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
The first Hydra Connect featured a number of different approaches to content:
- pre-conference workshops
- plenary sessions
- panels
- lightning talks
- show and tell (poster/demo) sessions
- unconference breakouts
- developer space
Connect #2 introduced
- 20 minute talks
- explicit workshop sessions on the last day
Connect 2016 introduced Interest and Working group f2f meetings on the last afternoon (pre-timetabled).
All these seemed well received but there are a small number of provisios:
- lightning talks should be no more than 7 minutes (some felt that the 10 minute ones were too long)
- the 'State of the HydraSphere' plenary needs mapping out beforehand so that all our message gets across; we need to remember that Connect is a recruiting exercise as well as a Partner meeting and we need to reach out to delegates who are "kicking the tyres".
- the first Connect failed to have a short plenary closing the conference (mainly due to lack of a suitable space); this was unfortunate because the end of the meeting just drifted. In 2016 we deliberately avoided a closing meeting and just filled the rest of the timetable to bursting! That worked fine.
- the poster show and tell session turns out to be one of the most valued events of the week; it needs careful planning
Planning
Discussions about the outline timetable need to occur very early in the planning process. If there are to be invited contributions, contributors need to have early notice of such things as:
- lightning talks: how long?
- posters: how big?
- screencasts: target audience(s)
Proposed workshops need to be listed very early on so that people can decide whether to come for the pre-conference workshop day. Each workshop should have a set of learning outcomes for delegates to consider and clearly state any pre-requisites for attendance.
Connect #2 was criticized for not having its detailed program published early enough for people to judge whether to attend; the well-trailed structure of the event seemed not to be enough for some.
The detailed program needs to be available on-line before and during the meeting in a form that is suited to use on phones and tablets - so a simple HTML page isn't going to do. (We had complaints about this after HC2).
...
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'
Planning
Discussions about the outline timetable need to occur very early in the planning process and dates will need to be set for sending out various informational emails and the deadlines they may contain. As regards content, these emails might include:
A CFP for workshops. This is the first of the CFPs because we like to have our workshop list complete by the time delegates make their travel plans for the conference. Recipients are asked if they would to propose a workshop to run themselves or to propose a workshop that they would find useful to attend. The following is an extract from the 2019 call:
If you are proposing to run a workshop you will be asked to provide us with:
the workshop title
the name(s) of the presenters
email address of main presenter
length of workshop (1.5 hrs, 3hrs, 6hrs)
the target audience (Developers, UI/UX, Administrators, System Admins/DevOps, Metadata, Managers, Newcomers, other)
the expected learning outcomes for the participants
a description (no more than 200 words or so) for the conference program
any technology that participants will need to provide
the maximum number of participants you would want
Closing date 14th May. Notifications should be expected by the end of the month.
If you are requesting a workshop, you will be asked to give us:
a suggested title
the knowledge or skills you would like the workshop to impart
if you can, the name(s) of anyone you think might be willing to deliver the workshop
A Google form was provided to obtain the information. Reminders were sent during the proposal period.
A CFP for presentation and panels.
This CFP is similar in nature to the workshop one, soliciting the following information:
the session title
the name(s) of the presenters/panelists
email addresses of the presenters/panelists
clear indication of whether this is a presentation or panel
the target audience (Developers, UI/UX, Administrators, System Admins/DevOps, Metadata, Managers, Newcomers, other)
a description (no more than 200 words or so) for the conference program
Again a Google form or similar is used. The Program Committee may also wish to 'commission' one or more sessions that they feel would be of benefit to delegates.
Organizers may find some tension between laying on content that they deem necessary and desirable as compared with ideas solicited from the community. The community can be reluctant to contribute suggestions (at least via web forms) and, in any case, some come to the conference with a "consumer mentality" expecting to be offered training and fed information. A collaboratively developed conference is an alien concept to manysome.
...
We need always to cater for those who attend Connect to "find out more" and who are not yet committed to Hydra. Each parallel session should have something for these folks.LikewiseSamvera. Likewise, we should remember that Connect attracts "managers", sysadmins, metadata specialists and more as well as developers and there needs should always to be a session content attractive to them. In addition, Connect #2 provided a couple of dedicated slots for sysadmins.
Sessions and rooming
A questionnaire should go out once the attendance list is (nigh on) complete to gather some information - including essential information for rooming. This might include (as it did for Connect #2):
- confirmation of email address
- which track the delegate intends to follow for most of the meeting
- which workshops they plan to attend
- whether they have any food preferences that you should try to account for at the conference social meal
- which parallel sessions they will likely attend
- which workshops they will likely attend on the final day
The information from this survey will give the organizers estimates of the attendance at each session which should help to allocate rooms that are of varying size.
Google Forms worked extremely well for this survey at Connect #2. Workshop organizers were sent a list of names and e-mail addresses for their workshop ahead of the event.
For HC2015, EventBrite was used to book attendance at workshops (without charge). This allowed us to have caps on workshop size which could be juggled to match the available room capacities.
Allocating sessions to rooms so that there is adequate space for the likely audience is a non-trivial task.
Delegates expect .
A CFP for posters
This CfP will ideally include information regarding the required size for posters and about how posters may be printed locally to the conference (see below). In the past, a wiki sign-up page has been adequate to collect a list of posters. Delegates should be reminded that we ask every institution represented at the conference will provide a poster.
A CFP for lightning talks
Again, a sign-up page on the wiki will probably be adequate to gather this information - and it may be that late additions can be accommodated even during the first day (Wednesday?) of the conference to be announced in the overnight email.
Tracking presentations and presenters
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:
presenter/panelist contacted (if a commissioned talk, or to accept proposal submitted via CFP)
presenter/panelist agreed to give session
additional presenter(s)/panelist(s) agreed
session details received
target audience(s) identified
permission to record (or refusal of same) received and noted
presenter(s)/panelist(s) registered for conference
central deposit of slide pack (since 2018 the program committee has attempted to gather the slide packs ahead of the corresponding presentation so that they can be made available via host computer/projection systems. This also facilitates archiving of the content.)
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 sessions in smaller (non-plenary) rooms.
...
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.
Plenary session
The plenary space will need very good projection facilities and sound. A In addition to a microphone for the speaker, at least one roving mic should be available for Q&A sessions. An engineer should ideally be on hand to cope with any problems (the sound volume at Connect #2 was variable and the cause of a number of complaints). Whilst it can be difficult to provide power strips in a large space, an attempt should be made to do so.The second conference was too big to have each delegate introduce themselves to the plenary audience. Rather a "Spotlight on new attendees" slot prefaced a number of the plenaries. Ten or so new attendees (including new faces from "old" Hydra collaborators) we asked to introduce themselves and say a little bit about their involvement with Hydra - the standard questions were notified beforehand. This approach seemed to go well although using the same set of questions throughout was perhaps something that might be reconsidered. At HC2015 this was moved to two slots during the poster session and newcomers were given up to a minute to introduce themselves and say why they were there - that worked well, too.. The room will ideally have the ability to make at least an audio recording (presenter(s) willing) of the session. Streaming facilities would be nice.
Poster "Show and Tell" session
The Poster Show and Tell turns out to be one of the most successful sessions at Connect. It is helpful to communicate a maximum poster size well before the event ("A0" or "A1", for instance). It is even more helpful if the posters can be printed for delegates locally so that they don't have to manage cardboard tubes on planes (there might even usefully be a budget line to cover this cost - though this is not an expectation). For Connect #2 we made We make it an expectation that each attending institution would should create at least one poster explaining what they were are doing (or thinking of doing) with Hydra. A Samvera. At early Connect conferences, a number of delegates complained that they were manning a poster and so didn't get to see the rest; encouraging a change round at half-time is therefore likely a good thing even if it leaves some posters unmanned. Many delegates wished hope that the posters had remained remain available to view during the following day.
The Connect #2 Poster session was Poster sessions have sometimes been prefaced by a "minute madness" slot which seemed to work well; at HC2015 we dropped this and received no complaints!sometimes works well and others not so much!
Conference photograph
At some point in the conference, usually on the plenary/poster day, arrangements should be made to take a conference photograph. This, of course, requires access to a big space (the plenary auditorium may work), but crucially to a competent photographer. Delegates who do not wish to appear in the photograph must be offered the option.
Display tables
If the conference is offering display tables (for instance, as a benefit of sponsorship), there will need to be tables for sponsors/exhibitors to set out their stalls. Ideally these will be close to the conference rooms and form part of the refreshment space so that delegates naturally interact with the people manning them. It is a much less satisfactory experience for those concerned if the tables are in a "room off".
Conference survey
Delegates should have access to an on-line survey after the event and the URL for this should be announced in a plenary session as well as being in the conference literature and listed in emails. The surveys for all three recent Connects have had very similar questions for easy comparison.
...