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Kalosorisate to EDBT/ICDT 2021 in Nicosia, Cyprus!
We hope you have a memorable online event, which overcomes in the best possible manner the inherent difficulties and travel restrictions incurred by the pandemic. We aim to offer the widest spread of new scientific knowledge with the lowest risk to participants. In this section we outline the basic philosophy of this year's organization as well as the basic elements of the platform that was specifically developed for EDBT/ICDT 2021! Please explore the material in the detailed program to choose which sessions to attend. This material was organized meticulously by the Program Chairs Yannis Velegrakis (University of Trento, Italy and Utrecht University, Netherlands) for EDBT, and Ke Yi (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong) for ICDT. For workshop programs, please consult the detailed program on the site of each of the six great workshops. Please remember to evaluate the organization after the conference using the last tab of this page!
Demetris Zeinalipour (University of Cyprus, Cyprus)
Panos K. Chrysanthis (University of Cyprus, Cyprus and University of Pittsburgh, USA)
Message from the General Co-ChairsProgram Socialize
- A central philosophy of this organization was to promote more social engagement and also improve the liveliness of the EDBT/ICDT 2021 organization over an extremely stable tele-conferencing channel like Zoom. We are glad that Zoom chose to sponsor EDBT/ICDT 2021! Scientific presentations are this year planned in "meeting" mode (we will neither use webinar mode nor play recorded videos in the general case.)
- To quickly allow participants to tune-in to sessions, we provision a "live" section on the top of this page that will present the status of the zoom sessions. When a session is "live" you will see the "Join" button next to it. Just tab it and engage immediately!
- We present the actual conference time (in GMT+1 / UTC+1) at all times on the toolbar of this site (synced every 30 seconds). You can use this time to find relatively when a given session will start (using the overview or detailed program). Paper prepsentations have been planned to accomodate different timezones (EU-Americas and EU-Asia/Pacific, round-robin) and the duration of every day is capped at 5.5 - 6 hours daily with social activities on the boundary of timezones to offer maximum comfort to all participants.
- You will notice a red or green dot next to each session, meaning nobody is in the room or somebody is in the room, respectively. You also get a count of people in the room (for session rooms) and their actual zoom names (for social rooms). Finally, you also get a reminder of the last room you visited ("Last Visited"). This information is local and is not logged anywhere in the system.
- We will in general NOT record ANY conference sessions or social rooms for privacy reasons. The only sessions that might be recorded are keynotes and tutorials (i.e., after coordination of the Program Chairs with presenters). In the latter case, ALL interactions by the audience will be removed from the video before publishing the video file on the web and the proceedings. Recording any part of the Conference and online sessions is strictly prohibited.
- All multimedia material (documents, images, and videos) will become available after the event on the EDBT openly proceedings web site
- In cases of severe problems with the videoconferencing quality of the speaker, the session chair will play the offline video to participants and the Q/A can still be live if possible (or available through Chat).
- In cases of problems (before or after the session), please contact the designated sessions chairs. For further problems, consult the Helpdesk.
- We will provision a number of unmoderated social rooms at all times (first-come-first-serve). Any time you access a social room, our platform will show the name of participants in the respective "social room". This allows other participants to know where you are to join you for a discussion or socialization. If the room gets too crowded, choose a different empty room (you can contact other people in the room through the zoom private chat). The status of rooms is updated on VGATE every approximately 15 seconds!
- We encourage conference speakers to announce a vacant "social room number (e.g., Social 32 )" in which speakers will be available after their session (e.g., break). This will allow participants to join them for additional questions or discussions.
- Alternatively, think about your next paper, proposal or social activity ... e.g., asking people by in-session chats to join you in the social rooms ... Try to socialize with people you know or don't know!
- The number of social rooms will expand dynamically by the VGATE operator based on conditions and demand. In case you need more rooms, just let us know at the Helpdesk.
- We aim to encourage "socialization" and "personal contact" at EDBT/ICDT 2021 this year using a reliable audio-visual channel (i.e., Zoom) that allows quick hopping between different virtual rooms.
- For the above reason, this year we will experiment with no seperate chat channel. We hope that with this decision we will put less strain on conference participants and make the conference participation more focused and rewarding.
- In case offline chat discussions are still necessary, please use the Zoom in-session chat utility (person-to-person or person-to-all).
- Chat discussions are not logged for privacy reasons but participants are encouraged to take away notes, if necessary.
- Session Chairs will also use the in-chat tool to consolidate questions for talks, in cases participants can't / don't want to ask.
- Try using the search box to find anything on the VGATE portal (e.g., check who is online to join him for a discussion, when a session will start, etc.) The search box even works with "Ctrl + F" and "ESC" (on PC/MAC only) to get you quickly where you want.
- Finally, you can save the username/password in your browser (for most OSes and Android) or designated area (e.g., iOS).
- During the social program we aim to present the host country Cyprus through videos and music. Particularly, we cover culture, geography, food, leisure and other enjoyable aspects about Cyprus.
- These videos will appear at designated time slots in the "live" section.
- We sincerely hope that you enjoy these videos and learn something new about Cyprus. We hope to welcome you physically one day, when the pandemic conditions allow so.
- Just press the Minimize/Expand blue button (on the toolbar - upper right) to retract all tabs and remember what you want to do next!
- If you hit it again, all tabs will expand.
- Our platform is mobile-friendly and network-optimized, so we assume you might be using it on-the-go as well!
- Organizing EDBT 2021 at the University of Cyprus was Prof. George Samaras†' passion. After his unexpected passing two years ago, his friends and colleagues at the University of Cyprus volunteered to make his passion a reality. We are grateful to the EDBT Executive Board for giving us this opportunity and trusting us to organize EDBT 2021 alongside ICDT 2021 in Cyprus, as proposed by George in 2018. We dedicate the EDBT/ICDT 2021 in honor of the memory of Prof. George Samaras† (1959-2018).
Data Management Day » Samaras Tennis Cup» - "Sessions" are moderated by Session Chairs and scientific-relevant questions must be directed to them for appropriate actions.
- "Social Rooms" are not moderated, but as organizers we are adhering to the general terms that apply by the Zoom platform.
- More about EDBT/ICDT 2021 Conference Website »
- More about VGATE (Online Platform) VGATE Platform »
- Still have Questions? Visit us on the Helpdesk (under social rooms). When offline, please contact us at "info@easyconferences.eu".
