Participating in conferences is crucial, especially for young researchers. Therefore, this working group investigates ways of improving participation of underrepresented groups in our community. As a first important aspect, we work on a survey on the effects of organizing conferences in hybrid form.
There are several reasons why it can become very troublesome to participate in conferences or workshops in person: Disabilities can make it hard or even impossible to travel; sustainability awareness may prevent people from traveling long distances; frequent absences can become problematic due to family responsibilities; and insufficient travel funds might systematically exclude members of our community. Therefore, we think that a very efficient measure to improve the participation of underrepresented groups in our community would be to organize conferences in hybrid mode: to have a regular conference with on-site participants while enabling remote participation, including the possibility to give talks remotely. The first goal of this working group is to investigate the effects of organizing conferences in the mathematical physics community in hybrid form, and to summarize them in form of a survey article. If evidence suggests that hybrid conferences are indeed an efficient way of including underrepresented groups, we will then actively advocate for more hybrid conferences, workshops and schools.
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