Promoting social activities in an online conference during covid times: the case of the EHSEMI conference

Abstract

While the lockdown significantly reduced face-to-face meetings, video conferencing platforms began to be used widely to leverage different sectors, such as academia. In this scope, scientific events such as seminars and conferences were migrating to the online environment. However, online events usually do not dedicate time to group activities, decreasing the chances of building academic and professional partnerships and decreasing social interactions and networking opportunities that naturally occur in face-to-face events. This paper aims to present a series of dynamics carried out using Zoom and Mentimeter platforms within the scope of the “ehSemi” Conference to create interaction between people and encourage potential scientific networking, which happens in face-to-face conferences and is significantly lost online. Furthermore, the paper discusses the role of timing, and moderators, among other essential factors that boost the social components in the online environment. Despite, given the current pandemic situation, studying the new role of videoconferencing and interactions therein appears timely and interesting, limitations and ideas for future work are presented to improve results and provide details that were not covered in this work.