Organizing Samvera Connect meetings

Introduction

This document is intended to serve both as an aide-memoire for the Samvera Board and a loose guide for Partners or others who may be involved in organizing an annual Samvera Connect event.  It is assumed that it will be a continual work in progress and that it should be updated each year in the light of new needs and new experience.   It is offered as guidance only and is provided "as is" without any warranty as to accuracy or completeness.  It should be stressed that Samvera is grateful to any host who takes on this significant task for the Community and that the Samvera Board will endeavor to help a host resolve any particular problems that may arise.  As noted above, these pages are a 'loose guide', not a prescription and local circumstances may call for a tailored response.

These pages have most recently been edited following Connect 2019 at Washington University in St Louis.  Covid-19 resulted in a virtual conference in 2020 and so only very minor changes to these pages.

Overview

Samvera Connect is an opportunity to connect with other Samvera users, find out what Samvera is all about, and get involved; for established Samverans it is an opportunity to share experience with friends old and new, and to see what is going on across our Community.

We encourage Samverans:  "as a Samvera Partner or user, if you can only make it to one Samvera meeting this academic year,  this is the one to attend!"

For the hosting institution the event enables local staff to immerse themselves in the Samvera Community to assist with local training, engagement and awareness, it gives them the opportunity to showcase local Samvera and related developments and it provides an opportunity to engage senior staff, where useful, to help them understand the benefit of participating in the Samvera Community.

Past, present and future conference statistics

The meeting cycle