In November, the EACR held our second conference on Liquid Biopsies, this time in a virtual format. Over two afternoons there were 7 invited speakers, 4 Proffered Papers, 3 Poster Spotlights, 2 Industry Symposia and a Virtual Poster Discussion Session. 99% of participants said they would recommend EACR virtual conferences based on this event.
Video recordings
The recorded talks, at the discretion of the speakers, will be available to participants of the meeting to watch back.
To give you a taste of the conference, we’ve made Gabriella Sozzi’s talk, “Biomarkers for early detection of lung cancer: the role of microRNAs”, publicly available to all on the EACR’s YouTube channel. You can watch this talk below:
Participant feedback
In addition to the 99% recommendation rate, 94% of participants rated the scientific quality of the meeting as ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’. Much of the feedback focussed on the relevance of the topics in the field, as well as the ease of access for those who usually find it difficult to attend in-person events. A lot of people also appreciated the interactive elements of asking speakers questions via their mics, getting involved in the Discussion Forum or via the Virtual Poster Discussion Session on Gather.
“This EACR virtual event was by far the best virtual conference I have attended in the last year or so. Kudos for such immaculate organization and execution. Live presentation, live questions and answers worked like a breeze and was truly an enjoyable experience.”
“It’s my first time participating in this conference but I have certainly enjoyed and learnt so much in these 2 days. It definitely makes it worthwhile staying up to participate in this event”
“At the EACR Liquid Biopsies event the audience is far more specific, and so the nature and technical level of the talks is far more precise and in-depth. In terms of ctDNA content this conference has been my highlight of 2020, and I would quickly recommend the 2021 meeting to anyone who wants to experience the full breadth and depth of the field.”
“The content was really interesting and useful for my studies and the fact of it being online allow me to attend this year, whereas in other cases it would be difficult to travel to the place where the meeting would take place.”
Gather: “The best e-poster experience I’ve ever had”
This was the first EACR virtual conference which included abstracts, posters and proffered paper talks. We were very keen to incorporate the interactive networking elements of our usual in-person events. This is why the programme included a Poster Discussion Session and Discussion Forum.
We used Gather, a fun tool that allows you to walk around a retro 2D ‘Poster Hall’ and video chat or message with poster presenters and other participants. You can personalise your avatar to look more like you, search for other participants by name, and even gather in groups for informal chat. Over 60 people joined for an hour of discussions around the submitted posters. Being able to chat over video call replicated the feel of an in-person poster sessions to an extent.
The experience of being in the poster hall as avatar was great, I really loved it! It is amazing what is technically possible. Easiliy connecting with others when literally standing next so someone gave it a real-life touch. I had nice chats with colleagues and friends and met new interesting people. All in one, the best e-poster experience I’ve ever had since the pandemic happened.
#eacrLiquidBiopsies:
As ever, we used a conference hashtag on social media to promote further discourse and help participants engage with each other. Here are a couple of selected posts using the EACR hashtag:
Fantastic talks today! Looking forward to tomorrow’s session of the #EACRliquidbiopsies virtual event. @EACRnews pic.twitter.com/lgBRDYYVZP
— Laura Escudero (@Laura_em4) November 18, 2020
Really enjoying the #eacrliquidbiopsies conference today. Interesting discussions on the application of liquid biopsies and novel approaches in diagnostics and therapeutic monitoring in cancer patients. https://t.co/KscROYJf1T
— Justin Mencel (@MencelJustin) November 18, 2020
Future Virtual Events
We have more virtual conferences, regular ‘Meet the Expert’ and ‘How to…’ webinars and the EACR 2021 Virtual Congress coming up in the first half of 2021. There will be a range of topics, speakers and networking activities to keep an eye out for. To find out more, please visit the EACR Conferences page of our website.
