Finance in the Cloud
A Virtual Finance Conference
— Organized by J. Anthony Cookson
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”—Sir Winston Churchill
Finance in the Cloud is a conference series that is borne out of necessity. Academic research in finance is rarely the unfiltered idea of one person or even the team of researchers on the paper. Rather, the best contributions typically incorporate ideas from many people, sourced from conference and seminar presentations. The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 has disrupted our usual mode of production, canceling or delaying the major conferences in academic finance. This wave of cancellations is particularly disruptive to young researchers who have not yet fully established their reputations, but year after year, produce the most impactful and innovative ideas in our profession.
Finance in the Cloud was created to help fill the void left by these cancelled conferences. The goal with Finance in the Cloud is to host a series of virtual conferences, featuring the work of these junior researchers. To promote interactivity, these conferences will be very small (5 papers at most), and at least initially, participation will be limited to juniors who were most affected by the conference cancellations. If the idea catches on, we may expand the idea to a general audience, but for now, this conference has a particular target.
Virtual conferences – held over Zoom, supported with a Slack discussion board – are not the norm in our profession. Perhaps, there is a reason for that. Personally, I have always found in-person interactions to be the most effective way to communicate. However, the fact is that we cannot meet in person right now. They say that necessity is the mother of invention. Aside from meeting virtually, we do not have other alternatives for feedback on research. There’s no better time than now to see if a virtual conference can work.