The way we gather, share, and celebrate science has gone through a complete transformation. Conferences used to be the center of our academic world, where you'd book a ballroom, call the speakers, and pack in everyone who could afford to be there. Then 2020 hit, and we all remember what happened next.
Now it's 2025, and change is coming again—but this time, it runs much deeper. We're facing policy shifts, smaller budgets, rising expectations, new technology, and a growing disconnect between how conferences are traditionally run and how people actually want to engage. If something in this article makes you feel called out, that's intentional.
We don't get better by clinging to sacred cows or defending business-as-usual. Here's what's true: everything either gets better or it gets worse, and it never stays the same. The world of research and conferences isn't immune to erosion, and if we're not careful, it'll evolve into something we never intended.
This article examines where conferences are now, how we got here, and where we need to go next.
How We Got Here: The Big Reset
Conferences used to feel like closed circles where if you weren't physically in the room, you were completely out of the loop. Before 2020, most conferences were built exclusively for people who had both the money and time to travel, leaving everyone else to simply miss out.When COVID pushed everything online, that dynamic changed rapidly. Suddenly, people who'd never been able to attend were logging in from all over the world—parents, caregivers, early-career researchers—all finally showing up. It opened a door that isn't closing anytime soon.
Hybrid: Still a Work in Progress
Everyone claims they're "doing hybrid," but almost no one agrees on what that actually means. The truth is there's no one-size-fits-all solution because hybrid isn't really a format—it's a mindset focused on giving people genuine options to show up in person, watch live from home, or catch up later at their convenience.What's working now is flexibility, and that's what's driving better results across the board. Flexibility isn't just a nice-to-have feature—it's the foundation everything else builds upon. However, flexibility without clear intent leads nowhere fast.
Inclusion That Actually Works
You shouldn't need a committee to understand what inclusion looks like in practice—you just need to observe who shows up and who doesn't. When conferences make it genuinely easier to participate through online access, session recordings, and better technological tools, more people naturally show up.Consider the single mother watching sessions after bedtime, someone overseas tuning in for the first time, or an individual with disabilities attending without the stress of travel logistics. This isn't just beneficial for them individually—it strengthens the entire field because the more diverse voices we include, the more robust our collective knowledge becomes.
Facing Change: Rules, Budgets, and What's Next
Regulations don't wait for your planning cycle, and budgets don't accommodate your best intentions. The Executive Orders everyone's discussing are already creating substantial impact throughout the academic community. Reduced funding means fewer grants, fewer grants translate to fewer people able to travel, and professional societies are understandably nervous.However, we've navigated similar challenges before. What we need now isn't everyone scrambling in isolation. We need shared playbooks, collaborative tools, and collective victories—essentially, a true, functional community. When we learn together, we advance much faster, and no organization should be solving identical problems in complete isolation.
Value or Nothing
People invariably remember how a conference made them feel—whether bored, inspired, disconnected, or genuinely fired up about their work. If your attendees don't feel the experience was worthwhile, they simply won't return, and the same principle applies to sponsors who want tangible leads and measurable results rather than just having their logo displayed on a livestream.It's no longer sufficient to merely "host a conference"—you must deliver a memorable experience that people actively discuss, enthusiastically share, and fondly remember long after it ends. We need to stop measuring conferences solely by logistical metrics and start evaluating them based on the lasting impact they create.
Content Is the Real Gold
If your conference concludes when the final slide fades to black, you've essentially left half the potential value sitting unused on the table. Those carefully prepared talks, detailed posters, and engaging Q&A sessions represent incredibly valuable content that shouldn't simply vanish after the closing remarks.We're steadily moving toward a comprehensive model where conferences function as content libraries featuring recorded presentations, fully searchable sessions, and resources that remain accessible long-term. When this transformation occurs, your meeting evolves from being merely a temporary gathering place into becoming a permanent, valuable platform.
AI Is Already Changing the Game
You can choose to ignore artificial intelligence, but it certainly won't ignore you—not anymore. AI is here to stay regardless of our personal feelings about it. However, we should move beyond the excessive hype and focus on AI's practical applications in conferences.Imagine AI systems that efficiently sort through abstract submissions, intelligently suggest appropriate reviewers, strategically build cohesive sessions, accurately track continuing education credits, and effectively support volunteer coordinators. These applications save significant time and money while dramatically improving the human aspects of conference management.
The crucial point isn't simply adopting AI technology for its own sake—it's about collaborating with developers who build these tools with your specific needs in mind. This isn't about replacing human expertise but rather creating sophisticated tools that help people work faster and accomplish more with considerably less effort.
Build What's Next
You don't need a crystal ball to understand where this industry is heading—you just need the courage to take action. We all face the same fundamental choice: continue using outdated tools while hoping for mysteriously better results, or boldly step into what's coming next.The future of conferences is already taking shape around us, characterized by faster processes, smarter technology, greater inclusivity, and deeper connections between participants. The traditional playbook is being completely rewritten, so don't wait around hoping someone hands you a finished copy—become one of the authors actively shaping what comes next.
Click here to learn about how ScholarOne Conferences is helping address these challenges and more.