The Evolution of Educational Events during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Experience of G.Re.T.A. Foundation

Abstract

Introduction: The educational and professional lives of everyone have significantly been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many courses and meetings traditionally structured and organized as face-to-face events have been transformed into virtual events.

Methods: We report on the experience of G.Re.T.A. Fondazione in organizing international conferences, webinars, and masterclasses on oncoplastic and aesthetic breast surgery before, during, and after the pandemic.

Results: The organization of the meetings as online or hybrid events allowed to maintain a high number of participants with numbers being in line with those achieved in the traditional face-to-face events or even showing an increased number of participants, in particular from countries not traditionally involved such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, India, and Russian Federation.

Discussion: We think that the hybrid modality is likely to become a gold standard, even though purely online meetings will still survive in the post-pandemic era. Webinars are frugal and highly efficient events that can easily reach a worldwide audience with acceptable interaction.

Keywords: Breast surgery; COVID-19; Medical education.