Tools for Organizing an Effective Virtual Academic Conference

Abstract Academic conferences are an indispensable component of contemporary science, giving researchers the opportunity to present the results of recent investigations, become familiar with other scholars’ studies, and build and expand a network for future collaborations. However, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the format of academic conferences to shift, leading virtual conferences to become increasingly popular in the academic environment. Along the way, practical online tools used to organize a virtual academic conference have attained prominence. This study evaluates the various features that service providers currently offer, having thoroughly investigated many tools that are currently on the market. The discussion categorizes these online tools into three groups based on function: event management tools, submission management tools, and online conferencing tools. The study findings contribute to conference organizers’ ability to determine useful features for conducting a virtual academic conference. Moreover, the results reveal that the tools that support event and submission management can also benefit traditional scientific conferences, making this study valuable for those organizing all types of conferences, whether virtual or traditional.