Towards an Inclusive Conference Experience: Evaluation of the Education & Outreach Symposium at the Microbiology Society Annual Conference 2024

  1. Melissa M Lacey
  2. Michael J Dillon
  3. Sean Goodman
  4. Victoria Easton
  5. Alison I Graham

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Abstract

The Microbiology Society Education & Outreach Symposium serves as a platform for microbiology educators to share contemporary practices with an international audience.  The Symposium is held yearly during the Microbiology Society’s Annual Conference and has become increasingly popular amongst conference attendees.  In an effort to create an inclusive and engaging environment, the 2024 Symposium included contributions from participants at all career stages and from diverse global regions through a variety of presentation formats, including invited talks, offered presentations, flash talks, and posters.  Cabaret-style seating was used to encourage discussion amongst participants and digital tools were used for anonymous feedback and questions after each talk to ensure all voices had an opportunity to be heard.  Here we present an analysis of qualitative and quantitative participant responses addressing two key research questions: 1) Did the Symposium foster an inclusive atmosphere for participants across all career stages? and 2) Was the content engaging and relevant to the audience?  A post-Symposium questionnaire revealed strong positive feedback, with all 18 respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing that the 2024 Symposium was both an inclusive environment and covered interesting topics.  Thematic content analysis of free-text responses emphasised a high appreciation for the Symposium’s diversity in speakers and topics, an inclusive room layout, and overall welcoming feeling.  Feedback from participants, along with the authors’ own reflections, will actively feed into planning for the 2025 Symposium.

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  2. Version published to 10.1099/acmi.0.000995.v2 on Access Microbiology
  4. Access Microbiology

    Comments to Author

    This is an interesting manuscript, which highlights the need for diversity and inclusion initiatives at such events. The manuscript is well written overall. The methodology is good and the answering of the posed questions at the end of the paper really helps to disseminate the message of manuscript. Whilst the introduction is good, the very beginning is somewhat disjointed. It is very important to include the work of the EON, but the very first paragraph of the introduction feels out of place and makes the introduction feel disjointed.

    Please rate the manuscript for methodological rigour

    Very good

    Please rate the quality of the presentation and structure of the manuscript

    Very good

    To what extent are the conclusions supported by the data?

    Strongly support

    Do you have any concerns of possible image manipulation, plagiarism or any other unethical practices?

    No

    Is there a potential financial or other conflict of interest between yourself and the author(s)?

    No

    If this manuscript involves human and/or animal work, have the subjects been treated in an ethical manner and the authors complied with the appropriate guidelines?

    Yes

  5. Version published to 10.1099/acmi.0.000995.v1 on Access Microbiology
  6. Access Microbiology

    Comments to Author

    This is an interesting field of work and an important area of study in terms of investigating ways to improve inclusion, participation and representation in conference environments. As a piece of research I feel there are several significant improvements to be made regarding the overall experimental design. For example, comparisons with parallel sessions at this conference that ran in different (e.g. more traditional) formats would have been necessary to examining the ways in which particular groups may have felt significantly advantaged or disadvantaged by different strategiess of organising and delivering these sessions. Additionally, aside from some information about number of attendees and abstract submissions from the previous two years, the data generated about all other aspects of the Symposium were only drawn from a single meeting and as such reproducibility was lacking - this weakens the power of the conclusions drawn. Furthermore, participants at the Symposium were self-selecting, but there was no assessment of why other potential participants may have chosen another session instead. For example, a cabaret table layout may have been perceived as extremely welcoming and inviting to some people, but sufficiently unfamiliar or off-putting, or impractical to some potential participants who may have chosen not to attend because of this. I think a closer examination of these aspects would be essential additions to this research, particularly for potential use of the research to influence best practice.

    Please rate the manuscript for methodological rigour

    Poor

    Please rate the quality of the presentation and structure of the manuscript

    Good

    To what extent are the conclusions supported by the data?

    Partially support

    Do you have any concerns of possible image manipulation, plagiarism or any other unethical practices?

    No

    Is there a potential financial or other conflict of interest between yourself and the author(s)?

    No

    If this manuscript involves human and/or animal work, have the subjects been treated in an ethical manner and the authors complied with the appropriate guidelines?

    Yes