This year’s IAU General Assembly in Cape Town marked a significant milestone. It was the first to be held on the African continent and was organized as a fully hybrid, open-access event. This format allowed astronomers to participate either in person or online, with much of the content accessible free of charge. Kevin Govender, chair of the National Organising Committee and head of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Development, initiated organizing the largest IAU meeting in a hybrid format. He aimed to demonstrate Africa’s capability to host sustainable and inclusive events. He invited A4E, represented by Andrea Gokus, to advise on sustainability. Members of `The Future of Meetings´ (TFOM), including A4E members, advised on the online aspects, with Vanessa Moss co-leading the technical elements to implement the hybrid vision.
The meeting attracted 2,648 astronomers from 107 countries, with 2,045 attending in-person and 603 joining online, making 22.7% of participants remote. Online attendees came from all continents, predominantly Europe, followed by Asia and North America. By contrast, the American Astronomical Society’s hybrid meetings in 2022 and 2023 had 8.7% to 13.5% online participants, and the European Astronomical Society’s 2023 annual meeting had 12% participating online. The hybrid setup included 16 poster sessions and open-access YouTube broadcasts of all sessions, engaging those unable to attend in person and the public. The YouTube content received 20,200 views and attracted 374 subscribers.
A4E as an organisation and several of the projects done by our members were presented by Beatriz Mingo, Leo Burtscher, Sarah Casura, and Andrea Gokus as part of meetings by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Development and the IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach. In addition to discussing our organization, A4E, Beatriz was invited to deliver a plenary talk at the All-Inclusive AGN symposium. The most challenging part of hybrid meetings is always the connection between online and on-site participants. At the IAU GA, a Slack space was used as the unifying networking platform accessible to all participants. In a series of special sessions, TFOM representatives gave tours and hosted social events in virtual reality (using the platform Spatial) to showcase what is already possible today regarding fully virtual meetings. Attendance was also possible with a laptop or phone, but especially in combination with wearing VR headsets such as a Meta Quest 2, such meeting setups can really give the impression of being elsewhere together and successfully mimic the immersiveness of real-life meetings. Even more so, virtual interaction allows doing more than is possible physically, such as visiting the Asteroid Ryugu which was possible as part of the JAXA tours hosted by Elizabeth Tasker.
If you want to learn more about the meeting, please contact Andrea Gokus, Cenk Kayhan, Leo Burtscher, or Beatriz Mingo.
