From Lou Woodley:
We’re putting together the programme for this year’s Science Online London event and we’d like to have your input!
What kind of sessions are you looking for?
Much of the conference will consist of discussion sessions and workshops led by attendees. As explained in our previous email (included below), this year we’re focusing on three main topic strands:
i) science communication and outreach
ii) online tools and digital publishing
iii) science policy and community issues.
Ideally, for the discussion sessions we’d like to include a mixture of different voices and opinions so if you’re thinking of making a suggestion, please consider who else might have something to contribute to the conversation. You could outline a problem or ask a specific question and then brainstorm solutions. You could provide an update about the current status of a particular area and the challenges it faces. Alternatively, you might want to use the session as an opportunity to crowd-source some input into a resource that the community could use e.g. a list of useful contacts, links or tools. In all cases, the aim is for the audience to be able to shape the discussions during the sessions, rather than a one-way panel presentation.
For the workshop sessions, do you have a website, app or online tool that you’d like to demo or do you have other online expertise such as running online events or other activities that you could share?
If you’d like a reminder of the topics that were discussed at last year’s conference, see the blog posts, video archives and Storifys collated on the wiki.
How do I make a suggestion or get involved?
If you have an idea for a session, please add it to the wiki. You might not want to run the session yourself but would like to see a particular topic covered this year. You can also suggest other people that you’d like us to invite to take part. Alternatively, you may be interested in an existing session on the wiki, in which case please add your name and additional thoughts to that description. The conference is a great opportunity to make new friends and collaborators so don’t feel shy if you don’t know someone – we can help with introductions!
What’s the deadline? And what happens next?
To help with our planning, we’d like to receive your suggestions by 6pm on Monday 27th August. We’ll then review all the ideas and Laura, Martin or I will be in touch. This year, we’d like to have one main session coordinator who will work to put together each session and we’ll share a checklist with them to help with this. Of course, we’ll also be available to help out with planning and answering questions