[epsi-coord] drafts for Warsaw

Mon Dec 3 16:11:06 GMT 2012

Dear colleagues,

Below you will find all drafts for communication towards speakers (plenaries
and parallel sessions) and moderators for the parallel sessions. It also
holds follow up messages but you do need these now.

I think you can largely use them, here there you may want to tweak them.

Reg. M.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

For speakers plenary sessions

I hope this message finds you well. 

Within the framework of the ePSI Platform (a project financed by DG
CONNECT), we are in the process of organizing the 'ePSI 2013 Conference:
'Gotcha! - getting everyone on board', which will be held  on Friday 22
February 2013 in Warsaw (at the University premises in the city center). We
expect around 200 Open Data stakeholders to be present. As such it will be
one of the largest Open Data events held, and will serve as a landmark where
new policy issues were put on the agenda, where people first met and where
new ideas and concepts were sparked. The Conference will combine 2 inspiring
plenary sessions bringing together keynote speakers and 9 interactive
parallel sessions during which participants can meet, discuss and inspire
each other. 

Given your well known interest and expertise in this field, we would be
honoured if you would be willing to contribute to the event as one of the
key note speakers in the first plenary session '[   ]'  substance and
views'. Do not be worried, I would not expect you to give a lengthy
presentation: what we are looking for is a moderated 'mercury' discussion,
between top notch experts on the way ahead and the strategic implications.
The document attached contains a leaflet on the Conference and the
provisional program, including 'your' session. 

For speakers like you and other key stakeholders (like European Commission
representatives, industry representatives, national policy makers) we are
organizing 'a day-before dinner', allowing you (and the other contributors
to the Conference) to extend your network and meet a lot of interesting
people. Therefore, we also kindly invite you for this complementary dinner
on Thursday evening 21 February 2013 (the venue will be communicated later).
In your response, please let me know whether you would like to join us, and
whether you have any preferences, like vegetarian food, or food allergies,
that should be taken into account. 

I sincerely hope you can part of this great event and I am looking forward
to your response. If you have any questions, I will be delighted to address
them.

Kind regards

[fill in your contact details] 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

For moderators parallel sessions

Dear [   ],

I hope this message finds you well.

Within the framework of the ePSI Platform (a project financed by DG
CONNECT), we are in the process of organizing the 'ePSI 2013 Conference:
'Gotcha! - getting everyone on board', which will be held  on Friday 22
February 2013 in Warsaw (at the University premises in the city center). We
expect around 200 Open Data stakeholders to be present. As such it will be
one of the largest Open Data events held, and will serve as a landmark where
new policy issues were put on the agenda, where people first met and where
new ideas and concepts were sparked. The Conference will combine 2 inspiring
plenary sessions bringing together keynote speakers and 9 interactive
parallel sessions during which participants can meet, discuss and inspire
each other. 

Given your strong expertise in this field, I would be very pleased if you
would be willing to serve as  a moderator of parallel session Track [  ]
(dealing with [   ]) what is in and what is not?. Your role will be to
technically lead the session (like briefly introducing the subject, the
agenda of the session and speakers and to facilitate and (if necessary)
ensure a vivid debate). The speakers foreseen within your session - [    ],
[   ], [   ] and [   ] - have been requested to prepare a short (5-10
minutes) but provocative presentation, so that should help you. Obviously,
state of the art equipment to support your presentation will be available.
For the rest, feel free to fill in the details any way you want in
collaboration with the introductory speakers. My suggestion is that upon
your confirmation, we have a chat to further organize this. The document
attached holds a leaflet on the Conference and the provisional program,
including 'your' session (we will put in your name and those of the others
once we have received your confirmation).

For speakers like you and other key stakeholders (like European Commission
representatives, industry representatives, national policy makers) we are
organizing 'a day-before dinner', allowing you (and the other contributors
to the Conference) to extend your network and meet a lot of interesting
people. Therefore, we also kindly invite you for this complementary dinner
on Thursday evening 21 February 2013 (the venue will be communicated later).
In your response, please let me know whether you would like to join us, and
whether you have any preferences, like vegetarian food, or food allergies,
that should be taken into account. 

I sincerely hope you can part of this great event and I am looking forward
to your response. If you have any questions, I will be delighted to address
them.

Kind regards

[fill in your contact details] 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

For speakers parallel sessions

Dear [   ],

I hope this message finds you well.  

Within the framework of the ePSI Platform (a project financed by DG
CONNECT), we are in the process of organizing the 'ePSI 2013 Conference:
'Gotcha! - getting everyone on board', which will be held  on Friday 22
February 2013 in Warsaw (at the University premises in the city center). We
expect around 200 Open Data stakeholders to be present. As such it will be
one of the largest Open Data events held, and will serve as a landmark where
new policy issues were put on the agenda, where people first met and where
new ideas and concepts were sparked. The Conference will combine 2 inspiring
plenary sessions bringing together keynote speakers and 9 interactive
parallel sessions during which participants can meet, discuss and inspire
each other. 

Given your well known interest and expertise in this field, we would be
honoured if you would be willing to contribute to the event as one of the
introductory speakers in parallel session Track [   ] (dealing with [   ]).
As we are seeking for discussions and debates, your presentation could be
relatively short (let's say 5-10 minutes maximum), but preferably
provocative. To facilitate the discussions, we have organized a moderator: [
]. Upon your confirmation, [   ] will contact you to further detail and
organize the session (preventing overlaps and synchronizing timing and
structure and making sure we are in possession of your presentation material
a few days before the conference). Obviously, state of the art equipment to
support your presentation will be available. The document attached holds a
leaflet on the Conference and the provisional program, including 'your'
session (we will put in your name and those of the others once we have
received your confirmation).

For speakers like you and other key stakeholders (like European Commission
representatives, industry representatives, national policy makers) we are
organizing 'a day-before dinner', allowing you (and the other contributors
to the Conference) to extend your network and meet a lot of interesting
people. Therefore, we also kindly invite you for this complementary dinner
on Thursday evening 21 February 2013 (the venue will be communicated later).
In your response, please let me know whether you would like to join us, and
whether you have any preferences, like vegetarian food, or food allergies,
that should be taken into account. 

I sincerely hope you can part of this great event and I am looking forward
to your response. If you have any questions, I will be delighted to address
them.

Kind regards

[fill in your contact details] 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Follow up message for moderators towards speakers to be sent out by ePSI
contact to moderators

Reference: ePSI Conference 

Dear [   ],

The ePSI Warsaw 2013 Conference 'Gotcha! - getting everyone on board' has
yielded great interest: over [   ] people have registered and every day now
ones are coming in. Where this is now turning into one of the biggest Open
Data events ever organized, we are very pleased that we can rely on you as
the moderator for one of the 12 parallel Tracks, more precisely  Track [
].

This message aims to inform you on the latest state of play (program,
logistics etc), and also provides you so instructions and tools to help you
organize and plan your Track in the best possible way. I will be your
contact within the ePSI team, so in case of any questions, please do not
hesitate to contact me, any time.

The structure and set up

The Conference consists of 2 plenary sessions and 3 parallel sessions, each
subdivided in 3 Tracks (so 9 in total). You 'own' one of these Tracks. In
the Program attached, you will see how these are planned over time. Each
Track focuses on a theme relevant to Open Data re-use and is managed by a
moderator and further substantiated and fired up by a set of introductory
speakers. We expect an average crowd of 75 people per Track. 

Logistics

The room your Track will be in, will be communicated in the morning of the
Conference (all rooms are close to each other). There will be a PC, beamer
and screen, and 2 microphones (one for you and the speakers and one to be
used by the crowd for discussions - we will have a student designated to
your Track, who will be walking around with the microphone). Also, if
needed, there is technical support around the corner.

Role of the moderator and speakers

The basic concept is that the moderator chairs the Track, by introducing the
theme and the speakers, guards the speaking time of the introductory
speakers and sparks and stimulates the debate where needed. Also, the
moderator will wrap up the main findings and will feed them to the ePSI
team, in view of the closing plenary session. You will do this by simply
providing a handwritten note, holding the 3-5 main conclusions, and we will
presenting (a selection of them) during the closing plenary (where we may
walk up to you with the microphone for a short elaboration).   

Getting things organised

In your Track, the following introductory speakers have committed
themselves:

person

organisation

email

phone

I would appreciate if you could contact your speakers this week allowing you
to touch base with them on the presentations they will give, and allowing
you exchange views on things like their main message, the form of the
presentation, the length, any hand outs etc. This will also minimize the
risks of overlaps with other speakers in your session. As we would like to
publish all presentations - including yours if you use any - we would very
much appreciate if you could collect all presentations ultimately by 15
February, so two 7 days before the conference starts. However, please make
sure, they have a available copy themselves (e.g. on a stick or on-line),
just to be on the safe side.

Shaking hands

Where  most of the speakers will arrive the day before, we are inviting all
speakers and moderators to an evening before dinner (where, obviously, the
ePSI team will be picking up the bill). Details hereon will communicated
later this week. Obviously, this will provide an excellent opportunity to
shake hands and get to know each other before the conference. In case (one
of) your speakers (or you) can not make it the evening before dinner, we
will also have a speakers room available at the conference premises,
allowing you to sit down before the conference starts (the registration
starts at 9.00 and the first plenary at 9.30), but we will be there as of
8.30, so this would give you an hour to meet up.

Next step

I will be giving you a call within the next two days (but feel free to drop
me a line right away), to see whether there are any issues you may want to
discuss. This also allows you to send out the message below to your
speakers, basically instructing them in accordance with the text above and
to set up a conference call (you may want to try to bring in all at the same
time).

I am very much looking forward to talk to you.

Kind regards,

[fill in your contact details] 

++++++++++++++++ message for your speakers ++++++++++++++++++

Dear [insert names],

In my capacity of moderator of Track [insert letter and name track], I would
be very pleased to have a chat allowing us to plan and organize things. In
preparation thereof, please allow me to provide you with some more details
on the program, the structure and our roles within our Track.

The structure and set up

The Conference consists of 2 plenary sessions and 3 parallel sessions, each
subdivided in 3 Tracks, so 9 in total (one of them being 'ours'). In the
Program attached, you will see how these are planned over time. We can
expect an average crowd of around 75 people for our Track. The room our
Track will be in, will be communicated in the morning of the Conference (all
rooms are close and connected by the foyer, where all breaks take place) by
the ePSI team.

Who is in our Track?

In our Track the following persons will contribute (I also put in your and
my contact details, so we can al: 

[insert names, organisations, contact details]

Name

organisation

Email

(Preferably mobile) phone number

Moderator

Introductory speaker 1

Introductory speaker 2

Etc

Role of the moderator and speakers

My idea is that I will introduce our Track, by introducing the theme and the
speakers. Since the conference aims to have a highly interactive character,
it would be good if you could keep your presentation relatively short
(around 10 minutes, but we can fine tune this on the basis of your needs)
leaving room and time for debates with the crowd. At the end of the Track, I
will try to wrap up the 3-5 main conclusions and I will feed them to the
ePSI team, in view of the closing plenary session, where they will be
presenting them (including those of the other 11 Tracks, so it may be a
selection) during the closing plenary. 

Logistics

The room our Track will be in, will be communicated in the morning of the
Conference (all rooms are close to each other and to the plenary room).
There will be a PC, beamer and screen, and 2 microphones (one for us and one
to be used by the crowd for discussions - we will have a student designated
to our Track, who will be walking around with the microphone). Also, if
needed, there is technical support around the corner. As the ePSI team would
like to publish all presentations I would be grateful if you could email me
your presentation ultimately by 15 February, so two 7 days before the
conference starts. To be on the safe side, please make sure, You also have a
copy available (e.g. on a stick or on-line).

Shaking hands

Where  most of the speakers and moderators will arrive the day before, the
ePSI team is inviting us for an evening before dinner (where, obviously, the
ePSI team will be picking up the bill). Details hereon will communicated
later this week. Obviously, this will provide an excellent opportunity to
shake hands and get to know each other before the conference. In case we do
not manage to meet then, there is also a speakers room available at the
conference premises, allowing us to sit down before the conference starts
(the registration starts at 9.00 and the first plenary at 9.30), and the
doors are open as of 8.30, so this would give us an hour to meet up.

Getting things organized

I would very much appreciate to have a chat and to exchange views on how we
would like to further fine tune our Track, also minimizing the risk of
overlaps with other speakers. Could you please let me know what day and time
would suit you? 

I am very much looking forward to talk to you.

Kind regards,

[insert your name (moderator)

And contact details]

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