Neuroscience Day 2021 Evaluation

We have thoroughly read all comments given in the evaluation form and very much appreciate the time and effort that so many participants put into considering this different and new virtual conference format.

We are aware of the technical challenges that many participants encountered particularly regarding the audiovisual part of Gather.town and have been in contact with Gather.town regarding this issue, and very sorry for the inconveniences caused by unclear instruction on our part.

Having said this we are also happy about all the positive feedback regarding the poster session which worked perfectly well for some, and regarding this virtual conference concept as an alternative to endless Zoom meetings. We decided on putting much effort into Gather.town instead of just sticking to Zoom to facilitate networking and an experience closer to real life than what Zoom can offer. We hope that you enjoyed the experience despite technical challenges.

We picked a few comments on the Gather.town experience from the evaluations.

• “Excellent idea - execution not optimal”
• “All in all, I think it is a good idea. However, it would have been nice to have clearer instructions on how to communicate in Gather town […] The technical pre-instructions and videos for Gathertown were good and sufficient. So the issues were mostly lacking instruction on how to interact and make the most of the poster session time.”
• “It is a fun and new idea, as well as more interactive, but I faced some technical issues”
• “It was really good! You feel closer, even if virtually, to the conference than if you just enter in a Zoom meeting, for example. The virtual environment help you to feel a little bit that you are in a face-to-face conference.”

Check out the evaluation report in the attached file.

Thank you very much to everyone for having the courage to join Neuroscience Day 2021 in this virtual world. We look forward to seeing you in real life next time.