Introduction: The measures taken to combat the pandemic, such as travel restrictions, closed borders and gathering bans, led to cancellations of many conferences, meetings and workshops, forcing the scientific community to identify new ways of disseminating scientific knowledge. This resulted in the transition from traditional face-to-face meetings, where practitioners and academics meet to exchange knowledge, network and develop collaborations, to the development of new events in digital formats. This study aimed at investigating the impact of the spreading of virtual conferences on the field of research.
Materials and Methods: We made a SWOT analysis to evaluate strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of this new way of organizing scientific conferences, as compared to face-to-face conferences in terms of effectiveness of result dissemination, networking opportunities, and policy development.
Results: Among the biggest opportunities of virtual conferences, revealed by the SWOT analysis, there are larger accessibility, equity (in terms of sex, ethnicity, geographical setting, physical ability, health, and career stage) reduced expenses, environmental sustainability and a better work-life balance. On the contrary, reduction in network building and in research capacity/cooperation, lower interest of local stakeholders and “digital exclusion” represent the most important threats.
Conclusions: Organizing a virtual conference does not mean concentrating only on the offline or the online side of the event, but rather to integrate the two sides in order to offer the participants the opportunity to choose how to parti
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