June 1 - 4, 2020
Overview & History
The sudden emergence of COVID-19 has led to a spate of conference cancellations. These cancellations have a disproportionate effect on students and postdocs who rely on these meetings for networking opportunities while they plan for the next stage of their scientific careers.
In late March, I (Eddie Ester) reached out to several junior colleagues at institutions across the country lamenting recent cancellations and floated the possibility of hosting a one-off virtual working memory symposium featuring presentations from trainees. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, so I drafted and circulated a short “white paper” outlining a basic conference structure among my colleagues. The structure described below reflects a combination of my ideas and *mountains* of invaluable feedback from my peers.
Ok, so what’s this all about?
We propose a virtual meeting to provide a venue for trainees to present their work and network with like-minded scientists on all things working memory. More generally, this meeting is intended as an intellectually stimulating, collegial, fun, and enlightening way for all participants to share their recent findings and keep up with peers despite social distancing!
When’s the Symposium?
Monday June 1st - Thursday June 4th, 2020 Live sessions will be held from ~8am-6pm EDT (GMT-04). Presenters have the option of delivering live talks (preferred) or uploading pre-recorded talks.
Who’s Invited?
All are welcome - undergraduates, grad students, postdocs, faculty, researchers, etc. However, for aforementioned reasons presentations will be limited to undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate (postdoc) trainees.
In an effort to weaken some long-standing divisions in the field (e.g., labs who attend VSS vs. CNS vs. OHBM vs. SfN vs. Psychonomics), we welcome contributions from working memory researchers working in any model system, any population (e.g., “typical”, developmental, elderly, or clinical), using any method.
Registration
You can register for the meeting via this link. More specific instructions follow:
Presenters: When registering you’ll be asked to provide your status (grad, undergrad, postdoc), a talk title, and a set of preferred presentation times. Although we’ll make every effort to accommodate you, we can’t guarantee you a speaking slot during one of your preferred times.
Non-presenters: You can register for the meeting simply by providing your name, affiliation, and e-mail.
Submission Deadline
Presenters should submit their talk title no later than midnight on Wednesday May 20th (last time zone on earth). Non-presenting attendees should register no later than May 30th.
What does this cost? (UPDATED 05/15/20)
Nothing. In lieu of a registration fee, please consider a charitable donation to organizations on the frontline of the COVID fight. I’ve listed some of my favorite charities below, but please feel free to donate to local organizations, foodbanks, or other charities near and dear to your heart.
What’s the format? (UPDATED 05/15/20)
There will be multiple talk sessions each day. Depending on demand, talk sessions can be organized serially or in parallel. You can “jump between” different talk sessions with the click of a mouse.
Each hour-long talk session will feature four presenters. Talks are 12 minutes long, followed by a 3-minute Q&A period.
How does this work? (UPDATED 05/15/20)
Sessions will be broadcast via zoom. We decided to use this platform rather than crowdcast (as originally planned) because (a) most attendees already have some familiarity with the software, (b) it’s free, and (c) there’s a broader support base.
There will be a “lobby” session for general discussion; each talk session will have a dedicated meeting link. Inter-session restroom/food/drink/childcare/other breaks will be provided. More details to follow.
Recording Policy and Pre-recorded Presentations
All live presentations are recorded and sessions can be archived and viewed later (e.g, via youtube; more details forthcoming). Recordings can be disabled on presenter request, but there’s no way we can prohibit attendees from recording presentations using their own devices.
Participants living outside the USA can pre-record talks and have them air during live sessions, obviating the need to give a presentation at ~3 am local time. Just like regular sessions, viewers can leave comments and questions that the presenter can view at their convenience.
Diversity and Inclusion
We enthusiastically welcome presentations from female scientists and racial/ethnic groups chronically underrepresented in the sciences. We are happy to work with attendees to coordinate satellite sessions that focus on issues that affect these groups. Please e-mail the organizers (wm2020virtual@gmail.com) if interested.
Code of Conduct/Harassment/Terms of Use
We are committed to providing a space that is safe, open, and equitable to all. We have every expectation that presenters and attendees will conduct themselves according to the highest professional and ethical standards. Following the success of neuromatch, we have adopted their terms of use, which can be viewed here. By registering for the conference, you agree to be bound by these terms.
Wanna Help? (UPDATED 05/15/20):
If you’d like to contribute, we’re in need of the following:
- Moderators/Discussants for talk sessions. Your job would be to keep talk sessions on track and facilitate discussion during the Q&A period.
- Zoom ninjas and other technically inclined folks to help us troubleshoot problems as they arise.
Caveat Emptors
- This is a new approach to holding a meeting. There will be hiccups, glitches, etc. Please help your fellow attendees with technical difficulties via the chat tool, e-mail, and other means.
- This is a joint effort by junior faculty to support trainees. None of us really know what we’re doing. Please be patient, and don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
- It takes a village:
- Did you figure out some kind of cool/useful trick in the crowdcast interface? Let your fellow attendees (and your organizers) know! A google document for ad hoc FAQ and hints can be found here.
- Do you have suggestions or ideas for improvement? Let us know! We’ve developed a google document for this purpose and you can access it here.
Credits
This meeting was heavily influenced by the recent neuromatch conference. Credits to Konrad Kording, Brad Wyble, and others for the inspiration and helpful feedback. Registrants to this conference are strongly encouraged to attend neuromatch 2.0, scheduled from May 25-27 2020. More information on that meeting can be found here.
Thanks!
Edward Ester, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Florida Atlantic University
Jarrod Lewis-Peacock, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
University of Texas at Austin
Contact the Organizers