Before the conference

Registration

To attend you must be registered at the UCL Store (nb this is not EasyChair which we used for submissions). This closes at 11.59pm on the 2nd July, UK BST. Please note if someone booked on your behalf, and used their email address, the zoom links will be sent to them! If you think this is the case, please email with the correct email to use, and subject line ’email for Zoom links’ to help us keep track.

To the extent that presenters have provided them, slides are available in advance and will normally have the session number as a prefix to help you match them to the programme.

Overview

The conference is a ‘long thin’ format, organised into three ‘shifts’ based on timezones and the number of submissions from that region. Anyone can attend any or all sessions; we simply did this so that people could attend during their normal working hours.

The shifts are:

1. UK/Europe (three all-day shifts);
2. USA/Canada (two all-day shifts);
3. New Zealand/Australia/China (two afternoon shifts).

Zoom

Please update your client before the conference (Zoom does not reliably update itself automatically, you may have an old version).

Three Zoom Links (one for each shift, re-used as needed) will be sent shortly before the conference starts to the email we have for you at the UCL Store where you registered and paid (nb not EasyChair, for presenters). Please do not forward the links to anyone.

Timing

Please note it is entirely possible that talks within sessions will occur in a different order than that advertised, for instance if the first speaker is unavoidably delayed or has to restart in the hope of a better connection (and so on). Chairs are being asked to prioritise timekeeping so may well ask the next speaker to present earlier than planned so that the original one can try to improve their connection, restart their device and so on. If you wish to attend a specific talk (only), please be present for the whole session in case the order is rejigged in the moment.

We appreciate it can be slightly confusing translating into different timezones. We do recommend you double-check that you have calculated the right interval eg using phone apps or websites (including whether you are on a different day from the UK).

• All times on the schedule are given in British Summer Time (BST) which is GMT (or UTC) + 1

• To doublecheck what is being presented at any particular time please check our twitter feed. This should give you quick confirmation of the current and next talk.

You can also consult this spreadsheet which maps timings to a range of locations:

 

During the conference

Empty room?

If you have successfully joined what seems to be an empty room when you expect a session, please double-check you are on the right room for the current shift. The twitter feed should help double-check what should be happening at any given time.

Zoom Etiquette

We have opted for a relatively unrestricted environment (a Zoom meeting). This means all participants can use chat, turn their mics and cameras on and off and share screens. Please be responsible for these (especially rogue mic sounds). Sessions will have a chair but please make their life easy! – mics off except by invitation during sessions. Chairs will be swift to mute people without asking if background noise disrupts presentations.

We opted for this to create some chance for people to mix and chat during the breaks. Rooms will stay open during breaks (and we do encourage you to move around) and will not always be actively monitored at those times; we trust participants to use private (1–1) chat, share the communal space with respect for one another. When the next speaker and chair begin to prepare for the next session, please mute yourselves (there is no ‘green room’ to prepare).

Please note (next time) that breaks may well be recorded. The recording will be discarded when we edit down to individual sessions and never published.

Zoom bombing?

The session chairs are being encouraged to act swiftly if it appears someone is zoom bombing us (ie attending just to disrupt rather than contribute). Please be aware that they can evict people from the room which means there will be no way to rejoin. Eviction will be used as a last resort – but also swiftly – to protect the session.

Recording

We aspire to record sessions and make them available later but do not guarantee we will not have technical problems or human error. Since forgetting to hit record is a persistent phenomenon for most of us, we will record entire shifts and edit them into individual sessions later. If you do not wish to have a question or presentation recorded please ask the session chair to pause recording. Your making the request will be edited out and never published (for continuity there might be, at most, an announcement by the editor that a request was made to pause recording).

After the Conference

Our plan is to port the talks to this blog site as a permanent repository and to include links to videos of talks. Please bear with us as this is quite a substantial task and will take a few weeks.

We also have firm plans to publish a collection, as is often done after the biennial conference; presenters will be contacted directly about this option, after the conference.