Organizing the meeting content

Owned by Bill Branan
Last updated: Apr 15, 2022 by Heather Greer Klein
6 min read

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'



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 some.

We need always to cater for those who attend Connect to "find out more" and who are not yet committed to Samvera.  Likewise, we should remember that Connect attracts "managers", sysadmins, metadata specialists and more as well as developers and there should always be content attractive to them.  

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 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.  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 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).  We make it an expectation that each attending institution should create at least one poster explaining what they are doing (or thinking of doing) with 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 hope that the posters had remain available to view during the following day.

Poster sessions have sometimes been prefaced by a "minute madness" slot which 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 recent Connects have had very similar questions for easy comparison.