e-Rum2020: How We Turned a Physical Conference into a Successful Virtual Event

Authors

Mariachiara Fortuna, Vanlog
Francesca Vitalini, Mirai Solutions GmbH
Mirko Signorelli, Leiden University Medical Center
Emanuela Furfaro, University of California
Federico Marini, Gutenberg University Mainz
Gert Janssenswillen, Hasselt University
Riccardo Porreca, Mirai Solutions GmbH
Riccardo L. Rossi, Istituto Nazionale Genetica Molecolare
Andrea Guzzo, Moxoff
Roberta Sirovich, University of Torino
Andrea Melloncelli, Vanlog
Lorenzo Salvi, Comune di Torino
Serena Signorelli, UBI Banca SpA
Filippo Chiarello, University of Pisa

Date of this Version

12-2020

Document Type

Article

Citation

The R Journal (December 2020) 12(2); Editor: Michael J. Kane

Comments

Copyright 2020, The R Foundation. Open access material. License: CC BY 4.0 International

Abstract

The European R Users Meeting 2020 (e-Rum2020) was a conference that was held virtually in June 2020. Originally, e-Rum2020 had been planned as a physical event to be held in Milano. However, the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the declaration of a nationwide lockdown induced the Organizing Committee to fully rethink the event, and to turn it into a live virtual conference. In this article, we describe the challenges that we encountered during the organization of e-Rum2020, and how wereacted to them. In doing so, we aim to provide future conference organizers with useful information on how to organize a successful virtual conference, and even to turn a physical conference into a virtual meeting on a relatively short notice.