It took a pandemic to make conferences more inclusive. I would've never dreamt that I would be attending @eccvconf, @iclr_conf, @icmlconf and @NeurIPSConf in a single year as an early career researcher living in a country far from where the conferences are usually held in person.

I hope this inclusivity continues forward even after the conferences start in person in the future. Early career students and researchers gain a lot from attending conferences even as a mere attendee without a paper.

The biggest takeaway from all these conferences for me is the mentoring and advice I recieved during and sometimes after the conference. It's irreplaceable and changed my life drastically in just 8 months. I can only speculate how great it'll be to have the same in the future!