Conference Operation in Virtual Style

Since IEEE Cluster2020 is operated in virtual style, all the conference contents are performed via several on-line tools. For smooth conference operation, we use YouTube, Zoom and Slack to share the presentation materials and discussion. Here is the basic style of session operation.

Opening session

At the beginning of main conference (Sep. 15th), there is a short opening session by several talks by conference organizers. The session is LIVE on Zoom.

Keynote talks

There are three keynote talks, one for each day (Sep. 15h - 17th). The talk is LIVE on Zoom. During the talk, attendees can leave questions on Slack. After the talk, the session chair picks and reads these questions, then the speaker answers. To avoid any trouble on on-line jamming or cross-talk, the session chair controls the Q&A and discussion.

Presentation of technical papers

For each technical paper, the representative author of the paper provides a PRE-RECORDED video with presentation slides. The duration of each presentation video depends on the paper category (full or short), but almost the same with a real conference. All the presentation videos are accessible on YouTube prior to the conference date. Attendees can leave their questions on Slack. These questions are picked by the session chair to proceed the discussion on the corresponding technical session.

Technical sessions

Several papers sharing the similar technical topics are gathered in a technical session for LIVE discussion among paper authors and attendees through Zoom. At the beginning of a session, each paper presenter gives a short summary talk on the paper. After all lightning talks, the session chair picks questions from Slack. The author answers to the question and continues a short discussion on it. The session chair manages the Q&A for all the papers in the session. If the time remains after all Q&A, the session chair may prompt to have an open discussion on the session topic.

Poster session

There is a poster session at the end of the first day (Sep. 15th). At the beginning of the session, there is a short plenary time for indexing talk (very short) on all posters. They are pre-recorded but broadcast in LIVE by Zoom. There may be several lightning talks by sponsoring vendors also. Then, all poster authors are broken out to their own Zoom rooms to accept questions, comments and discussions. Attendees can join to any room, and also can leave questions on Slack channel for each poster. Sponsoring vendors also have their own Zoom room for any discussion. Poster session and Industry showcase are in parallel at the same time slot.

Workshops

The virtual operation of each workshop depends on the workshop itself. Please remind that it may be different from conference main program.

Attendees are provided all the information to access these YouTube, Zoom and Slack channels before the conference. Please check the presentation video of technical papers on YouTube prior to the technical sessions, then leave questions or comments to the corresponding Slack channel/thread. The information for workshops will be provided separately from the workshop organizers.