Q: Why do we organize a virtual meeting?
A: The CBMS board decided not to hold MicroTAS 2020 in person due to the COVID-19 situation around the world and the resulting restrictions in terms of traveling. Like many scientific communities, we are, however, putting together a virtual meeting to continue to engage and strengthen our community despite these difficult times.
Despite the modified format, the meeting remains a true MicroTAS conference designed to follow the goals and capture the spirit of MicroTAS: (1) to maintain the quality of the scientific exchange at the meeting; (2) to provide a forum for new/unpublished work in the field of microsystems for chemistry and biology; (3) to promote scientific engagements/exchanges in a wide variety of subject areas across the field; (4) to promote exchanges and networking among researchers of all career stages; (5) and to grow the community by engaging new scientific directions and new researchers.

Q: What are the values of a virtual meeting?
A: While the experience of a virtual meeting is not the same as meeting in person, a virtual meeting constitutes a fantastic opportunity for junior and senior researchers to present, learn, and engage. For junior researchers, a virtual meeting is a forum to present their research results, to learn about the newest developments in the field of microfluidics, to exchange ideas, and to build their research network. Please note that for MicroTAS 2020 we will publish proceedings as usual. For senior researchers, the meeting is a forum for science and networking as well (see more on social activities). We will also include enhanced and new features such as a job market, live demos by companies, flash presentations for the posters, panel discussions to discuss pertinent issues relevant to various groups of researchers within our community, to name a few. The virtual meeting will also provide unique mechanisms to enhance interactions with presenters of technical papers and workshops, as well as industrial exhibitors and beyond, that will allow greater access to information of new opportunities to engage with your colleagues.

Q: What are the differences between the physical meeting and the virtual meeting?
A: Our virtual MicroTAS2020 will have many similarities to our usual physical MicroTAS conferences, including plenary and keynote talks, posters, exhibitors, pre-conference workshops, shark tank, awards, and social interactions. The virtual meetings will have (live) Q&A sessions after each talk moderated by two session chairs, as well as a dedicated app with various channels for scientific and personal interactions.
Here are some key differences: The virtual meeting is conducted at different local times over many time zones, with synchronized 4-5 hours of scheduled content and lots of asynchronous content (e.g. prerecorded talks and posters) each day through the week. The virtual meeting will have flash presentation videos for all posters, for which new awards will be given! Presentations will remain online throughout the entire conference, as well as one week after, and most of the conference content will already be available one week before the official conference opening.

Q: Who should attend the virtual meeting (and why)?
A: Attendees of previous MicroTAS conferences, newcomers to the microfluidics community, scientists and engineers interested in how microfluidics technologies can be applied to other areas and interested in learning more about microfluidics, scientists interested in the overall scientific program and/or the workshops...

Q: What are the different levels of registration fees for?
A: Similar to previous microTAS meetings, the rate for student registration is lower than that for other participants. These full registrations will allow access to talks (streamed talks and ability to ask questions live or beforehand via Q&A features) and posters (live interactions with poster presenters, as well as meeting app-based communications). In addition, full registration will also cover access to exhibitor demonstrations and videos, participation in virtual social activities (e.g. quizzes), participation in virtual panel discussions, and in-app communication with other participants.

Q: Why is the meeting not free since it is virtual?
A: This virtual meeting is not just an on-line seminar series where only talks are streamed. The meeting provides values for scientific exchanges and community-building opportunities via many means (see Q&A on meeting format and registration levels). As with in-person meetings, this MicroTAS will produce proceeding volumes, which are citable references. We hope that because the registration fee is reduced that more people who may not normally have the means to come to MicroTAS will be able to participate this year.

Q: Why is the conference longer in terms of days but only taking place for about 4-5 hours a day?
A: All of us will participate in the meeting from different time zones, which restricts the conference daily duration to about 4-5 hours. Although not perfect, this format will allow us to present similar content as during a "regular" MicroTAS meeting while not burdening attendees from a particular region to have to skip sleep! Furthermore, all content will be available 24/7 on the platform, one week before the conference, and one week after the conference for those that cannot attend during these 4 "live" hours. Finally, all "live moments" (live Q&A, panel discussions and games) will be recorded and made available on the platform.

Q: If I am a student without presentable results, should I attend the meeting?
A: Yes! There is plenty of content for non-presenting participants, including all the wonderful invited speakers (plenary and keynote speakers), posters to inspect, exhibitors to check out, workshops to participate in, the shark tank to take part of, the job market to explore, career-oriented discussions, networking possibilities, etc.

Q: Why are there only posters from the abstract submissions and no oral presentations?
A: Many of the labs are or have been affected by COVID-19 campus closures to different extents and at different times. To avoid disadvantaging some labs but still providing a forum for all to present their results this year, we felt the poster presentations with flash videos are the suitable and informative format, while ensuring more interactions between presenters and attendees.

Q: Will there be a proceeding published?
A: Yes! There will be a proceeding published as usual. This year, however, the extended (final) abstract submitted for reviewing is also acting as the contribution to the proceedings. Please keep this in mind when writing your abstracts, since there will be no opportunity for authors to change the content of their abstract between the submission step and the publication in the proceedings.

Q: How can we ask speakers questions after their talks?
A: There will be a moderated live Q&A session after each talk. Each participant can post a question and all attendances will have an opportunity to vote for questions. Questions will be submitted via an app during the talk, as well as before the talk, and collected by the moderators/chairs of the session. The moderators will select and queue the questions to the speakers who will answer questions live after each talk. As with the Basel meeting in 2019, there will be a "speaker's corner" after each plenary and keynote speaker's talks for you to engage with the speakers and continue to ask questions. Furthermore, speakers will be reachable via an app or via email to answer additional questions.

Q: How long will posters remain online? What about the availability of my data on a website to other people? Can everybody have access to my posters and data online?
A: The posters will be available in the duration of the meeting, and we expect all content to already be online about one week before the official start of the meeting. Furthermore, the app will remain open for one week after the end of the conference. Individual registrants to the meeting will have access to all contents. As with physical MicroTAS meetings, we rely on the attendees to hold the highest ethical standards by not copying or distributing meeting contents without authors' explicit permissions. Please check our code of conduct for more information.

Q: How can I connect to poster's presenters to ask questions and discuss about their work?
A: Each poster presenter will be given his/her own zoom room for the time of the poster session where his/her poster is scheduled. By visiting this Zoom room, you can engage with the poster presenter. The app will also offer a discussion feature to engage with the poster's presenter at a convenient time for both the poster's presenter and other attendees interested in discussing the poster content. The app will provide multiple discussion channels to foster exchanges between presenters and attendees!

Q: An essential element of MicroTAS is to discuss with people: how can this happen in a virtual event?
A: The meeting specific app includes various channels to facilitate discussions with other attendees, and allows you to contact specific attendees during the meeting and after; we have Q&A live session after each talk; the speaker's corner enables interaction with the invited speakers; comments and discussions associated with each poster; we will even have virtual 'coffee break rooms' to facilitate topical conversations; daily quizzes and a final live game, as well as topical panel discussions to foster interactions beyond science during the meeting.

Q: Will there be social activities?
A: Yes! There will be different activities: for instance, daily quizzes, a game on the last day, panel discussions, and virtual coffee break out 'rooms'.

Q: Why is MicroTAS 2020 keeping the shark tank?
A: Many trainees have excellent ideas that have great commercialization potential. The shark tank is a great opportunity to sharpen your skills, as well as a good stage to foster live interactions.

Q: Why is the registration fee much lower than usual?
A: The virtual meeting does not incur the cost associated with venue hire and catering, and the scientific program is less dense than in other years due to the time constraint. We also want to encourage broad participation from students and trainees, from non-presenting scientists and researchers from all over the world.

Q: Why is there a registration fee?
A: Organizations of the meeting are supported by professionals, including for organizing meeting reviews, producing proceedings, website, the meeting specific digital platform and apps, renting of sufficient zoom rooms for all poster presenters, providing technical support, etc.

Q: When will workshops be held? How many workshops could I register?
A: The workshops will be held prior to the meeting. Workshop content will be available in the form of pre-recorded videos combined with dedicated live Q&A sessions to interact with the instructors, allowing participants to absorb information at their own pace and enhancing interactions with the workshop presenters. You can register for as many workshops as your schedule allows, since little overlap exists between the different live Q&A session in the weekend preceding the conference. Because of the virtual format, we do not have a limit to the number of registrants for each workshop. Check the workshop page for more information.

Q: How is time difference handled?
A: We set up the meeting, as for many other online scientific conferences, such that for most attendees, the content of the meeting is not overlapping with sleeping hours.

Q: What will happen to future MicroTAS meetings?
A: Our MicroTAS rotation will simply shift forward by one year. The Palm Springs meeting with the help in 2021, and then continuing the Austrasia/Europe/Americas circle, pending ease of travel restrictions around the world.

Q: How are abstracts selected?
A: As are with in-person meetings, the abstracts are selected by the technical programming committees.

Q: What is the format of a digital poster? How do flash presentations work? Is it mandatory?
A: The posters will be available for registrants to view. All presenters whose posters were selected for poster presentations are required to prepare and present a 1-minute video. Each presenter will be able to upload a 1-minute video that will be available on the website. Awards will be given to the best flash presentation videos, based on all attendees' votes! The poster presenters will be available during assigned poster presentation times in individual "zoom rooms" for attendees to discuss their posters. Poster presenters will also be able to engage with attendees in discussions during the meeting via the meeting app or via email during or after the meeting.

Q: Do I still need to present my poster?
A: Yes! See above.

Q: How are posters judged? Based on what criteria?
A: The posters qualified to participate in the poster award competitions will be judged by a panel of experts from the poster committee as during a physical meeting. Posters will be judged based on the scientific quality of the results, the novelty of the work, the visual appeal, the impact of the work, and the discussion with the jury.