Report From an In-Person Conference

Believe it or not, NSO staff from the Oikos Editorial Office went to a real conference recently! Below is a special report submitted by Åsa Langefors, NSO Strategy Manager and Oikos Managing Editor. Langefors attended the event with Johan Nilsson (Journal of Avian Biology Managing Editor) and Monica Gabell (Editorial Assistant), both pictured below.

The British Ecological Society holds an annual meeting each December and this year decided to run it physically in Liverpool. The organizers encouraged all attendees to be fully vaccinated and required that face masks were worn inside the conference hall. To enter the building, attendees had to show a registered, negative PCR test, not older than 48 hours at the start of the conference.

NSO and the journals had an exhibitor stand with a good position, right where people passed on their way from sessions to coffee.

After almost two years with cancelled conferences and digital versions replacing them, it became clear how important physical meetings really are. The conversations we have by the exhibitor stand with readers, authors, editors, and reviewers can never be replaced by email conversations. The small talk in the queue for coffee and food, generating new ideas and collaborations, simply does not happen at Zoom conference.

To our relief, none of our staff members caught covid at the conference. Let’s hope that we can all meet in person in Aarhus in June and at other conferences soon!