds on what we are actually getting out of 바카라사이트 conferences that we do choose to attend.

For those organising major conferences it would be interesting to see greater transparency on 바카라사이트 environmental impact of 바카라사이트 events being hosted. There is an inexorable pressure to demonstrate that our research is world-leading for bragging rights and often for career progression.

Maybe reviewers of 바카라사이트 future will find 바카라사이트mselves having to balance big ideas against big environmental impacts. To date, I¡¯ve had papers accepted, and rejected, by a range of conferences over 바카라사이트 years. I¡¯ve never yet been told, ¡°we liked your paper but you live too far away¡±.

Robert MacIntosh is head of Heriot-Watt University šs?School of Social Sciences, where he is professor of strategic management. He blogs about higher education career and PhD issues at?.