---
layout: post
title: 'How To Attend Virtual SeaGL 2020'
status: publish
type: post
published: true
categories: news
tags: '2020'
image: /img/posts/11-12-2020-HTA-1.png
---

We are SO excited for the conference which begins TOMORROW!  Since we're fully online this year, let's talk about actually HOW to get online to watch talks and have a super social experience in your conference-going.

The **tl;dr** here is that you can go to [attend.seagl.org](https://attend.seagl.org) and enter your name.  You will be added to the broader SeaGL hallway chat and be sent instructions for how to join specific chat rooms. To view a talk, enter one of the three track channels and click on the watch button to open an embedded live stream.

#### Description of how talks will be delivered
The speaker will be delivering their talk in a private video conference.  They will be alone in the "room" aside from the volunteer moderator.  Our tech team will direct that feed to a publicly facing URL when the talk begins.  Attendees can chat with each other and watch the video at [attend.seagl.org](https://attend.seagl.org).  At the conclusion of the talk, if the speaker wants a Question and Answer period, the room moderator will read questions from the audience in that track's attend.seagl.org chat room, which the speaker will be able to answer.  There will also be a volunteer chat moderator for each talk to monitor the space for potential problems.  Our [Code of Conduct](/code_of_conduct) applies in all of these virtual conference spaces, throughout the duration of the conference, and in all of our IRC channels before and after the conference.  You can read more details about our tech stack in the blog post: [The SeaGL Experience, Virtually Speaking](/news/2020/11/09/seagl-tech-stack)!

#### How to view a talk
First, go to [attend.seagl.org](https://attend.seagl.org).  Enter a name and/or handle that you are comfortable with.  No registration is required, because we believe that people should not have to opt-out to anything resembling tracking to attend SeaGL.  If the name you select is not available, another name will be automatically assigned.  For users who already have their own IRC setups, you can log onto #seagl on irc.freenode.net, however, you do not need to be familiar with IRC in the least to attend SeaGL!

![HTA attend.seagl.org](/img/posts/11-12-2020-HTA-1.png){:.align-center}

You'll begin in a chat room called #seagl-hallway, a space where you can read announcements about upcoming talks and interact with other attendees.  You will see a number of other channels which you can join, such as #seagl-track-1, 2, and 3, #seagl-helpdesk, and others.  It will look something like this!

![HTA attend.seagl.org](/img/posts/11-12-2020-HTA-2.png){:.align-center}

In the Track rooms, e.g. #seagl-track-1, #seagl-track-2, and #seagl-track-3, there will be a feed available throughout both days, playing a live stream of the talks. You can pull up the embedded video by hitting the yellow "watch" button at the top right.  You will not be joining the video conference room itself, but your interaction and participation encouraged in the track chat room.

At the end of the talk, if the speaker chooses to take questions (some will not, and that is ok!), please add your question to the queue in chat. The moderator will relay questions on the video feed to the speaker.  Please remember to form your question in such a way that it requires a question mark at the end - in other words, we want genuine questions asked in good faith, and are hoping to avoid "story time"-style announcements from the audience.  Stories and anecdotes are for the talks, and questions are for answering by the speaker!  The moderators have been trained to facilitate this, and will be very excited to pass on your real questions!

Each talk is 20 minutes.  The speaker optionally has an additional 10 minutes for Q&A.  That makes 30 minutes total, and adding fifteen minutes between talks, each slot lasts 45 minutes.  After 30 minutes, the talk is entirely over and we will be depending on our amazing tech team to move the feeds around to the next speaker - each speaker has their own "room."  Please be aware that this means that after the time is up, it is truly up, unlike a physical space where a little dallying is part of the talks!

We know this is a lot of information!  Remember, you can go to [attend.seagl.org](https://attend.seagl.org), enter your name, and get started - we'll help you when you arrive!  We cannot WAIT to see you.  And remember, you can view the whole schedule here: [SeaGL 2020 Schedule](https://osem.seagl.org/conferences/seagl2020/schedule)
