Info Pack: Speakers & Session Hosts

The MyData 2016 conference programme is packed with over 40 amazingly diverse sessions and workshops. Around 130 people around the world have helped build the programme, and their effort is reflected in the quality of the sessions and speakers. It’s really the diversity, commitment, and expertise of the people involved that will make the event a success!

We realise that some challenges may arise as we try to coordinate and communicate with the many organizers and speakers leading up to the conference – so we compiled this checklist and packet of practical information for you, our session hosts and speakers, to ensure that your experience is inspiring and pleasant!

As a speaker or session host I have:

If you have questions that aren’t answered below, please contact the programme team programme@mydata2016.org or Antti “Jogi” Poikola (Phone: +358 44 337 5439 Skype: antti.poikola).

See you in Helsinki!


Arriving to the event: Morning Coffee & Speaker Reception

When you arrive to the conference venue there is at the info desk a person dedicated for speaker check-in. As you hopefully have completed the registration with your name via the conference registration page, you can get your pass and the conference kit from the information desk.

It is good to get in contact and have a bit of conversation before it all kicks off. There will be new people arriving at the conference every day, and we would like to make sure that the speakers find their session hosts. Every morning between 9:00 and 9:30 AM (before the Morning Plenary), there will be free morning coffee served at the venue. Mornings at the venue will serve as the meeting point for session hosts and speakers, if possible try to be there in the morning of your presentation. Remember that the Morning Plenary sessions will start at 9:30 AM sharp.

If you are in Helsinki already on Tuesday (Aug 30th) night, you can meet the MyData crew and fellow conference guests and speakers at Manala bar & bistro from 7 PM onwards and do the check-in to the conference there.

From the public attendees list you can check who else is coming.

 


Register to the event

In the registration page, choose the “Nonprofit” conference pass, and enter the code “mydata2016speaker” (3 day 220€) or “mydata2016speakerday” (1 day 130€) in order to receive your discounted registration fee, some speakers can also use the registration codes included in their organizations sponsor packages.

Only very few of the guest speakers have been provided with free entrance, and these are due to special circumstances. We consider ourselves to be organizing a community-driven event, in the same spirit as academic conferences, where peers and colleagues share the same passion and get equal opportunities for exposure, choosing to come together to discuss and debate in a community-driven environment.

Therefore, all MyData 2016 participants should have either bought a ticket or registered for a  free ticket. When you arrive at the conference venue, you will check in at the reception desk and receive a lovely name badge, which is also your entrance pass to the venue.

The speakers discount code can be privately shared with friends and colleagues, but please do not share or publish the code on forums, email lists, Twitter etc.

 


Submitting your presentation material (Aug 29th)

We kindly ask that you submit your presentation materials (or a link to the materials) at latest on Monday Aug 29th by the ned of day via the speaker materials form: http://mydata2016.org/speakers-materials. If you give permission for publishing your slides the presentation will be added to the list on that page.

We don’t have any restrictions on presentation format: wide screen is OK as well as normal, PDF, PPT, Prezzi… all accepted.

We strongly recommend that you publish all of your presentation materials online or that you send them to the MyData 2016 organizers to be published online before or after the conference, as this would make it possible for the audience to revisit and reference the materials from the event.

Basic presentation facilities, including projectors, adapters, and computers, will be available in each presentation space at the conference venue. You can use your own laptop for presentation if you have a specific reason for doing so, but generally we recommend that you use the presentation computer that we provide for you at the venue. Please let us know if you have some special requests, like audio or flip charts, so that we can arrange to provide them for you.

 


Permission for streaming and video recording

Do you give permission for your presentation to be streamed online and recorded?

In the speaker materials form we ask permission to live-stream and/or take a video recording of your presentation. The main stage can be streamed live and in all other spaces there is video recording option. We respect the preferences of anyone who does not want to be recorded.

Speakers may request a copy of the video output for their own use and have rights to re-publish it later.


This is your event – help to spread the word!

Consider yourself as one proud member of the big MyData 2016 team and make sure that your network also knows about the upcoming event! Some text bites, images, and example tweets are available at: http://mydata2016.org/marketing-materials/

This event is created by the community for the community – please share information about your participation in MyData 2016 among your own professional and/or personal communities to give other people who might be interested in MyData 2016 the opportunity to participate.


Interaction with the audience – core lessons learned?

In order to maximize knowledge transfer we are planning to utilize lot of audience interaction with personal computing devices during the sessions. There will be online participation platform called Screen.io in use on all sessions.

Session host will mainly use the system. Session hosts will be assisted with onsite technical assistance who will instruct how system is used. The system provides common audience interaction functionalities like polls and Q&A message wall.

In all sessions, we are going to ask the audience one question: What was the core lessons learned in this session?

This question is active throughout the session and as a last audience interaction assignment audience members will peer-evaluate selected lessons learned with likert scale. This pattern will be introduced in the first plenaries and repeated in all breakout sessions.

If you want to use audience interaction in addition to audience Q&A and the core lessons learned question, please contact kai.kuikkaniemi@hiit.fi for more information. The audience contributions are collected anonymously and provided as open data in the conference website after the event. The material is also processed by researchers and used in the future personal data management research and dissemination.

See more at: http://mydata2016.org/lessons-learned


Accommodation, evening programme and tips for tourists

A list of possible accommodations can be found here, along with instructions on how conference attendees may get a discounted price at the Scandic Park hotel: http://mydata2016.org/about/accommodation/

MyData 2016 evening programme will include cocktail style informal reception and thematic dinners on Wednesday and Sauna Day on Thursday. Read more at: http://mydata2016.org/evening-programme

We have heard that many of our international speakers are planning to spend few days around the conference in Helsinki. This is why we compiled this small “Visitors Guide” for you. http://mydata2016.org/visit-helsinki (this is the first draft, we will update it with more content in August)

The MyData 2016 conference will be held in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Many of the conference speakers and guests have informed us that they plans to stay in Helsinki for a longer trip, either before or after the conference. We encourage you to explore and experience this unique modern city with over half a million residents.


Conference App

Download the official MyData 2016 conference App for iOS from here

We’re proud to release the official MyData 2016 conference App for iOS. During MyData 2016 the app will be used to communicate the agenda, share insights and communicate with peers and potential collaborators for all around the world. Don’t miss the conversation.

The app is made by our fantastic partner Meeco, and it’s based on their service MeCast. MeCast is social in your control and on your terms, making it quick and easy for you to simultaneously post to your social networks, whilst also creating a back-up and searchable personal timeline of all your social posts.


Submit your speaker bio

Find yourself in the programme overview ing the list of “Session Hosts and Speakers” and If you have not done so yet, please send us your bio and photo via this link: http://mydata2016.org/speaker-form

We have sent out introductory emails to most of the session hosts and speakers and we encourage you to get to know each other virtually before the event. However, if you haven’t heard from a Speaker or Host in your session, please send a short hello to them.

The programme is built around many simultaneous sessions that generally last 1,5 hours (Friday breakouts are 2 hours) and may contain several presentations, panel discussions, or other activities. Each session has one session host who will make sure that their speakers feel welcome and that the session runs smoothly. The session hosts will answer questions and give further guidance for the speakers. The programme team is also supporting both speakers and hosts — you can reach us by email at programme@mydata2016.org.


Freezing the session titles and descriptions

Session hosts – please check from the programme overview that the title and subtitle of your session are OK and also make the last updates to the session descriptions if needed. The hard deadline is Monday Aug 22nd @ 4PM Finnish time. If you need help with the session text don’t hesitate to ask programme@mydata2016.org. If everything is OK no action is needed from you (we will take the titles and texts as they are further in the publication process on Monday).

The title and subtitle are the most important information which people use when selecting which session to participate and these will go also to the printed handout (therefor the hard deadline). Hopefully we get good subtitles for all sessions on time, the programme team will make up missing subtitles, but for sure better ideas comes from you the session hosts.

Title should be short – only few words. Subtitle can be full sentence or perhaps a guiding question, it is visible in the programme right below the main title.


Role and responsibilities of the Host

Session Hosts main role is to make sure that their speakers feel welcome and that the session runs smoothly and brings value to the audience. Let the communication flow already before the event with the speakers.

The general guidelines we have provided to session hosts are below. Bear in mind that not all sessions have been assembled like this: for example, in some sessions the programme team has participated more in the gathering of speakers, in others the programme team’s participation has been minimal.

  1. Acting as the public point-of-contact for queries related to the session
  2. Communicate with programme team regarding speakers, presentations, and other proposals to be included in the session
  3. Communicate with all the speakers involved in the session in order to:
    1. Build coherent session (different content fit together)
    2. Decide session format and timing (how to use the time reserved for the session)
    3. Decide on a name and subtitle for the session (if not yet agreed upon)
    4. Create a short and catchy session description
  4. Make sure that all programme contributors in your session submit their speaker bios and photos: http://mydata2016.org/speaker-form
  5. At the conference: open and introduce the session – introduce speakers and keep people engaged with questions, etc.