2026Q1 Reports: Member at-large - America

For my portfolio, I have been working to understand and improve the virtual conference experience for *CL conferences. The issues are in the pre-conference, conference, and post-conference periods. I have been talking to general and virtual chairs of conferences to see where the current perceived pain points are.

Preconference: The process for creating material for conferences has become much smoother, and there’s far less confusion and friction than previous processes. However, we are asking attendees to invest substantial effort to create videos. These presentations and posters are useful for virtual attendees, but there is a perception that few people actually view them.

Conference: After substantial trial and error, we have reached an equilibrium for virtual participation. Giving talks virtually works well, and with sufficient buy-in from area chairs, synchronous talk sessions work well. However, this doesn’t happen consistently, which makes it difficult for attendees to set their expectations, and there has been inconsistency in the level of engagement of conference virtual chairs. It would be helpful both for virtual chairs and general chairs to have clear expectations and metrics to know if those expectations were met.

Postconference: After considerable effort through the publication chairs and the ACL anthology, the virtual talks are available after the conference. However, we don’t have a consistent followthrough on what happens to the artifacts authors have produced for virtual conference proceedings. Not all materials are linked and they are often linked inconsistently.

At the Q1 Meeting, I will offer proposals on creating more institutional memory for virtual chairs, encouraging virtual inclusion via small steps, creating more recognition for pre-conference materials, for creating metrics we want our virtual chairs to optimize, and for improving availability and accessibility of recordings and materials for accepted papers.