Online conference, convenient but not very beneficial?

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On the morning of July 9, in Hanoi, the Politburo and the Secretariat held a national conference to disseminate Regulation No. 144-QD/TW on revolutionary ethical standards of cadres and party members in the new period; Directive No. 35-CT/TW on Party Congresses at all levels towards the 14th National Congress of the Party. The conference was organized in a combination of in-person and online formats from the Central to the commune level. In Hai Duong, the conference was broadcast live to 135 locations, including 1 provincial location, 14 district locations, and 120 commune locations with nearly 17,364 delegates attending.

According to the leader of the Tu Ky District Party Committee Office, online meetings help delegates at the district and commune levels not have to travel far but still listen to senior leaders and central reporters. The meeting's diverse components and wide dissemination save a lot of costs and time.

Mr. Nguyen Duc Tiep, Chief of Office of Kim Thanh District Party Committee, also said that meetings held online bring many benefits. “Localities do not have to hold meetings in person, so they save a lot of time, avoid many risks and reduce travel and living expenses. Meanwhile, the entire content is still fully conveyed,” Mr. Tiep said.

To serve online conferences, since 2021, Hong Du commune (Ninh Giang) has invested over 500 million VND in purchasing and upgrading equipment and internet lines. All online meetings connected from the Central with the participation of commune and village leaders, Hong Du commune organizes a bridge point in the commune. Mr. Nguyen Dinh Hien, a civil servant at the Office of the People's Committee of Hong Du commune, said that in the past, every time there was a conference or meeting held online at the district bridge point, the participants had to go to the district to attend the meeting. Many meetings had to be re-organized in the commune. Since 2021, with the application of the online meeting room system, the locality does not have to travel far, does not have to re-organize, so it saves a lot of time and money.

Thanks to online conferences, the province and localities save billions of dong in meeting costs every year. According to the Department of Information and Communications, from 2011 to present, the province has organized and connected an average of about 100 online conferences each year. The deployment of the online meeting room system also contributes to improving the leadership and management capacity of Party committees and authorities and the operational efficiency of the entire political system when the Central's policies reach the grassroots faster.

Not very effective

Mr. Vu Van Quang, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Tan Huong Commune (Ninh Giang) said that the quality of online meetings depends largely on the responsibility of each participant. Because it is an online meeting, the audience is wide and all participants sit together "watching TV", if the delegates are not serious and focused, it is easy for the situation to occur that "the conference is just talking on TV" while the participants are still talking privately and solving personal problems.

In fact, some places have large halls but small screens, making it difficult for participants to follow. Therefore, in many places, at the beginning of the conference, all the participants are present, but in the middle and at the end of the conference, there are only a few people left in the online meeting room, which is not serious.

As a locality that invested hundreds of millions of VND to connect online conferences early, according to the leaders of Tu Ky town, in reality, online conferences still have some limitations. Ms. Dinh Thi Khanh, Secretary of the Party Committee of Tu Ky town, said that sitting and watching online conferences on a TV screen can easily make participants bored. Meanwhile, limited equipment and transmission lines, integration, connection or interruption... significantly affect the quality of the conference. "Although online conferences allow people to see each other, they still lack personal interaction and do not have a discussion section, so they are less attractive to participants," Ms. Khanh said.

The representative of the Department of Culture, Information and Sports of Thanh Mien district also admitted that besides the advantages, online video conferences also have some limitations. The simultaneous organization of online conferences nationwide and throughout the province, many contents are not really close to the reality of localities and bases. The participants of online conferences are expanded, with many subjects and components, which also significantly affects the resolution of work in localities.

According to leaders of some district-level Party Committees' Propaganda Departments, for important contents, Party committees need to combine organizing online conferences and in-person conferences to thoroughly and seriously grasp and discuss policies and issues that are close to and suitable to local realities for implementation.

There should be rules for attending online conferences.
In fact, at current online conferences, there is still a situation where delegates initially attend in full, but towards the end, they become less serious, chat, do personal work, and even leave before the conference ends...
To rectify the above situation, the Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department or the Department of Information and Communications needs to develop and issue guidelines on regulations and principles when organizing and connecting online conferences at bridge points. Agencies, units and localities need to have solutions to manage and supervise delegates to ensure full participation and seriousness, such as taking roll call at the end of the conference, and having a form of reminder and handling cases of unserious attendance.
Before opening or after ending the online conference, the conference chair at the district and grassroots levels should also take time to thoroughly understand, analyze, clarify or conclude the core contents and relate to local practices so that delegates can better understand and grasp the content conveyed at the conference.
Ninh Van Khanh
Chairman of People's Committee of Tuan Viet Commune (Kim Thanh)