MICCAI 2020

you are interested in, so we thought it was important for each paper to have a 10-minute talk, paper and visual abstract available online before the event . This means that you can start browsing in advance and plan which authors you want to speak to during the event, which is one of the major advantages of a virtual conference. If you find the scrum around popular in- person posters quite demanding to navigate, now you can just sit back in your armchair and take your time! We want the chat experience to be more like the in-person experience of standing around a poster, so anything you post will be visible to the whole community and everyone can join in . There will also be an in person zoom session so that you can meet the author face to face and have an in-depth conversation about the work. We know it is going to feel different this year, but we are still very much one community , and we want everyone to feel like they are together even at a distance. It will be easy to set up informal sessions where delegates can network and chat more generally about the event, and of course there will be discussions and Q&As around the big events too. Although this year’s event is not what we had originally planned, a virtual conference has many benefits . Pandemic or no pandemic, there are many people who are unable to attend physical conferences. Those with small children, people with caring responsibilities, or delegates who cannot afford to travel, to name but a few. Of course, we do not want to lose all the advantages of an in-person event, but a hybrid approach may offer the best of both worlds in the future. That is why we have invested in a robust virtual platform this year. Looking ahead to next year’s conference in Strasbourg , we have been working closely with Caroline Essert, the conference chair , and sharing our experiences. We had 1,800 submissions this year and expect that to grow. That will be something the MICCAI 2021 team need to manage, as well as the need for more and more area chairs and reviewers . How do you recruit them, maintain quality, and ensure diversity? It is a work in progress, but I am sure they will do a fantastic job. Finally, this has been a big team game and we want to thank everyone involved for helping to get us here, including all authors, area chairs and reviewers. Special thanks goes to Kitty Wong, who managed the submission system, Purang Abolmaesumi , who has been my second in command, and our fellow program chairs, Diana Mateus , Kevin Zhou , Danail Stoyanov , and Maria Zuluaga , as well as Dekon and everyone involved in the virtual platform, the organizing committee and beyond. We really have had a dream team! We hope you enjoy reading this first issue of MICCAI Daily, which we are delighted to be presenting to the MICCAI community for the 5th consecutive year . We look forward to many more to come! 3 with Anne Martel 5 DAILY Mo n d a y