On the grapevine
Insulting to families
Hardly anyone ever questions holding conferences at weekends. But it’s disrespectful, says the biologist Amanda Sierra.
Amanda Sierra | Photo: zVg
“Starting a conference over the weekend is an intrusion on family time”
The biologist Amanda Sierra from Leioa, Spain, often leaves conferences early or asks for her paper to be rescheduled so she can spend weekends with her family. In 2023, she herself helped to plan the weekend programme for a conference with almost 3,000 participants. “It wasn’t possible to change things with so many people involved, so I didn’t even ask”, she says. She’s already helped to organise several conferences, “and normally I aim to let everyone spend their weekend at home”.
