Conference Invitation

Dear Fellow ABS Members,

We are pleased to announce the first virtual meeting of the Animal Behavior Society, to be held this summer with online events scheduled for July 28-31. Registration costs for the meeting will be $40 for regular ABS members, and will be free for students, postdocs and participants from developing countries who are ABS members.

The meeting will have a different style than our regular annual meeting. To fit with the virtual format, regular session presentations will be prerecorded and limited to 6 minutes. These will be made available in advance for viewing by those ABS members registered for the conference. The program will also include prerecorded 3-minute lightning talks as poster replacements. Presentations will be organized into topical groupings, with associated real-time discussion sessions scheduled throughout the three meeting days.

The meeting's daily schedule will include morning introductions. We will then schedule time blocks to watch or re-watch presentations, followed by virtual discussion and question/answer sessions. To maintain the important networking functions of the meeting, there will also be virtual mentoring lunches, happy hours, workshops, and group discussion rooms for participant-identified topics. Given that virtual food is not as tasty, you will have to provide your own lunch.

The Allee competition will adhere as much as possible to the traditional rules, with 15 minute pre-recorded presentations, to be followed by scheduled question/answer sessions during the meeting. More information on program details and meeting events, including symposia and workshops, will be made available on the meeting website.

The ABS Executive Committee and the Program Planning Committee are excited to invite you to this meeting. A virtual meeting offers unique benefits, including the opportunity for your work to reach a broader audience and extended time for group discussions. It also offers an opportunity to present and communicate science in different ways, supporting a diversity of research approaches and ideas as well as presentation styles. We appreciate your willingness to participate and your enthusiasm about this new concept.

More information will be available soon, including online registration and abstract submission. Please check the ABS website often for updates.

We look forward to hosting you this summer at ABS 2020!