The selection of content for the program is handled by a Program Committee operating in liaison with the host's own committee which will be more concerned with the organization of facilities.
Content types
- Samvera Connect conferences generally provide a range of learning experiences:
- Workshop sessions (1.5, 3 or 6 (2x3) hours long)
- A plenary session comprising a number of presentations of general interest - including a 'State of Samvera' address (~3hrs)
- A poster 'show and tell' session (~2hrs)
- 25 minute presentations (25 minutes including Q&A)
- 25 or 55 minute panel discussions
- 7 minute lightning talks
- A half-day 'unconference'
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Experience has shown that information about presentations and presenters or panelists needs to be tracked very carefully. For a number of years this has been successfully handled using a GitHub Waffle Board and more recently its Zenhub add-in. Tracking should include the following:
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The Waffle Board provides the facility for appropriate notes to be maintained in addition to the above flags.
Sched
In 2018 and 2019 organizers experimented with Sched for providing program information - this contained a copy of the program information held on the wiki. In 2020, Sched became the main vehicle for this information, although the wiki version was still provided. If delegates are persuaded to select their sessions using Sched, it offers useful facilities for communicating with them as well as providing organizers with an indication of likely audience sizes.
Sessions and rooming
Workshops: It will probably be helpful, even necessary, to have delegates register for workshops. Such registration allows the conference organizers to allocate workshops to appropriately sized rooms and the presenters to contact delegates with any pre-workshop materials. Workshop delegates will almost certainly require flat surfaces to work on and access to power for the devices they will likely be using,
Presentations and panels: Organizers will need to use their judgement in how to allocate sessions to appropriately sized spaces (see Sched above). Delegates always hope to have access to power strips during these sessions but this is not always possible. These rooms will ideally have the ability to make at least an audio recording (presenter(s) willing) of the session. Streaming facilities would be nice.
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