I have abandoned flights to destinations where I would spend less than a month. For such short-term engagements, I am now using exclusively surface transportation or remote modalities. Regardless of my way of attending, I try to document the events along with my associated thoughts and observations as best I can in public, and if I am giving a talk or poster a version of it is openly available online before the start of the presentation.

Through open science workflows all around the research cycle – from ideas onwards – I am interacting with collaborators from around the world on a daily basis, with new interactions forming regularly simply by being visible online. Two decades of remote collaboration have not tainted my appreciation for in-person interactions, yet I am focusing them on those people and groups that are within reach of surface transportation.

With my family spread across three continents and the current state of remote technologies, I am not yet ready to abandon flights altogether. For 2019, my planned flight total is one, and about halfway in, as I am writing this, I am on track.