How to Organize a Photocatalysis Conference Online (on a Budget)

Originally planned as an on-site meeting, the inaugural CataLight Young Scientist Symposium (CYSS) took place as a fully online conference in November 2020. Dedicated to various aspects of photocatalysis, namely synthesis, theory, characterization, and application, CYSS aimed to provide a stage for early-career scientists to connect to each other and present their research to peers in the field. While still keeping a traditional on-site conference format including both plenary and poster sessions, several minor and major changes had to be applied to the format to deliver a full experience. In this report, we highlight key steps in the organization of such an online conference, laying a focus on using mostly open source software to minimize costs, and discuss differences to both on-site and other online conference formats.