Dear attendee,
Here is an update for the VCCA2020 conference. For a regular conference you might be checking at this time your flight schedule and hotel confirmation. For this virtual conference we created a little checklist so you can make yourself (and your equipment) ready to attend this event. For basic information, we proudly present to you the official VCCA2020 trailer! Sonya personally explains the virtual conference to you in the video embedded in the virtual goodiebag. Enjoy meeting Alan Truebot, the worlds’ first virtual audiologist. When you attend a ZOOM-meeting, don’t forget to prepare your badge/ZOOM-username [name, country], such as [John Doe, USA]. It’s up to you to add your affiliation. You don’t need to add title, etc. to your badge. The tone of the conference is respectful and pleasantly informal.
When we first had the idea for a virtual conference, in early April, we never expected it would grow so fast and become so complicated in terms of logistics. The support and interesting content shared with us have amazed us. We will do all that’s in our capacity to maintain the trust you have put in us. NB, most of the digital systems we will use on Friday 19 we had never used before. Therefore, some of our initial announcements need clarification. Please let us remind you that we have a tiny organization and are not able to support you in the way a professional conference organization can do. Please read this whole message before contacting us with questions or requests. At our website, the program landing page and the virtual goodie back are fully updated and will remain updated this week with the latest developments.
Video-conferencing turns out to be much more straining than regular meetings. Attending a full virtual conference day might be an effort comparable to what some hearing-impaired people experience every day. Please take enough breaks and exercises. In the goodie bag, we selected a few articles to help you to survive and prepare for virtual meetings. Respect your limits and the limits of the other attendees. Be aware that attendees gather from different timezones, climates, and often English is not their first language.
Terminology and check
We refer to everyone registered for this conference as an attendee; some are participants in ZOOM meetings (including presenters, panelists, co-authors, early-registered person) others are spectators. Participants have access to two-way communication in the ZOOM-meetings and can activate a personal live-stream at the ZOOM meetings. The spectators are the people registered for the live-stream attendance (one-way communication you can view the sessions but not talk back).
- Equipment: Please use a wired connection LAN/UTP. Check your audio and webcam in advance.
- Live-stream: you can open the live-stream as soon as a session is started. You can rewind and go forward. The live-stream remains visible until Monday 22. So if you’re from Australia, you can watch the morning session and catch up later. If you’re from the USA, you can start the afternoon session, or you can rewind and first watch the morning session, etc. You will receive information soon on how to access the links.
- ZOOM-meetings: when using ZOOM act as if you are in an open public space also when a session is not recorded. It’s your own responsibility to check how to use ZOOM securely
- Waitroom: (in ZOOM), we will admit participants from the waitroom into the ZOOM meeting based on your name. So make sure your badge [[name, country] is correct so that we can identify you.
- Recordings: remember all presentations and discussions will be recorded and broadcast via the live-stream. Participants hear a notification in ZOOM as the recording starts.
If you have problems that jeopardize your attendance to the conference, please send an email to vcca2020@computationalaudiology.com
More updates will follow tomorrow.
Best regards, let’s enjoy the conference together!
The organizing committee
Yağmur Güçlütürk, Peter van Hengel, Emmanuel Mylanus, Jan de Laat, Alex Tichter, and Jan-Willem Wasmann