The graph shows that over 60% of roughly 200 survey participants were in favour of the new format. Satisfaction was highest in La Plata, where most participants would not have been able to attend a traditional conference (at a single location in Europe or North America) for financial reasons. Satisfaction was lowest in Montreal, to which many US participants flew. Evidently, many North Americans would have preferred to fly to Graz for a single-location conference.
A possible solution for the future is to promote the following two types of equality:
- Equal distances between time zones. Montreal was relatively close to European time zones and relatively far from Sydney. A Western American hub would have solved this problem. The participants at such a hub would have felt better integrated, finding it easier to follow presentations from Graz in the morning and from Sydney in the late afternoon.
- Equal number of participants at the different hubs. The hub in Graz had about twice as many participants as Montreal. The participants in Montreal would have felt more involved in the conference if these two hubs had been more balanced. Nevertheless, the participants in La Plata and Sydney also enjoyed the conference, although these hubs were even smaller.
Discussion. Evaluation sessions took place on the last two days of the conference. The meetings in Graz and Sydney took place onsite, while La Plata and Montreal participated virtually. A moderator introduced each session. The audience then discussed the advantages and disadvantages of the new conference format and other possible formats. A student assistant took the minutes and the moderator gave a brief report at the final session of the conference.
Calculation of CO2 footprint. The effective carbon footprint (greenhouse gas emissions) of the conference due to air travel was estimated based on information provided by participants at registration (Graz only) and the distance of their home institution from their hub. The result was compared with estimated emissions of previous conferences in the ICMPC series. The calculations were carried out in collaboration with the Wegener Centre for Climate and Global Change in Graz.
In the following diagram, the horizontal axis represents emissions per participant. The vertical bar at "8000 kg CO2-equivalent" represents the number of participants who emitted between 4000 and 8000 kg CO2-equivalent while travelling to and from the conference. The figure divides flying participants into two groups. Around 190 (on the left side) were short-distance flyers who emitted less than one tonne of CO2 equivalent per person or travelled by bus or train. Around 50 (on the right side) were long-haul flyers who emitted more than four tonnes of CO2 each.
In future, overall emissions could be reduced by increasing the number of hubs, reducing the number of long-haul flights. Additional hubs could be located in India or Japan, for example. Such a strategy could also reduce the number of short-haul flights. With an additional hub in California, for example, more North American participants could have traveled by train or bus.