FEC 2020 | The virtual experience The international fusion community charts the progress of its craft. The 28th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference (FEC 2020) took place on line from 10 to 15 May 2021.There was a time, before the invention of the internet, when conferences were the only opportunity to exchange the latest news, whether good or bad. In the field of fusion energy research, the Fusion Energy Conference (FEC), organized since 1961 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has offered a regular platform for the international research community to present the latest experimental results and to align the theoretical approaches. Sixty years after the start of the conference series, and even in the context of high-speed internet putting the world at each scientist's fingertips, the FEC remains the most important gauge to measure the progress made towards the taming of the atom.