September 25, 2021
Dear Members of the Zoological Society of Japan,
As you know, the 92nd Annual Meeting of the Zoological Society of Japan in 2021 was originally scheduled to be held in Yonago City, Tottori Prefecture, in September 2020. However, due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic from the beginning of 2020, it was postponed by one year, and we had been preparing with the goal of holding an on-site event from September 2 to 4, 2021. However, as the spread of the infection did not subside in 2021 either, the organizing committee decided in early May to switch to an online conference. Inadvertently (or perhaps it should be said unfortunately), due to the spread of the infection this summer, probably many of our members will now understand that this decision was unavoidable.
This online conference was held with the schedule unchanged, using a combination of the Gather.town video calling system and Zoom. Gather.town is a system that makes it easy to enter and leave rooms and talk with other members. Although it was probably the first time for most participants and may have felt confusing at first, I think you experienced how quite convenient it can be once you get used to it.
Participants included 660 general and graduate students, 53 undergraduate students, 33 non-member presenters at symposia and related meetings; presentations comprised 368 general abstracts (all posters), 78 papers across 16 sessions including 1 headquarters-planned symposium; 5 award lectures by Society Award and Encouragement Award winners at the general meeting; 6 poster presentations by other award recipients (OM Award for Encouragement of Female Researchers, Narishige Zoological Science Promotion Award, and Mayuhara Mariko Research Encouragement Grant); 51 high school student posters; and 5 online broadcast sessions of the Zoology Plaza.
Among these, Zoom was used for the symposium and related meetings (there were two ways to enter the Zoom rooms: via Gather.town and directly via URL). In addition, high school posters and the Zoology Plaza were streamed as online content so that they could be viewed by people other than conference participants, and the viewing period for the high school posters was from August 26 to September 8. Each poster had a message board, which seemed to be used actively for Q&A sessions and interaction.
Thank you very much for the participation of so many people, despite the change to an online conference. Since conference registration began on April 21st, I imagine that some of you who applied for general presentations may not have intended to present a poster (in fact, I myself carelessly didn't realize until just before that it had changed to an online poster, and hastily made one after being urged by the organizing committee), and I truly appreciate your cooperation.
As I mentioned in my opening remarks at the general meeting, the number of members of the Zoological Society of Japan in Tottori Prefecture is extremely small (probably the smallest, or very close to it, in the entire country), so people like myself never even dreamed the day would come when Tottori would host the Society's annual meeting. The idea of holding it in Yonago City came about when it was the Chugoku-Shikoku region's turn to host, and Dr. Tatsuya Ueki and Dr. Kazuyoshi Ueta of Hiroshima University, who were serving as board members at the time, considered various options and concluded that the Yonago Convention Center in Yonago City would actually be easier to host in than Hiroshima.
This decision was supported in all likelihood by the presence in Yonago of Dr. Takao Mukuda, who demonstrated exceptional administrative skill in managing the 2016 Chugoku-Shikoku Branch Convention at our convention center (a joint conference held by three academic societies: the Zoological Society of Japan, the Botanical Society of Japan, and the Ecological Society of Japan). In addition to postponements due COVID-19 and the transition to an online format, there was considerably more work and anxiety than a normal convention; the fact that we were able to get through this and achieve a successful convention is, first and foremost, thanks to Dr. Mukuda's dedicated efforts and appropriate leadership. On behalf of the convention preparation and executive committee members, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Mukuda.
All members of the Zoological Society of Japan in Tottori Prefecture, including professors for whom this is not their primary academic society, all took on various tasks. Furthermore, many professors from Hiroshima University, starting with Professor Ueki, Professor Ukehana, and Professor Yuki Kobayashi, as well as many professors from Shimane University, starting with Professor Yoko Yamaguchi, played central roles through preparation and operations during the conference. It is a matter of great pride that all members of the preparation committee united as one and made their respective efforts toward the success of the conference. We also received various forms of assistance and encouragement from the preparation stage onward from President Inaba and the professors of the society headquarters (including former-former President Kiyokazu Agata and former President Yoshitaka Oka) as well as Ms. Yuko Nagai. It was Professor Hideki Abe who recommended utilizing Gather.town as the platform for the conference. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all of the aforementioned individuals.
It is truly regrettable that we could not hold this tournament in person in Yonago City, but we would be delighted if you could take the opportunity to visit the Sanin region someday once the COVID-19 situation settles down.
Although we explored the possibility of holding the public lecture and Zoology Plaza on the final day (September 4) in person until the very end, we decided in mid-August to postpone them due to the spread of COVID-19 infections within Tottori Prefecture. We sincerely apologize to the speakers who kindly agreed to give lectures and to everyone who cooperated with the Zoology Plaza for the repeated schedule changes. These events are now scheduled to be held at the Yonago Convention Center on Saturday, March 19, 2022. We will provide further information as the date approaches, and we would be delighted if those living nearby could join us.
Next year's conference will be held at Waseda University, with Professor Takashi Kato (Waseda University) serving as the conference chair. We sincerely hope that next year's Waseda conference can be successfully held on-site.
The 92nd Annual Meeting of the Zoological Society of Japan Online Yonago Meeting - Meeting President: Nobuo Tsurusaki (Professor Emeritus, Tottori University)
