[Esip-meetings] Conflict today - Meeting Update from Susan

[Susan Shingledecker]

Good Morning Meetings Committee!

I hope your 2021 is off to a great start! I am sorry, but I am double
booked today at 1pm and will not be able to make our regularly scheduled
call. Sudhir, please let us know your preference to have the call without
me, I believe Megan can attend, or reschedule. Below is an update from my
perspective on where we are in preparation for the Winter Meeting. Feel
free to send me any questions.

*Registration*
As of this morning we have 211 registered attendees. You should know I have
had numerous requests for comp registrations and I have been consistent in
not granting comps other than those provided to each session. ESIP depends
on the registration revenue to support our operations. The one area I am
looking at some new comp registrations is to cultivate  participation from
black and Latino students. The aim of this is to diversify the pipeline of
talent that knows ESIP at an early career stage and applies to the
Community Fellows program as an entry point into ESIP.

*Plenaries*
*Tuesday Plenary*
NASA still hasn't confirmed our opening plenary speaker. Today I will tell
them it is time to commit!
We have invited Christina Koch
<https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/christina-h-koch> - NASA
Astronaut. I have asked Christina to speak about what it takes to be
successful working at "the Frontier" both physically and technologically
based on her work at ISS and McMurdo. I knew Christina when she lived in
Annapolis many years ago and was hoping the personal connection would help.

Our second speaker is confirmed and we will have Caitlin Kontgis
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitlin-kontgis> formerly Chief Scientist for
Descarte Labs and now with Impact Observatory. I have asked her to speak
about the elements needed to incubate innovation.

If NASA doesn't come through I have a list of backup options at the ready.
We will likely add an interactive session gathering input from the
community on the end of this plenary about innovation at ESIP.

*Wednesday Plenary*
This session will be a panel or fish bowl discussion on AI and ML. The
featured speakers will be Lexie Yang
<https://www.ornl.gov/staff-profile/lexie-yang> from ORNL, Lyndon Estes
<https://www2.clarku.edu/faculty/facultybio.cfm?id=1110> from Clark
University, and Hannah Kerner
<https://geog.umd.edu/facultyprofile/kerner/hannah-0> from Univ of
Maryland. This panel was curated by Hamed from Radiant Earth who
unfortunately had a conflict and wasn't able to moderate. They will be
talking about the latest innovation in AI and ML. Our facilitators
recommend a fish bowl approach where the panelists have a discussion
amongst themselves and then toward the end of the session we bring the
community in and reflect on what we heard and how to apply it to ESIP.

*Thursday Plenary *
Our last plenary will feature Natasha Noy
<https://research.google/people/NatalyaNoy/> and Dan Brickley
<https://uk.linkedin.com/in/danbri>of Google on Google data search and
schema.org. Due to schedules this plenary will be pre-recorded and the
speakers will participate live in the chat and then appear live for Q&A
afterwards. This mixes up our format which is great - and this was a
successful format for Erin's lecture at AGU so it won't be new to our
audience.

*Breakout sessions*
Our breakout sessions are on track thanks to the hard work of Megan
wrangling the many pieces! This week we will be offering 3 training
sessions on various virtual facilitation techniques based on session goals
to further support our communities development in this area and ensure the
most engaging and interactive meeting possible!

*Platforms*
We will again use Qiqochat as the frame for our meeting. We are about to
finalize our choice of video call platforms. Given the challenges for
federal employees accessing Zoom it was my goal to migrate to a platform
that allowed our federal sponsors to access all content on an even playing
field. This would also eliminate the need to live stream the meeting which
is additional effort on the staff. We are hoping to use Microsoft Teams who
recently rolled out new breakout room functionality. Since we began testing
Teams we have found a few glitches. This afternoon we will do a larger test
of Teams with more users to see if it is a widespread problem or an
isolated incident. If you would like to participate in that test, please
reach out to Megan or Patty. If we are not able to go with Teams, we will
use Zoom and livestream to YouTube. We will start holding all collaboration
area calls and training in the chosen platform to maximize familiarity.

Should we secure Christina or another astronaut speaker we will be required
to use Teams for that session.

*Social*
We are placing a greater emphasis on social activities for this meeting to
enhance networking opportunities. We will be using Wonder a spatial chat
application for many of the social events that gives the space a more
in-person feel. We have one happy hour planned by a collaboration area and
we will have coffee breaks with themed areas as well. I am also working on
Geoguesser a mapping game that I shared with you on one of our last calls.

*Sponsorship*
I will be finalizing sponsorships this week so we are sure to get the logos
and branding in place. SAIC has sponsored at $10,000 and is
additionally sponsoring our webinar series this year for another $5,000. I
have on-going conversations with a few other sponsors and we have in-kind
sponsors as well. I researched swag options from our last discussion. In
the end I decided that the cost and environmental impact of mailing 200-300
packages did not make sense. I look forward to some great ESIP swag when we
are next in person!

*Summer Meeting *
I want you to know that I am keeping and eye on Summer meeting planning.
Our contract with the hotel in Vermont has a next decision point of March.
If the Federal government is not travelling by March we have an out in the
contract. This is not a decision I take lightly. I would very much like to
see an in-person meeting. It feels hard to know what the world will look
like in March much less late-July! I am also thinking about hybrid options
or perhaps regional outdoor social gatherings if travelling to a meeting
isn't advisable, but local outdoor gatherings are safe. I am open to any
and all ideas!

Apologies again for the conflict today. It is going to be a busy and
exciting month. Thank you for serving on the Meetings Committee this year!

Susan


-- 
*Susan Shingledecker*
Executive Director
Earth Science Information Partners - ESIP

443.223.6208 | susanshingledecker at esipfed.org

esipfed.org
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