Making conferences in the plant sciences more inclusive through community recommendations

ROOT & SHOOT is delighted to share that the first publication from this Research Coordination Network is now online at https://elifesciences.org/articles/106877.

This article is the culmination of more than three years effort from the Inclusive Conferences Working Group, a large group of people who are members of several professional plant science societies. The members of this Working Group represent a wide range of career stages, backgrounds, social identities, and concerns, who by working together have crafted a set of guidelines that could improve the conference climate for most attendees. We believe that this “bottom up” approach provides a richness to the conversations that are often dominated by people with power and prestige.

As described in the article, the Inclusive Conferences Working Group developed a set of recommendations focused on improving the conference climate and experience for everyone, building on five key themes:

1. A community agreement for conferences and participants outlining principles and standards that support equity and inclusiveness
2. A reporting structure that ensures accountability and compliance with the Community Agreement
3. Recommendations for a transparent site selection process that incorporates considerations regarding safety and inclusion of all potential attendees
4. Guidelines for practices that improve conference accessibility, including for those with disabilities and young families
5. Guidelines for inclusive speaker selection and equitable programming

The article further describes how the professional societies have implemented some of the recommendations and reflections on the outcomes of these efforts.

It also includes several downloadable PDFs to provide more information for conference organizers. We urge everyone involved in any aspect of conference or meeting planning to have a look at these community-generated recommendations and strive to implement those that are feasible.

• Full set of Working Group recommendations.
• Executive summary of Working Group recommendations.
• Check list for site selection.
• Conference accessibility guide.

We thank eLIFE, the anonymous reviewers, and Editor Peter Rodgers for helping us to bring this work to the broader community.