About two and half year passed since start of COVID-19 pandemic. A time when most of conferences got cancelled or went online (with different level of success).
A conference which should have been a YouTube playlist
There is saying “a meeting which should have been an email”. For meetings which were complete waste of time for most of attendees. During pandemic several events were “a conference which should have been a YouTube playlist”. Never mind did talks were interesting or not.
Far too often there was no way to chat with speakers or other “attendees”. Or there was one chat channel per whole conference or track. Also without threading (just one long list of messages) and no way to mention names.
Life kicks in
Some time ago one online conference took place. Three days of talks about things which interest me. I had plans to attend several of them. Then life happened — video calls and local stuff. Also several hours of time difference was a problem.
Good part is that organizers recorded all talks so I can watch them later. I “just” missed a way to get part in chat and Q&A session at the end.
Started to ignore
I started to ignore most of invites to such events. Sooner or later videos from them land online so I pick those which interest me.
Sitting in front of a screen and watching people talking is boring. Especially after over two years of doing it because there was no other way.