Geographic Equity and Environmental Sustainability of Conference Models: Results of a Comparative Analysis

ABSTRACT. We conducted a comparative analysis of in-person, virtual, and hybrid conferences on tuberculosis hosted by Keystone Symposia and examined the number of participants, their country of residence, carbon dioxide equivalents (CO 2 e) produced, and participant impressions regarding scientific quality. Data were available from three in-person meetings, one virtual meeting, and one hybrid. The virtual conference hosted 2.5-fold more participants compared with the in-person conferences (842 versus an average of 328) from more than double the number of countries (68 versus an average of 33). The virtual conference attracted 4.5-fold more participants from countries with a high burden of tuberculosis, compared with the average in-person conference (209 versus an average of 46). For in-person meetings, an average of 79% of participants were based in high-income countries. For the virtual meeting, 53% of participants were from high-income countries, and 47% from low- and middle-income countries. For the hybrid conference, there were 465 participants from 43 countries, of which 289 attended in person from a total of 20 countries, and 176 participated virtually from 34 countries. Of those who took part in person, 91% were from high-income countries. The average CO 2 e emissions from an in-person conference was 696 tons of CO 2 e, with 96.0% from air travel. The virtual meeting produced 0.48 ton of CO 2 e from electricity usage, a 1,450-fold decrease compared with in-person events. Virtual conferences scored a content quality rating of 87.3% to 90.8% compared with a range of 86.4% to 92.2% for in-person conferences.