Scientific conference online? Why not?
Research in the Culture Sector is an event where scholars from Kraków can present the results of their research and encourage their colleagues from all over Poland to do the same.
In 2020, apart from research, the main topics of discussion were the various perspectives of practitioners, theorists and recipients of culture. There was discussion of what opportunities and challenges they will face. What changes await scientists? What tools to use to explore the future of creating and organising? How to build relationships with recipients in an innovative way?
The conference was 100% online, with all participants and invited guests connecting from their homes or workplaces. Some parts had been recorded in advance, the rest was presented live. The scientific information was presented in a variety of ways, including standard lectures, debates, conversations, and also via the chat and meetings in small groups in specially prepared rooms.
An important element of the event was the poster session prepared on the PINE platform. In addition to the main session, there were also thematic parallel sessions on the agenda. What’s more, participants could also enjoy a range of entertainment and networking attractions, such as speed dating, a conference playlist, a competition for the best paper and a tab for uploading photos and impressions from the conference.
Research in the Culture Sector 2020 – online poster session
During the 2-day conference, a number of poster sessions were held. Interestingly, they were carried out entirely in the virtual world, which was made possible by one of the functionalities of the PINE platform. The posters could be uploaded by their creators to the platform and then made available to the conference participants. We created special rooms for the speakers, which could be joined by participants interested in the subject and they could subsequently ask questions about the available materials. Some of the posters were also enriched with video materials, which were displayed in a loop and broadcast throughout the conference in a tab dedicated to the poster sessions.
Videoconference platform
We used the PINE platform for this scientific conference. This tool allowed us not only to safely stream the live connections with the speakers and broadcast the previously recorded materials, but also invite guests to many interactions, ranging from more standard ones, such as chats and meeting rooms, through to networking in a speed dating format or a shared conference playlist.
We started our work by considering how many elements of the conference should be held online and how many could be done on-site. It soon became apparent, however, that the situation with the pandemic meant it was best to assume it would be a fully virtual event.
Therefore, we prepared a series of tutorials to help speakers who wished to record themselves remotely, even before the event itself. We then started working on the preparation of the animations that would complement the rich agenda, and we programmed the PINE platform. The next steps involved collecting information about the participants and the individual sessions and then entering them in the platform and configuring them. We also supplemented the tool with certain new ideas both from our side and also from the client: speed dating, a playlist, a contest, voting – all in order to provide more interaction with the participants. Finally, we invited the participants to the platform and recorded the details of the online debate that opened the conference and which we streamed from the National Museum in Warsaw (all the while being in our own Kraków production studio). Following the event, we provided statistics about the number of participants and the popularity of individual sessions.
Statistics
Online event statistics:
- No. of people: 300
- Platform: PINE
- 100% online
- Duration: 2 days
