Editorial: Conference scientific committees-what do they do?

Abstract

For the majority of us who attend scientific conferences regularly, there are only three points at which we consciously engage with the scientific committee when we send our abstracts before the conference, share our slides and posters at the conference and when the committee is formally introduced to the conference audience. Beyond that, the role of the committee, and how it is navigated, is a mysterious ‘black-box’. Despite the large number of international, national and
local scientific meetings, there is paucity of literature on scientific committees. Conferences are learning opportunities, but this is a frequently missed learning opportunity. What can we learn from the experience of a scientific committee for a national professional conference?