sustainable workshops and conferences

The current uncertainty about whether or not ISBA 2020 will take place (and where it will take place), along with a recent Nature article and a discussion in the common room of the Department of Statistics at Warwick, lead me to renew the call for a more sustainable form of conferencing. By creating a network of local havens or a garland of local magnets (competition open for a catchy “x of local y” denomination) attracting people in the area to gather together, attend some of the video-ed talks in the other knots, and add their own local activities, from talks to collaborative brainstorming. Obviously, this requires additional planning and some technical details, but it should become a habit rather than the exception. ABC in Grenoble is thinking about it, let me know if you are interesting in creating a local image of the workshop.