Over the past few weeks, we received concerns from our members about the accessibility of the 2024 Annual Meeting for remote presenters and audiences. In light of this, SCS staff have been working with AIA staff and the SCS program committee on plans to make the 2024 Annual Meeting more accessible. The revised plan for the meeting is that SCS will run two fully hybrid session rooms throughout the conference for a total of 18 fully hybrid sessions accommodating remote speakers and audience. Both rooms will have standardized laptops installed so that panel organizers and session chairs will not have to provide their own laptops. There will also be better technical support than there was in New Orleans, as only two session rooms will be hybrid. In addition to in-person and hybrid sessions in 2024, there will be a limited number of fully virtual offerings.
SCS staff are currently reaching out to panel organizers to identify sessions that will work as hybrid events. We realize that running only two rooms as hybrid rooms does not provide the level of accessibility that we had in New Orleans, but given the technical problems in 2023, we hope that 2024 will provide us the opportunity to figure out what it takes to run successful hybrid sessions in hotels, especially as AIA and SCS have hotel contracts for conferences through 2026. With accessibility and environmental impact as major concerns, we are also in discussion about the format of the annual meeting after 2026.
Registration rates will overall fall into two categories: in-person and virtual, and the SCS will be providing additional financial support for students and contingent faculty, with details to be approved by the SCS finance committee and board.
We invite you to share your ideas and feedback for the Annual Meeting through this link, which will be reviewed by SCS Staff and the Annual Meeting Task Force.
