IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Spring 2021 - 109

two important missing aspects
of today's conferences. First, the
model of attendees traveling all
around the world is not sustainable
long term. Sustainable air
travel is not possible even if there
are certainly ways to ensure a
lower impact. In addition, conferences
showing major advancements
in many scientific domains
have to be accessible to a broader
audience. I am not only thinking
about students but also engineers
and researchers all over the world
who do not have the possibility to
travel. We should not prevent them
from getting access to knowledge.
It is a global diversity challenge.
2) How do you effectively engage
with people socially or implement
team-building events in a virtual
environment?
Loke: Effective engagement
requires securing and maintaining
people's attention. It's basic human
psychology. People should participate
with the mindset that they will
be present physically. This means
dress appropriately and turn on
your video camera. Many of us are
intrinsically impatient and easily
get distracted; cell phones don't
help. So shared content needs to
show frequent screen movement.
Virtual events should encourage
frequent audience participation
through tactics such as launching
polls and sharing jokes. Think
TV and what's on it that keeps us
hooked for hours!
3) With countless online meetings, most
virtual team events are lame. Enough
trivia already! How can technology
make virtual team events fun?
Wilcox: One of my colleagues has
tried a few things: a rotating oneon-one
with people on the team to
encourage some conversations to
happen. Another idea that he tried
was a group meeting where one
person kicks off the meeting with a
random topic that does not need to
be work related; one example was
one of the guys showing pictures
of his " old house " home improvement
projects and challenges. And
then this leads into a general discussion.
My favorite virtual events
outside of work include a cheese
tasting and a dumpling cooking
class, but I am not sure how that
translates to work events.
Loke: Technology needs to be
more transparent to capture the
essence of the moment; for starters,
much less audio and video latency,
with better testing and reliability!
Beigné: There are great examples
of virtual off sites and all
hands that have been organized
using virtual reality during the
pandemic. It is very engaging and
immediately gives the feeling of
meeting in the same place at the
same time. We work on developing
tools and devices so that VR will let
people work from anywhere. Freed
from the limitations of physical
space, VR will offer a better way to
surf the web, get more done, and
collaborate across distance. This
helps us build personal relationships
and connections despite
physical separation.
4) How can we draw firmer boundaries
between our virtual events
(work, school, conferences) and our
in-person lives to make the most out
of both?
Wilcox: I think the boundaries
are something that we need to be
cognizant about from our own perspective.
Boundaries have already
gotten harder these days anyway
when we have teams that are
located around the globe and the
ability to check our email on our
personal phones. Each of us needs
to be clear that there are other
commitments in our lives and figure
out the best way to manage
those boundaries.
Loke: It takes a lot of personal
discipline to observe these boundaries
and respect from others to
respect these boundaries. Specific
to virtual conferences, getting the
most out of them requires planning
and committing time, and staying
focused while attending virtually.
Opportunistically squeezing in
time to participate in a conference
while multitasking on other regular
activities does not work. To draw
firmer boundaries, I personally
have found it helpful (after some
continued struggling) to embrace
a mindset that accepts more virtual
events as being the new norm
as opposed to being a temporary
and short-term transient. This also
helps me appreciate and exploit
the benefits of virtual events; for
example, attending meetings in
the car while waiting at my kids'
soccer practice.
Beigné: I have observed that
new policies like no-meeting days
or no meeting at lunch time have
helped a lot of people to manage
boundaries between virtual events
and in-person life. Unfortunately,
many companies working in different
time zones cannot easily apply
those policies.
5) Prior to the pandemic, there were
debates at SSCS conferences about
providing online access to some
parts of the conference. Since we
were forced into virtual conferences
this year, what have we learned to
practically implement in the future?
Loke: Most SSCS conferences
have converged to a common
recipe for attracting virtual attendance.
Staying attentive for hours
in front of a monitor is exhausting.
Furthermore, time zone differences
as much as 16 to 17 h (North
America West Coast to Japan) must
be bridged. As such, live streaming,
limited to a few hours per day,
was reserved for highlight events
such as keynotes, panel events,
and Q&A sessions with brief paper
teasers. The majority of paper,
short course, and tutorial fulllength
presentations were made
available on demand one to two
weeks before the live events. Organizers
offered networking events
with some but a limited level of
success. Registration rates were
substantially reduced to reflect
much lower operating expenses;
even then, conferences remained
very profitable.
Beigné: The majority of attendees
of virtual conferences provided
very positive feedback when a lot of
materials was available to download
IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE
SPRING 2021
109
IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Spring 2021

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