24–28 May 2021
America/Vancouver timezone

Poster Session instructions for attendees

Poster sessions on GatherTown

All registered participants will be sent an email with a private link to the conference virtual venue.

We cannot post the link on Indico because then it would not be private anymore...

The poster sessions will be hosted on GatherTown, an online platform looking like an 80s video game. It is very easy to use (we tested it) and you do not need to create an account.

We recommend Chrome or Firefox - we tested Safari (which is in Beta) and it kind of works, but your avatar may move very slowly and your mic and camera may get "forgotten". Don't say we didn't warn you.

If you have trouble with your mic in Gather.Town after doing the tutorial, exit from Gather.Town, join again, and this time skip the tutorial. We don't understand this problem, which a few people had, but the fix is simple.

We have built a venue with a lobby, a helpdesk, several poster rooms and of course a cafeteria for follow-up conversations during the breaks.

There is a video explaining how to connect and the main features. In brief:

  • The first time you use Gather.Town (by following the link in the e-mail), you will be sent to a little mini-Tutorial that will show you how to move around, and you can create an Avatar. Please give it your real name, including your last name. Otherwise no one will know who you are or how to find you, however realistic you make your avatar. 

  • Once you have done the tutorial you will go to the Arrivals Lobby of the venue. Arrows on the floor will make it really obvious which way to go to get to the main conference area.

  • If you know the name of the person presenting the poster you want to see, you can select their name in the participant list on the left and "Locate on map" or "Follow"(more info) and a helpful line will be drawn on the map showing you how to get to the presenter (who will hopefully be standing by their poster).

  • You can find the presenter's name by looking in the Indico agenda. You can also find the Contribution Number of the poster by looking in the Contribution List. And you can find out when they are available from this sheet.

  • When your avatar is close to other avatars, you can see their video and hear what they are saying. It's kind of a bit like real life, only not really. But you can talk to people, which is good.

  • The area close to each poster also lets you look at the PDF file of the poster by clicking on the "x" button. Then you can discuss it with the presenter and see their video and hear what they (and anyone else in the same area) are saying. 

How the poster presentations are organized:

  • There are three sessions for each type of poster (Experiments - the Yellow Poster Sessions in the timetable, Sensors - the Green Poster Sessions, and Electronics / Trigger-DAQ / Tech Transfer - the Purple Sessions). 
  • One is Early, one is Middle, and one is Late, and they are on three different days. (Yes! we are acutely aware that if you are in Vancouver, these are actually Very Very Early, Very Early, and Early).
  • We only put the posters in the schedule for the "Early" sessions. The Middle and Late sessions are assumed to have exactly the same content as the Early session of the same colour. Indico doesn't let us put the same contributions in multiple sessions, as far as we know.
  • We do not ask the poster presenters to be there for all three sessions: we hope they will try to be "next to" their poster in the virtual environment for any two out of the three. They can either look at the other posters during the third session, or catch up on sleep, depending on time zone and temperament.
  • We are asking the poster presenters to fill out a form saying which two sessions they will be present for. This fills a spreadsheet which will be posted in prominent places in the virtual environment, like the Help Desk and the entrances to the Poster Rooms.