double conferences

I am an active proponent and co-organizer of twinned conferences (previously also called double conferences), a new eco-friendly conference format whose purpose is to reduce long-distance travel while still fostering long-distance interactions. Events take place in two different locations connected by live video stream.

We have co-organized three double conferences.

1. The first double conference was held in August 2018, entitled Higher algebra and mathematical physics and co-hosted by the Perimeter Institute for Mathematical Physics (Waterloo, Canada) and the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics (Bonn, Germany); you can find the conference websites here and here.

   You can read a write-up of our experience organizing this event on page 32 of this issue of the London Mathematical Society newsletter.

2. The second double conference was held in June 2020, entitled Geometric representation theory and co-hosted by the same two institutions; you can find the conference websites here and here. However, due to the global pandemic, it was moved entirely online.

   Ben Webster (one of the co-organizers) wrote a succinct summary of the lessons we learned regarding online conferences, which you can read as a tweetstorm here.

3. The third double conference (now called a "twinned conference") was held in June 2022, entitled Homotopy theory with applications to arithmetic and geometry and co-hosted by the Fields Institute (Toronto, Canada) and the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics (Bonn, Germany); you can find the conference websites here and here.