Dear Maureen,
I mostly agree with the document, I am happy to see this 4 step approach, where a phase 1 will allow for regional hubs/regional meetings.
The points I am not agreeing with are in the key findings, these are:
Increase time for networking and
develop better tools to support networking opportunities during virtual
meetings.
- My concern is networking, thus pushing for regional hubs (phase 1 and 2), not during virtual meetings. The networking in the conference I was looking for is the one that allows a small group to reach a consensus outside the meeting, to elaborate a strategy, to find a solution. Not networking to meet new people, yes this one is also needed, but the first one is the productive one.
Increase visual/video/graphic elements
and encourage use of video cameras by all participants.
- The use of video cameras. I have not seen a study on broadband with or without video, but for any compression algorithm it won't be the same to compress a presentation with voice, than 200 cameras, (or the same broadband needed to share or not your own camera). This objective sounds good when you have a nice broadband in your house/office, but this is not the case for most Latin America and African countries, not even so in the outside larger cities in some developed countries. Before going to take this measure, be aware of the impact on internet connections. I don't know if someone in this group already has some findings on this.
Also, take steps before, like the use of Zoom meetings vs webinars in the different sessions. I felt particularly uncomfortable in the ALAC - Board session, being a Zoom webinar, this is supposed to be a close meeting.
Hope this contributes to the discussion
Best
Ricardo Holmquist