Summarising: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OGJZ1_w3PgmdCMILqsGI-cGtjzuqHbWBTpNjDSkOX2c/
Coffee breaks & session timing:
- having well distributed sessions with breaks in-between was very helpful to allow recovery time
- Workshops on the Wednesday broke up the conference
Posters:
- Positioning these next to the queue for coffee was a stroke of genius.
- Gaps between the posters were wide enough not to cause overcrowding
Covid precautions:
- Social-distancing stickers and wearing of masks were generally respected by attendees
- Clear messaging from organisers on this was great
Posters:
- Compile abstracts into a PDF programme to distribute beforehand. Could improve accessibility of the posters for those with visual impairments and various forms of neurodiversity. Possibly link to hosted poster PDFs too?
- Advertise periods when poster room is likely to be quiet: possibly 1 hour each day where the room is held for quiet viewing of posters. Maybe just improving the messaging that the posters can be viewed during other sessions too.
- Have a virtual sli.do room for poster questions and make presenters aware of this, facilitating poster questions for those who struggle with face-to-face interaction
Quiet room:
- Improve signage and info on what the quiet room is actually for (i.e., it is a space to go if you need a quiet environment, not a space where you can go to take a video call).
- Some enforcement may be required: can volunteers check in on the room from time to time?
Food
- Ensuring that dietary requirements are clearly labelled and thought of ahead of time, instead of reactive as it was at '23.
- A standard society checklist to go through with the catering provider might prevent the issues encountered at Swansea?
Social events
- Holding the event closer to the accommodation would allow people to leave when they want, as opposed to having to wait for a bus
- Would be good to have informal (self-organised) backups for those not attending main social events
- Some starting-off points for self-organisation could be provided
- Covid-safe spaces, e.g. outside
- Background noise can be an issue (Bunkers was particularly challenging for some attendees, BBQ was much better)
- Options for less full-on session:
- Bar or Alcohol-based social events can be exclusionary to people on religious grounds (e.g. Islamic beliefs), noise, and various forms of neurodiversity.
- Board games night? Quieter evening social spaces.
Networking:
- More organised support to connect / network: some suggestions included:
- Opt-in networking sessions where pairs (or groups of up to 4) are assigned and rotate after some time
- Facilitate discussion in these using a set of seed questions. Particiapants can use these or take their discussions off-piste
- Include non-work questions as talking about work can be harder for early career folk.
- Make this session hybrid.
- Accommodations for neurodiverse attendees will also help early-career folks
Hybrid events:
- Could online attendees be better included in discussion?
- Providing ability to make unconferencing events hybrid too
Lanyards/badges:
- Print name in larger print on both sides: the badges rotate!
- Maybe a shorter lanyard?
- Can help those with difficulty recognising faces (prosopagnosia, known as "face blindness")
- EDI Working Group organised ribbon making, some participants used this to make their invisible disability visible
- Perhaps we could provide badges (e.g. "I can be sensitive to certain sounds")
- Can we raise awareness of attendees with disabilities in pre-conference materials?
Code-of-conduct:
- Some concerns raised that the current reporting model has a high barrier to reporting
- Could there be a nominated member of the committee to bring CoC concerns to?
- At the beginning of every session; link to CoC as part of the housekeeping.
- Give examples to moderators of sli.do questions which are unacceptable
Hi Clark @cruxicheiros! The ribbon making was organised by the RSE Soc EDIA working group (in practice, I organised it with financial support from the society!), not the conference organising committee. I put "Autistic" and "#QueerRSE" on my own ribbons, and that encouraged others to adopt those labels as well.
I think I will run the ribbon making again next year as a) I have all the stuff now, and b) it was, as you say, a really nice conversation starter. I think the key is to have examples of what you might put on a ribbon: we did leave it very open, but in practice people really valued the examples.