October 8, 2025Open Access

Planning an online vs. an in-person conference: which is harder?

Key Points

Organizing an online conference is at least twice as challenging as an in-person event, creating significant planning hurdles.
Key challenges include managing technology choices and addressing unexpected issues during the online event.
The virtual format complicates logistics, requiring more preparation to ensure a successful attendee experience.
Insights from organizing a virtual conference reveal important lessons that may aid future event planners.

Abstract

Online. By at least a factor of two. Our recent article entitled Lessons learnt from organizing a virtual conference discusses some of our technology choices and how we leveraged them to put on a successful online meeting. That article touches briefly on some of the challenges we faced, but it doesn't fully convey how much work it was–both in advance and during the event.

Planning an online vs. an in-person conference: which is harder?

Key Points

Abstract

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