About creating online conferences

13 Jan 2026

As readers of this blog know, I’m concerned about the negative aspects of the TCS conference system. In this blog post, I argue for the creation of new online conferences.

The problems of traditional conferences

I have already written quite a lot about the issues of traditional on-site conferences, which are at the core of our publication culture. There are two main issues:

• the environmental impact: air travel for attendees has in a significant carbon footprint.

• accessibility: visas, health issues, family responsibilities (and more) prevent many from participating.

Two natural ways to avoid these issues are to shift to journal-based publishing and to change the way our conferences operate. But both have weaknesses.

The problems with journals

Shifting to a journal-based system is not a new idea: the topic was debated already 15 years ago. See the takes of Moshe Vardi, Lance Fortnow and Boaz Barak.

There are many reasons why people do not want to switch to journals:

1. Inertia: We are used to conferences, and changing means efforts and risks.
2. Meeting people is nice: We value the conference atmosphere and the live presentations.
3. Publications delays: Journals have (much) longer reviewing periods.
4. Rankings: Conferences are more precisely ranked, making them more valuable for CVs.
5. Accessibility: Journals are often less open access than conferences.

Some argue that we should make the effort and adapt: presenting journal papers at workshops, prioritizing journal reviews, and disregarding rankings, etc. As far as I can see, this is not happening.

The problems with reforming conferences

Another approach is to modify our conferences, for example by making them hybrid, or having several hubs, or making them online every other year.

Until recently I was optimistic that this could happen soon. See this and that posts. But I’ve grown skeptical that this is the most effective path forward.

I now feel that conferences tend to be rather conservative. In a sense, steering committees see their main mission as protecting the conference, in particular its CORE ranking. Of course this makes sense, but it doesn’t help with carbon emissions and accessibility.

Establishing new online conferences

Online conferences offer low carbon footprint and greater access for more people, without giving up on the familiar aspects of conferences (talk format, quick reviews, precise rankings, open access). Since it seems difficult to transition to this format from our established conferences, I argue we should start new ones.

I see two main challenges:

1. Building credibility: Attracting high-quality submissions consistently, and getting good ranking.

2. Making the event a success: Having a format that people like, without technical issues, and that replicates the informal networking of in-person coffee breaks.

These challenges do not seem impossible to overcome.