Academic Conferences During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Personal Look Back at XP 2020

Abstract

This note deals with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis on the ways how academic conferences are organized and run. Specifically, I reflect on my personal experience gathered during the attendance of the 21st International Conference on Agile Software Development, which was organized as a solely virtual event for the first time. First and foremost, I summarize the technical and other challenges encountered as a conference presenter and participant. Then, I shortly discuss a possible impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the future publication standards in the sciences of computing.

Keywords

• virtual conference
• on-line event
• zoom fatigue
• computing
• software engineering
• publication culture