Info page

This page has three sections:

Programme and platform info
Recording policy
Other general info on panels/papers

Programme and platform

PROGRAMME
This year's plenary program emerges from the AAS Executive Committee’s First Nations Initiative, seeking to foreground the work of First Nations scholars on themes relevant to the discipline of anthropology. These plenaries are designed to create conversations about a variety of issues facing First Nations researchers engaging in all forms of anthropology.
See the conference panels, roundtables and labs here.

There is a full visual media program accompanying the conference: most of the works are already accessible via the conference website, and you can watch them in your own time.

PLATFORM AND PRESENTATION CHOICES
The conference takes place within an online platform called Whova which interacts with Zoom. Depending on your role in the conference, please check out in advance the following guides created by Whova on how to make the most out of your conference experience: Attendee User Guide and/or Speaker Guide

If unfamiliar with Zoom meetings, please look through the Zoom video tutorials, particularly those labelled: Zoom Meetings and webinars and Audio, video & sharing. Do not worry: Zoom is very easy to use (and most academics have already used it excessively lately!). There will also be a volunteer in each panel to assist the convenors and presenters.

ACCESSING AND NAVIGATING THE CONFERENCE

On first login you are asked to enter your email (the one you used to register for the conference) and then create your password. If your email is not recognised, you might have used another email to register for the conference; or your payment has not arrived yet or has not been confrimed (please get in touch with the conference admin at admin(at)aasconf.org).

We invite you to login to Whova and check out the event, the interface and familiarise yourself with everything in advance of the conference. You can also join us for one of our drop-in days to test out your computer gear and presentation slides. There will be 2 drop-in days:
22 November 08:00-14:00 AEDT (e.g. Canberra)
23 November 13:00-19:00 AEDT (e.g. Canberra)

A member of our team will be online during these days to help you test out your gear/slides and answer any questions you may have. We highly advise you to take this opportunity to test things out ahead of the live conference. You may only need to attend for 5-10 mins but it will be well worth your time.

All times are given as UTC+11:00 / AEDT timezone. You can toggle the times in Whova between your local time and AEDT time.

PRESENTATIONS - YOU DON'T HAVE TO PRE-RECORD, BUT YOU CAN!
As we are using Zoom, and Zoom allows people to share screen, there is no need to upload or send your PowerPoint slides anywhere beforehand. There is also NO requirement to pre-record your presentation as a video. Most people will be presenting ‘live’ on Zoom.

However, if you are concerned that your internet connection will not allow you to present live, or your time zone makes live participation complicated, then you can pre-record a video presentation, upload it to your own YouTube channel or Vimeo account and send the link to this video to your convenor in advance, so they can share their screen and play your video to the virtual room. You can also simply add the link to Cocoa, our conference interface. For that you will need to Log in, click the Logged in drop-down and select conference, click your paper title, and paste the link to your video in the field "Url of Livestream/recording", and save the change!

For those pre-recording a presentation, you may find our recording guide helpful (ignore the Shindig content further up the page 😁). The simplest method is to record yourself within a solo Zoom meeting.

Recording policy

Default position
AV recordings of the panels/sessions and conference content WILL BE RECORDED BY DEFAULT by the conference organisers but others may not record content (using external software/hardware).

Exceptions

On request of the Executive Committee: e.g. to NOT record a keynote Speaker.
On request of a Panel Convenor e.g. to NOT record their panel sessions.

In such cases the Executive Committee or Panel Convenor(s) must provide NomadIT with the following information ahead of the conference for their records:

Why the session is NOT to be recorded.
Which panel/sessions they wish NOT to be recorded? (These will be marked in the panel explorer so attendees can see that this session is NOT being recorded.)

Recordings
The accountable person has the responsibility to obtain informed consent before the start of the conference from presenters/panelists to record their presentations. They must provide clear answers to the following:

Conference content is being recorded so delegates can see content they were unable to attend live. Content may be displayed some weeks after the conference to a wider audience (not just delegates).
The recording will be posted within Whova and later the panel explorer on the conference website.
The following Creative Commons licence will be applied (licences stipulate what others are allowed to do with the recording once posted online)?
- Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence: the recording can only be shared in its original form (i.e. others cannot not take sections of the recording and create and distribute an altered form of the work) and is used for non-commercial purposes only.
If a presenter opts-out will they still be filmed and edited out later.

Consent
The conference organisers will inform all delegates by email prior to the event that the content will be recorded/live streamed, inviting anyone who wishes to opt-out from being recorded to contact them.
Each session/panel convenor/organiser is responsible for informing audience members (verbally and in the chat function of Zoom at the beginning of the session and periodically).

That the panel is being filmed/live streamed.
That the recording will be embedded in Whova and then on the AAS website.
That the conference organiser is the accountable person.
That delegates can opt-out by contacting the accountable person and clearly explain that opting-out means that while they will be recorded if they ask a question they will be edited-out of the final version for dissemination.

Anyone who does not wish to appear should be instructed to turn off their webcam and if asking a question, to do so via the text box..
The accountable person is responsible for post-production editing to ensure that any audience member or panelist/presenter who wished not to be included in the film be edited out before dissemination (e.g. posting online).

General info

Time zone
All times are in Australian Eastern Daylight Time, AEDT, (e.g. Sydney). If you are not in the same time zone, you can use this converter to check the time difference:
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

Acceptance letters
Formal acceptance letters (signed pdfs on headed paper) can be downloaded from the login environment (the login link is the head icon on the upper navigation bar). Log in, proceed past your contact details with the "Proceed" button (located under the contact fields) and then scroll through to your panel/paper. There will be an encircled A at the end of the panel/paper title line. Click on this, download the pdf and print your letter. Please note that we do not send such letters by post.

Panel formats

Panels: panels as per usual, structured in the traditional manner of containing five papers per session.
Roundtables: a group of scholars (no more than 5) discussing particular themes/issues in front of (and subsequently with) an audience. While a roundtable can include short (5-10 min) provocations/presentations, the main idea is to create a lively debate, not to focus on any one presenter.
Combined: panels that have paper presentations for one session and then a roundtable in the other.

Length of panels, labs, roundtables, combined formats
All format panels will be limited to a maximum of TWO consecutive 105-minute sessions, each of which can hold a maximum of 5 papers/presentations (20 minutes). Consequently convenors may accept a maximum of ten papers/presentations in their panels, five to roundtables. However accepting four papers per session will be acceptable (25 mins each in this case).

Convenor responsibilities
It is the convenors’ responsibility to ensure that all panel participants are well briefed and that the panel continues to meet AAS2021 requirements. To that end, convenors should not only communicate their decisions over proposals as detailed below, but also later in the process email the panelists to: inform them of the speaking order (albeit this is displayed on the public panel page), inform them as to how much time they have been allocated, remind them to register (the registration status can be seen in the login environment), inform them of any late changes or additional chairs/discussants, and give any other information related to the panel. If panelists withdraw, convenors should mark these withdrawals in the login environment.

Editing panel info
Panel proposers can use the login link in the menu to edit their proposals. Later, when panels have been accepted/rejected, convenors are requested to administer their panels via this login environment “Cocoa”. Convenors should login to:

state any specific timing requests to do with their panel
to add the names of chairs/discussants
manage the paper proposals

Co-convenors cannot be added/removed nor can panels be withdrawn through this environment – please email admin(at)aasconf.org to do this.

When papers are proposed via the website, they will be proposed to specific panels. Convenors will receive a summary email of the proposal. Convenors are welcome to acknowledge proposals by email, and even ask contributors to edit their abstracts by logging in themselves. When the call for papers is over, convenors must indicate their decisions over whether to accept/reject proposals through the login environment. If an author later emails to withdraw their paper, the paper should be marked as ‘Withdrawn’ in the login environment. The papers can be placed in order via the login environment.

Timing of presentations
How you allocate the time of your sessions is largely your decision. With a 105 minute session, convenors can allot each presenter a maximum of 25 minutes (for presentation and questions/discussion). The key is to respect the fact that many presenters have travelled a long way in order to be able to contribute and clearly need time to set out their argument. The division of a panel into sessions will be indicated in the programme, and the papers ordered within these sessions. While convenors may wish to amalgamate discussion time, where possible they should try to stick to the published distribution.

Pre-circulation of papers
The conference does not require pre-circulation of papers – however many convenors are keen to pre-circulate completed papers. To facilitate this and save on loads of email traffic, authors can upload PDFs of their papers within Cocoa, which will then show as a downloadable file beneath their abstract on the public panel page on this site. It is your choice whether you instruct your presenters to make use of this.

Communication between authors/convenors
Convenor/author email addresses are not shown on the panel pages for anti-spam reasons. However there is an in-built secure email messaging system. If you cannot work that, please email admin(at)aasconf.org to obtain relevant email addresses.

Any queries with the above please email admin(at)aasconf.org