Online conference ideas for spending spare $ on?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader writes:

I have a question that is likely to be relevant to quite a few current postdocs, but not only to them.

I find myself in a position where I have a reasonably short-term postdoctoral research position which, while it lasts, has a decent amount of money allocated specifically for research event expenses. I had intended to put on a fairly big conference on the topic of my research project which would have cost a fair amount, but since this has been moved online due to the pandemic the funds are going unused (and the participants are no longer getting treated to a nice meal or two and a stay in an interesting place).

I wonder if anyone has any recommendations for fun and/or interesting supplements to online conferences that it would be worth spending some money on, and that participants would be likely to appreciate?

Good question - any ideas from readers?

Comments

[Michelle Bastian]

We just ran a large conference (400+ attendees) and used our funding for
- platform fees (QiQochat)
- socialising space (SpatialChat)
- live professional captioning for keynotes
- offering any attendee accessibility support (including individual captioning)
- tech support
- design support
- live musicians to play gigs for us in SpatialChat (easy with YouTube livestream).
- we also could afford to pay honorariums to keynote speakers, but crucially to all PhD/Postdocs who volunteered at the event..

Hope that helps.

[Make it rain]

It might be nice to create some kind of cash prize for the participants, or to give speakers honoraria for their time. Prizes for grad students have the dual benefit of providing them much needed financial support and giving them a nice line on their CV.

[ECR]

All of the above are good ideas! Might add: good video-conferencing equipment for yourself, if that's an eligible expense? This can be a significant investment for early career people on short-term contracts working from home at the moment, and I'm hoping that more funding bodies start reimbursing this sort of cost...