---

tags: unconference
title: Unconference planning

---

# Unconference planning

:::info
* Dates: June 29-30, 13-16 CET
* Website: https://nordic-rse.org/events/2021-online-unconference/
* Signup: Indico
:::

:::danger

See below for older meeting minutes (in agenda)
Uppermost agenda is for the upcoming meeting

:::

## Actionpoints

- [x] [RD] Invite new 4th speaker
- [x] [RB] Contact previous invited 4th speaker
- [x] [PH,RD] Event announcement tweet (week 24)
- [x] [PH] Tweet about Shahnawaz contribution
- [x] [PH] Tweeted?
- [x] [PH] Tweet about Kristoffers contribution
- [x] [PH] Tweeted?
- [x] [SW] Ask Anne about tweeting about Mos contribution
- [x] [AF] follow up from above: tweeted?
- [x] [RB] Draft tweet about Anne's talk
- [x] Tweeted?
- [x] [PH] Create tweet to announce unconference going live (send it the same day)
- [PR](https://github.com/nordic-rse/nordic-rse-twitter/pull/22)
- [ ] Tweeted? (Jun 29)
- [x] [RB] RSE slack
- [x] [JR] Member email
- [x] [RB] On website indicate that we encourage comments on issues
- [x] [RD] ask submitted talks that indicated that they need help how we can help
- [x] [PH] find zoom host for event on zulip
- Naoe replied that she will be Zoom host.
- [x] [RB] Organize next planning meeting (week 25)
- [x] [PH] Submit PR with title/abstract for 4th speaker
- [ ] [RB] Prepare public HackMD: https://hackmd.io/@nordic-rse/unconference
- [x] [SW] Send email to participants (today/tomorrow), draft here https://hackmd.io/@nordic-rse/unconference_email/edit
- [ ] [RB] Send email on first day morning
- [x] [JR] Create a Zoom meeting: https://aalto.zoom.us/j/67126656785, 671 2665 6785
- [x] [RD] Create "how to do an unconference" outline text
- [ ] [RD?] ~~Record a starting video of this~~ Better to do it live
- [x] [RB] schedule PC short meeting
- [x] [RB] brief NT about expectations on "zoom host"
- [x] [PH] PR to website, split Q&A and nordic-RSE intro in schedule
- [ ] [SW] send email to speakers with short intro suggestion for each speakers, draft on bottom here: https://hackmd.io/@nordic-rse/unconference_email/edit

## Agenda 2021-06-22

1. Intro for new people & making sure everyone is on same page about format
2. Any existing open action points need re-assigning?
3. Invited talks status:
- all 4 speakers confirmed
- discuss backup plans if a speaker is sick and cannot attend
4. Registration status: 48 registrations
- How much have we communicated with registrants? Have we at all?
- Who will take care of email communication?
- hackmd
- zoom link
- explanation on unconference
- Aim at 2 emails. One today/tomorrow, another one on morning of event
5. Dissemination:
- tweet about 4th speaker
- tweet when event goes live
- anything more to do?
6. Roles
* Zoom Host: Previously NT. Possible backup: JR
* NT can take basically it, but great if JR (or any other) could take over at (or before) 16 CEST / 17 EEST.
~~* How about recording if we switch people?~~ no recording ongoing at that time
* "Program committee" (someone responsible for timetable) (RB, SW, PH, LF)
* Let's talk more about this: how do we set this up so that we don't start thinking about it after it started?
* who does intro talk (unconference format, how to submit contributions etc)
* extra meeting (RB,SW,PH,LF,RD) -> RB will schedule
* chairs? SW - during invited talks
* Zoom host takes some of the chair responsibility during unconference part
* let's define "some of the" to avoid surprises
* sending messages to BOR announcing breaks and switching to next block (assuming blocks are aligned)
* recording
* split role into two ("zoom host" is outdated term):
* "Zoom host": only real responsibility is making organizers co-host
* "Zoom recorder": recording
* "Chair": somebody overlooking the program announcing program stuff as co-host
* BOR management can be done by any of the co-hosts, but likely the Chair will do it.
* hackmd organizer (RB)
* where do we announce public hackmd? email for sure. also website?
* only email
* put zoom link into hackmd
* website up to dater (RB)
* Nordic RSE intro presentation (PH)
* Split up "14:40 : Q&A and Nordic-RSE" in schedule
* Does Nordic-RSE need/want to see a "dry-run"?
* PH will ask for feedback/help with fact-checking
* welcome day 1/hackmd introduction: SW
* welcome day 2: JR
7. Help for submissions that asked for help
- status so far
- how do we distribute this?

## Agenda week 24

1. Intro for new people & making sure everyone is on same page about format
2. Status of action points from last time
3. Status of invited talks
* Fourth invited contribution?
* Invite new one, contact previous invited and clarify that we have to invite others.
* Richard contacts new one.
* Anne had some suggestions.
* see 01.06 in speaker chat
* 3/4 contributions are slotted with titles and abstracts.
4. Dissemination
* Member email: [template](https://hackmd.io/LPozIQWfQkuTOXm-8RzgHw?edit)
* Jarno sent it out
* Week 24 tweet (today it is exactly 2 weeks left)
* Tweet each invited talk? One each day during Week 24 (after general tweet)?
* RD: is it time to send to our scicomp users? I can do it now
4. We ask ' do you need help? - [ ] I would like someone to help me plan the contribution' in the submission issues which almost anyone ticked so far. How do we offer help?
* ask what they need in issue comment? if yes -> actionpoint
* let the community know
* tweet?
* website?
6. Roles
* Zoom Host: Previously NT. Possible backup: JR
* NT can take basically it, but great if JR (or any other) could take over at (or before) 16 CEST / 17 EEST.
* "Program committee" (someone responsible for timetable) (RB, SW, PH, LF)
* chairs? SW - during invited talks
* Zoom host takes some of the chair responsibility during unconference part
* hackmd organizer (RB)
* website up to dater (RB)
* Nordic RSE intro presentation (PH)
* welcome day 1/(format) hackmd introduction and welcome (SW)
* welcome day 2 (JR)
* ~~stream~~ /recording? -> host
8. Format
* HackMD (one hackmd with all sessions as headers)
* organizer identification in zoom
* if there is questions
* (NRSE) before name?
* should be introduced in intro talk
9. Next planning meeting
* Chair / find a time (PH)
11. Nordic-RSE presentation
* How will time be distributed between "Q&A and Nordic-RSE" in the schedule? Maybe just split them up into two separate items? 5 or 10 min for Nordic RSE presentation?
* Idea for 10 min talk: Supershort intro on "what is RSE/who are RSEs" for newcomers. Why RSE? The RSE movement internationally. Nordic-RSE: who are we, what is our mission, what challenges do we face, what events are we doing. Why join us? Join us!
* Idea for 5 min talk: Same as above, but cut down on the RSE movement in general, and internationally.

## Agenda week 23 (2021-06-08)

Action points (from 8.6.21):
- [x] [RB] Change the GitHub issue template for contributions to reflect the new format
- add question about preferred day
- (unconference has a focus on less formal/less "prepared" contributions)
- [x] [AF&PH&JR] [Announcement email](https://hackmd.io/LPozIQWfQkuTOXm-8RzgHw)
- [x] [RB] Put the 3 confirmed speakers on the website
- [ ] [NT] Contact 4th speaker
- [x] [AF] [Tweets](https://github.com/nordic-rse/nordic-rse-twitter) (one every week for event then one tweet each for invited talks) (one ready to be reviewed 08-06-2021)
- [x] [AF] SNIC
- [ ] [RB] RSE slack
- [x] [AF] EuroHPC
- [x] [AF] Carpentries Nordic (it is on the monthly meeting agenda)
- [x] [SW] Zulip #announce
- [x] [PH] next meeting (week 24)

0. Intro for new people & making sure everyone is on same page about format
1. Status of action points from last time
* see below (2 last meetings)
3. Status of invited talks
* 3/4 accepted. No one asked for the 4th slot. Ideas?
* website update?
* Title and abstract(2-3 sentences optimal) for invited talks?
4. Roles
* Dissemination
* Member email status?
* More frequent tweets. A tweet with title and abstract for every invited talk? (with consent of course)
* RSE Slack?
* Carpentries email channels?
* sigma? Radovan (after we have the email text, will contact to get this on newsletter)
* SNIC?
* EuroHPC? (Ask Thor)
* ?Carpentries nordic email
* zulip #announce
* RSE slack (the international one): Radovan
* Zoom Host (NT)
* create breakoutrooms
* appoint co-hosts
* move people around
* have the overview
* indicate breaks (message to zoom rooms?)
* "Program committee" (someone responsible for timetable) (RB, SW, PH, LF)
* pre soft deadline of issue submissions
* but also for contributions made during event
* someone needs to have 'the say' (maybe host? since that role is seen by zoom participants)
* chairs? (SW)
* one needed for invited talks and Q&A
* appoint "live"? (- volunteers are hard to find)
* By default discussions should be chaired the submitter?
* announcing break
* message to breakoutroom
* hackmd organizer (see below) (RB)
* website up to dater (RB)
* Nordic RSE intro presentation (PH)
* who we are
* what we do
* where we want to go
* volunteer to do it?
* welcome day 1/format introduction
* welcome day 2
* ~~stream~~ /recording? -> host
5. Format
* HackMD
* ~~one general hackmd with links to session hackmds?~~ **OR**
* one hackmd with all sessions as headers?
* organizer identification in zoom
* if there is questions
* (NRSE) before name?
* should be introduced in intro talk

## (special invited talk) Meeting 2021-06-01

Action points (from 1.6.21):
- [x] ??: Clarify format (1 day conference, 1 day unconference) on the [event page](https://nordic-rse.org/events/2021-online-unconference/). Emphasize that the unconference is for less formal and "unprepared" talks, try to promote people who usually don't get a chance to talk (or might be scared away by flashy presentations from more experienced RSEs). See the bullet points "On-going projects" and "something else" on the [unconference page](https://nordic-rse.org/events/2021-online-unconference/).
- [x] ??: [Explain what unconference means](https://github.com/nordic-rse/nordic-rse.github.io/issues/230)
- [x] Radovan: create chat group and get the ball rolling again to get name suggestions
- [x] Radovan: Change the GitHub issue template for contributions to reflect the new format (unconference has a focus on less formal/less "prepared" contributions)

- We will use a format where we start with a 1-1.5 hour
"conference" format (4 presentations) and the rest of
day 1 and day 2 will be "unconference" format
- we have reached out to two speakers
- we need to encourage two more, Radovan will open a private chat channel where we can suggest names and track who we have reached out to and who has confirmed
- unconference part
- 30 min: intro of Nordic RSE, the format of the unconference
- Starting with something in between intro-round and lightning talks
- Talk should/could introduce what they are working with, can present/show/share, interested in
- we can show examples of slides/image that they can share during the round
- we encourage all participants to introduce what they work on
- in this session participants can also pitch ideas for sessions later
- "I can teach/show X" and "I want to know X"
- If using e.g. HackMD, "I want to know X" can be upvoted, as a way of self-selecting interesting topics for the event
- live code review (idea)
- submission of ideas via github issue

## Action points from 26.05.2021:
- JR: ~~Add link to registration~~
- RB: fix time on website to have official end 16:00 cet
- RB: Add [membership form](https://forms.gle/qCVVRGXPi3Hq7inW6) link on [Join Us page](https://nordic-rse.org/communities/join/).
- JR: Announcement email
- PH: ~~announcement tweet: [pull request](https://github.com/nordic-rse/nordic-rse-twitter/pull/16)~~
- RB: Slack
- SW: make new twitter image
- LF: add submission deadline to website, also remove "of any length", clarify texts https://github.com/nordic-rse/nordic-rse.github.io
- RB: arrange meeting about invited contributions (in 1 week).
- SW: arrange the next planning meeting (in 2 weeks).

## Agenda 26.05.2021
Participants: Jarno, Luca, Radovan, Patric, Samantha

0. Intro for new people
* something informal with little preparation work, 'birds of a feather'
* 2 days, 3 hours each
* website: https://nordic-rse.org/events/2021-online-unconference/
* open registration to be done (Jarno)
1. Dissemination
* NRSE members email asap
* Email-lists
* [RSE society newsletter](https://society-rse.org/calling-for-newsletter-submissions/)
* sigma? Radovan (after we have the email text, will contact to get this on newsletter)
* SNIC?
* Carpentries nordic email
* twitter
* nordic_rse (PR via https://github.com/nordic-rse/nordic-rse-twitter): Patric
* coderefinery retweets
* change image for tweets (Samantha)
* zulip #announce
* RSE slack (the international one): Radovan
2. Clarification on the format
* 2-4 things at same time but as sequential as possible, depending on submissions
* invited talks
* submissions
* where?
* issues in the repository
* website repository
* submitted issues are discussed and then added to event
* until when?
* soft deadline day before event?
* types: (for timetable generation)
* lightning talk: 10 min in total ?
* noninteractive talks: 20 min in total ?
* interactive talks: 30 min in total ?
-> an issue template will be created (Jarno)
* Time says 13-16 CET but website includes longer program
* social time as optional after 'program'
* adjust on website (Radovan)
3. Tech
* zoom? :heavy_check_mark:
* hackmd? :heavy_check_mark:
* Streaming and recording (opt-in)? :heavy_check_mark:
* one room stream, but ask submitting persons if they want their talk to be streamed
4. Roles (not talked about, moved to next meeting)
* Dissemination
* Host
* "Program committee" (someone responsible for timetable)
* chairs? appoint "live"?
* By default discussions should be chaired the submitter.
* hackmd
* Nordic RSE intro presentation
* stream/recording?
5. Invited contributions
* How many?
* 4-6?
* should be mentioned to invited people that it may be in parallel with other sessions
* Do we have any suggestions already?
* see Zulip/below

* special meeting for this in week 22

6. Next meeting in 2 weeks
* week 23

## Issue template:
### Title of the contribution:

### It is a:
- [ ] Lightning talk (3 minutes, discussion later)
- [ ] Short talk (10 minutes including discussion)
- [ ] Longer talk (30 minutes including discussion)
- [ ] Discussion (up to 80 minutes)
- [ ] Demonstration (up to 80 minutes)
- [ ] Workshop (up to 80 minutes)
- [ ] [insert your own idea here]

> Comment: How about suggesting 30/60/90 min for discussion/demonstration/workshop which can be chosen by submitter?

### Do you need help?
- [ ] I would like someone to help me plan the contribution
- [ ] I would like an introduction/test session for the tech (zoom and hackmd)

### Would you be comfortable if your event was live-streamed/recorded?
- [ ] Yes
- [ ] No

> Comment: Or should we ask if they want to live-stream record instead?
>
### Give a short description of your contribution:

## Suggestions for invited contributions:
-
- **Kristoffer Carlsson** (JuliaComputing, one of the people developing the Julia language). Can speak about e.g. HPC, reproducibility, open source development, related to Julia. Maybe we have suggestions on something that interests us in particular?
- **Shahnawaz Ahmed** (PhD at Chalmers/WACQT, combining machine learning with research on quantum computing, co-author of the wildly popular QuTiP package). Have interesting experience to share e.g. about how to keep an open-source research code alive, which is no easy feat in academia (no matter how successful the code is apparently) due to funding and people constantly leaving.
- **Sunniva Indrehus**: "As an RSE in a team of scientists, I feel that I quickly fall into the 'git-evangelist' role".
- **?Giulia Ferrini** (Researcher in the European Quantum Computing project): is quantum computing the future? Will we all be writing quantum software in a few years?

Suggestions to reach out to:
- Susa Merz
- Samantha Wittke
- Seija Sirkia
- Adela Sobotkova
- reach out also to Kristoffer Nielbo for contacts in DigHum
- Athanasia Monika Mowinckel
- What about Helena Rasche, Mozhgan Kabiri Chimeh?
- Women in HPC?