Who do I really meet at a conference?
Recently, I have had to do some reflecting, as one should do especially after a bad experience. And no, it wasn't at EuroBSDCon 2022: That was awesome!
You see, I asked to attend an upcoming Canada Health Infoway "partnership" conference, and was told that I could not attend as a volunteer for Canada's healthcare system, nor as a volunteer at the conference.
Now, it is not news to anyone that many people, particularly women and elders, that contribute to Canada's healthcare system (including families, friends, and community members) providing informal and even frontline care, do not get properly compensated for their efforts. This is also true of other groups, such as environmental activists, researchers, Indigenous communities, and open source software contributors. When these giving and influential groups want to attend a conference they are more likely to be excluded due to high cost barriers to entry (in addition to other barriers they may face).
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Unfortunately, those are exactly the people that I want to meet.
This is not the case with many healthcare conferences in Canada. In fact, a special kudos to OntarioMD, Ontario Health, and the Public Health Network for being actively inclusive in their events. But this experience has caused me to reflect on who I can meet at a conference, based on entry requirements, and where I should (and should not) spend my time.
Personally, I think it is bad practice to not reduce/eliminate every barrier possible for volunteers to attend a healthcare partnership event, especially given the current state of our healthcare system in Canada. As I communicated to the "Event Planner, Engagement, and Marketing" representative at Canada Health Infoway, I have committed to communicating this publicly so as to hopefully prevent others from spending their time trying to be included in that event. Let's spend our effort on other things: such as volunteering, and hope that others will apply a basic research principle in being careful how they generalize from a tiny, unrepresentative, but better compensated, sample. I will be considering barriers to entry before volunteering at or attending any upcoming conference.