Planning an annual ICA conference is probably the most impactful part of the job of every President-Elect in this association. The conference is the primary academic event for many of us; it is a heavy lift, and expectations are high. As an association, we are blessed to have an extremely committed and incredibly experienced ICA headquarters to carry out the massive operation of the conference organization. You can tell the difference if you ever attended conferences of other academic associations in the field.
In planning next year's annual conference, it is always very insightful to closely evaluate the most recent conference survey results. This data provides valuable information about the quality of the conference experience, both in-person and remote, and about aspects of the conference that have worked well and those that still need to. There is much to learn regarding programming and administration for future conference planning.
First, thanks to all of you who completed the Gold Coast conference survey! The 2024 conference has been notably smaller than many conferences in previous years, yet almost 500 colleagues have responded to the survey this year. Here is what I took away from their answers:
Overall, ICA is delighted that attendees were overwhelmingly satisfied with the Gold Coast conference. Survey respondents appreciated their conference experience as excellent (30%), very good (41%), or good (20%) – which is a significant improvement over the previous year. Two-thirds of the respondents rated the overall quality of the sessions they attended as excellent or very good. Furthermore, according to those who responded to the survey, ICA Headquarters did a fantastic job in communicating with attendees before (89%) and during the conference (88% rated it "good" or better).
Looking at the various types of program elements, about nine of ten respondents gave high marks (excellent, very good, or good) to regular paper sessions, panels, and roundtable discussions (89, 92, and 89%, respectively). The ICA-wide Awards Ceremony and Presidential Address achieved top ratings (95%; congratulations to Eun-Ju Lee!), while survey respondents were slightly more critical of high-density panels (78%) and poster sessions (84%), while it is worth noting that 56 percent of the respondents reported that they did not attend the posters.
The research escalator is a relatively new type of session, which received excellent or very good evaluations from 86% of the respondents. This type of session was implemented as a mentorship opportunity for early career scholars, those new to ICA, or scholars with a work-in-progress to receive feedback and support on a project that is being developed. The results from the Gold Coast conference survey are a further encouragement to continue with the research escalator in future years.
Like in previous years, respondents very positively received the ICA Kids' Picnic and childcare service provided during the conference. One respondent stated in the survey: "The ICA family picnic was really the highlight. The childcare was phenomenal. We took advantage of 3-4 hours each day. It was top notch care."
The Gold Coast conference survey offers many more insights; let me highlight two issues of particular relevance for future conferences: Blue Sky Workshops and remote/hybrid sessions.
(1) Blue Sky Workshops belong to a session format with a strong interactive component. This year, ICA featured five categories of Blue Sky Workshops. Big Ideas Workshops aim to engage participants in critical discussions of current concerns within the discipline. Workshops may be built around a critical review of theories, concepts, or methods and the collective development of new research strategies or best-practice recommendations for a particular subfield of communication. Other workshops have a pronounced practical component, such as Professional Development Workshops (created for any career stage around specific skill sets), Pedagogical Workshops (related to teaching topics), Administrator Workshops (supporting attendants in administration positions), and SECAC Skills Workshops (career skills for students/early-career attendees).
Those who attended Blue Sky Workshops during ICA 2024 liked them a lot; nine of ten survey respondents who participated in them rated their experience as (very) good or excellent. However, attendance was relatively low; it ranged between 17 percent (SECAC Skills Workshop) and 24 percent (Big Ideas Workshop). As many survey respondents noted, one of the reasons was that they did not know about these workshops.
We may need to feature the Blue Sky Workshops even more prominently in the program and the conference website. There is a strong demand to continue these workshops at future conferences, particularly for Big Ideas Workshops, Professional Development Workshops, and Pedagogical Workshops. About half of the survey respondents said they would likely attend these workshops in the future (55, 51, and 46%, respectively).
By the way, proposals for Blue Sky Workshops are not bound to ICA divisions; participation is open to all attendees. Anyone may propose a workshop in this line; ICA accepts proposals on the same timeline as the conference papers, but via a separate form outside the submission management system as this format has different components from regular sessions. Respondents to the 2024 conference survey suggested that future Blue Sky Workshops feature a range of potential topics, including academic mental health, work-life balance, grant writing, professional development for mid-career researchers, and scholarly writing for non-native English writers and speakers.
(2) Opinions about future hybrid options for our annual conferences are split. Remote attendees of this year's conference were relatively satisfied with the hybrid conference experience. Sixty percent of them reported that they felt connected to their colleagues online despite not participating in person (26% disagreed). They also felt they interacted well with the in-person conference (59% agreed; 23% disagreed). At the same time, 48 percent of the in-person attendees felt that the remote presenters and attendees were integrated well into the conference (29% disagreed). However, a good number of attendees were only partially satisfied with the hybrid conference experience, as the many answers in the open-ended sections of the survey indicate. Survey respondents noted minimal attendance and a need for better integration of in-person and remote participants.
ICA's headquarters and Executive Committee closely monitor this issue and routinely reexamine our hybrid conference strategy if needed. As a leading academic association, ICA remains committed to providing hybrid and remote participation options in future conferences. There are many reasons why people may deliberately choose to participate as remote attendees, including concerns about carbon footprint, travel costs, health reasons, care responsibilities, and visa restrictions. Offering hybrid and remote conference participation aligns with ICA's strong commitment to inclusivity, diversity, and access.
For next year's conference in Denver, hybrid sessions will consist of all ICA-wide sessions, including the Opening Plenary; Fellows' sessions; Presidential Address, Awards Ceremony, and Fellows' Induction; New Member Orientation; Student & Early-Career Business Meeting; Scholars at Risk; the REACHing Out Session; the Steve Jones Internet Lecture; and the Affiliate Journals session; as well as all theme sessions and presidential sessions selected to specifically appeal to a global remote viewership. In addition, ICA25 will feature a new type of hybrid-format interdivisional sessions that accommodate panels and paper presentations cutting across several ICA divisions and interest groups.
To be sure, the 2025 ICA annual conference will be a special one as we will celebrate the association's 75th anniversary. There will be many celebratory events during the conference, so you better look out for them – and do not forget to bring your party hat!