Bianca Thobor
Report of GLOMAR PhD student Bianca Thobor about her participation in the ICRS Conference 2021 – Virtual Symposium from 19 - 23 July 2021
This summer, from the 19th to the 23rd of July, I took part in the 14th International Coral Reef Symposium, which was hosted in a virtual format by the University of Bremen and had about 1,300 participants from 80 countries. The conference offered oral and poster presentations, a platform for discussions, workshops, and a social program which I helped to organize.
I presented a poster, combined with a short three-minute talk, which I uploaded prior to the start of the conference. The topic was that of my master’s project, which I conducted in 2020 with a group of students in Bremen, on the effects of nitrate eutrophication and warming on a pulsating soft coral.
Because of the virtual format it was possible to watch presentations at any time, but four parallel live-streams also included the pre-recorded presentations, followed by short discussions that aimed to answer questions from a live-chat. In this way, there was some resemblance to a classical conference format, while also accommodating for participants in other time zones. Additionally, all digital content will be stored for one year for participants to access. To enable social interaction among participants, the student advisory committee organized several pre-recorded and live events, such as desk yoga, meditation, a documentary about Bremen, quizzes, coffee tables, virtual blackboards, and a pub night. I helped to host the coffee tables every day during lunch breaks, which allowed me to meet and connect to many interesting people.
This conference is usually held every four years at locations all over the world, but due to the pandemic, the University of Bremen will host an in-person event in 2022. I hope to be able to participate again next year and am looking forward to meeting everybody.
