“You’re on mute:” How to organise a virtual medical conference

Getting started

Organising a successful conference (whether online or face to face) requires commitment. Consider carefully who you will work with and allocate the workload across this reliable, enthusiastic team who share your vision. Establish roles with set responsibilities and timelines, agreed from the outset. Collaborating with institutions or individuals outside your existing network can increase creativity, reduce individual workload, and divide costs to produce a high quality event. In a virtual setting, organising committees can be from across the world, allowing collaboration with non-UK based universities, societies, charities, or special interest groups. Diversity can be increased at all levels—from representation of speakers and voices to breaking down traditional barriers of geography.

Be clear about the aims of your event—namely, what it is for and who might attend. Create a theme for the event and invite speakers who fit. Think, has this been done before? If so, why is yours different, and why is it needed? Set the date of your conference. Although we prepared ours in a month, it would be better to plan as far ahead as possible. Find out what is taking place near the proposed date to avoid clashes with established events, examinations, and holidays.

As a virtual conference usually costs less …