Engaging the global academic community: Practical strategies for organizing asynchronous virtual unconferences

Many academic meetings and conferences have transitioned from in-person events to hybrid or even online only formats, improving access for participants from around the world. Unfortunately, facilitating networking and active participation online remains challenging. In recent years, various unconference formats have been created to promote networking, collaborative discussions, and project work at both in-person and virtual meetings. We developed the virtual brainstorming event unconference format [1] to provide opportunities for participant-driven international activities, dialogue, and collaboration in an online setting. This follow-up paper introduces improvements to the format, including using virtual brainstorming events to enhance discussions at a subsequent in-person meeting, and provides practical tips for organizing a successful event. This unconference format is a powerful content generation strategy, as large, diverse co-author teams can create valuable resources or insights that no individual contributor could create independently. After a virtual brainstorming event, organizers often want to share the insights gained with the wider research community, by collaboratively preparing a paper or another type of output with participants. We also address factors that virtual brainstorming event organizers who plan to create an output should consider when planning and running the event.