2. Orientation and guidelines

Readme

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Welcome! Welcome!

Thank you for participating in the APC Member Convening 2021 – Nurturing Solidarity, Achieving Transformation

A Readme1 document is the “what-I-need-to-know” guide to orient and encourage participation. You will find here some useful links to navigate the event.

When?

We have participants from more than 78 countries and we span across more than 11 time zones. We have tried our best to find a good working option.

Where?

Who?

How will it work?

Nurturing Solidarity, Achieving Transformation is our yearly convening and the second to happen remotely. It is a collaborative learning event and a space to connect, discover and hope together.

To participate, as for any APC-hosted event, you need to register. With the registration you will be provided with credentials: a login (the email address you provide) and a password. This will give you access to all the spaces, platforms and tools for the convening.

This APC Member Convening is a registered participants only event. The email address you have provided in the registration is the one that identifies you as a registered participant. If for any reason you find yourself unable to use/access your registered email, please inform the APC tech support team immediately.

This is how we have organised the convening:

The theme

This year’s member convening continues the online conversation we began in 2020 with an eye to the future. Reconnecting members’ local and national realities with the larger APC member community and its shared global context addressed via the APC strategic plan, whose direction and content are informed by the member network and governed by the APC council, and which embodies how we thrive, change and generate changes globally as well locally.

Three overarching questions will lead and inform our five days together:

  1. How have you, as members of the APC network, been able to thrive and adapt?

  2. What are your insights for the future, and what are you looking towards in the future?

  3. How can your strategy and insights for the future, as individuals, collectives and organisations, conflate with/inspire/guide the development (and growth?) of the APC network?

All seven plenaries and four regional interconnections are co-hosted by APC members and APC staff. All thematic interconnections are hosted by members and supported by APC staff.

Plenary themes

Day 1 - 15 November – Opening Plenary: APC Member Network, a Community of Communities

Day 2 – 16 November - 1st Collective Future of the Network plenary: How we see us and what frames our changes

Day 3 – 17 November - 2nd Collective Future of the Network plenary: How we keep us relevant

Day 4 – 18 November - 3rd Collective Future of the Network plenary: How to overcome uncertainty and practice possibility

Day 5 – 19 November Closing plenaries: How We Thrive: A celebration of APC members' stories, practices and projects of solidarity, Best Futures Awards (categories: Solidarity, Collaboration, Innovation, Creativity) and a party!

Best Futures Awards

The Best Futures Awards are recognition we share with one another. During five days you attend many sessions, speak and listen to many, many people. Discover new ways of thinking, doing, resisting, resting and creating changes.

We have thought of four main awards: Solidarity, Collaboration, Innovation and Creativity. Help us to choose the person, the collective or the organisation that you believe deserves one or more of them. When attending a plenary, an interconnections session or a pop-up, think about who you would like to acknowledge and share your thoughts with the Best Futures Awards committee. Also, if you would like to be part of the team of "talent scouts" to help us gather nominations, join us and let’s look around together.

And yes, the Best Futures Awards have prizes! Because happy competition makes our ❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜 🖤 🤍 🤎 beat!

You can add your nominations here.

Interconnections

These are regional and/or thematic conversations on issues and projects, proposed by the APC member community. Members are the hosts and APC staff will support. These sessions are 60 to 90 minutes long, and will run in parallel and across time zones.

Pop-ups

These are shorter sessions between 30 and 60 minutes, on any topic. Members and staff can suggest what the pop-ups are about. They can be for care time, skills sharing, or just having fun and catching up with one another. They can be scheduled and promoted on the Convening Website and shared in Mattermost, or they can happen spontaneously, inspired by time and people.

Orientation sessions

On 11 and 12 November, five orientation sessions of 30 minutes each will take place for members and staff to learn about the convening, its spaces, platforms and tools. One session will be in French and one will be in Spanish.

For all members that are hosting interconnections or want to understand and know more about the BBB members servers, there will be an additional 15-minutes session to look at how to be a host on BBB.

Party

The party is a collaborative adventure lead by Shawna, Smitty and you. :) We are needing a co-hosting/facilitating team for the party. If you love APC parties, then help us make this one memorable. If you are interested in co-hosting or helping, reach out to Shawna and Smitty.

Meeting in the digital

In order to build a friendly space for all, plenary and interconnections sessions will have:

Interconnections hosts can agree on how to document their sessions with participants. They can agree on and consent to recording, organise collaborative note taking, or just focus on the moment.

Tips for attending sessions (plenaries, interconnections, pop-ups)

If you are interested and want to know more, watch the BBB tutorial or visit BigBlueButton guides in our meeting wiki.

Principles and practices of participation

APC is committed to providing a safe and welcoming environment for any of its convenings, whether they happen online or physically, face-to-face or in hybrid settings.

Participating in the APC Member Convening 2021 implies acceptance of the Principles and Practice of Participation, the Code of Conduct and the Sexual Harassment Policy. They are also all on our [insert link bookstack].

We also follow Feminist Practices and Politics of Technology. Please read the extended version of the Feminist Principles of Participation, which inform APC’s Principles of Participation.

It is vital that discussions include and acknowledge a diversity of opinions and experiences, and that the community ensures that harassment of any kind is not tolerated.

We will take action in response to harassment related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race or religion. APC does not tolerate harassment of participants in any form.

These are the framing principles we value and will apply in this convening:

The Event Incident Team is composed by [insert name and emails]. Participants can reach them anytime by email or phone. Please contact any member of the Event Incident Team with any questions or concerns you may have throughout the duration of the convening. Complaints will be treated confidentially.

Consent, privacy and confidentiality

The APC Member Convening creates safe and confidential spaces based on the idea that “what is said here, stays here.” It involves intimate, personal exchanges, with recording only during certain exercises, which will be announced to participants. Recording will be switched off as well as on upon request. We do not plan to use direct quotes for the APC social media accounts. If you want to quote someone or to share images, always ask for express consent. This includes:

Documentation

Throughout the convening we will take different type of records:

Active collective care

As part if this year's member convening, we want to open the space for members to share with one another some of their ways of active collective care. For that, we invite you to kick off the plenaries with 5-10 minutes of your favorite activity rooted in care. What you share can be anything that you found has supported your well-being on an individual or a collective level.

Plan your participation and time online. Do one thing! Take breaks, stretch!

External communications and outreach

In 2021 we are deliberately prioritising coming together to reconnect and collaborate in a safe and comfortable space, where we will be present and engaged for and with the network. In order to prioritise this, we will slow down our external actions and put all our energies into keeping our network connected, informed and engaged, by focusing on internal communication actions such as the Dish of the Day.

The only external communications output that will be produced is:

Staff and members are invited to write blog posts on their experiences during the member convening, focusing on substance and their personal experiences, keeping in mind the privacy and safety considerations of the other participants.

Platforms and tools

Informed by our policies, practices and feminist approach to technology, most of the platforms and tools we are using during the Member Convening are free/libre and open source (FLOSS) tools and tech platforms such as Mailman, CiviCRM, Mattermost, Bookstack, Drupal, dedicated etherpads, Nextcloud and OnlyOffice software for collaborative engagement.

BigBlueButton (BBB)

APC has invested in a self-hosted BigBlueButton (BBB) installation and worked throughout the year on its customisation to be able to host real-time video conferences using FLOSS. Thanks to the great human dedication of the APC tech team, we will be using a fresh and stand-alone installation of BBB to host the plenaries and provide a safe and easy interpretation and captioning system. We have done “stress tests” to verify its ability to function well when the number of participants increases and operations become more demanding, and we have come to the conclusion that BBB will offer a stable and viable platform for our plenaries. We have developed an alternative plan if numbers of participants increase drastically or if any unforeseen disruptions happen. We are happy that with the collective effort of many organisations as well as individuals investing in alternatives and autonomous infrastructures, we are able to run our convening securely, smoothly and comfortably on FLOSS platforms and tools.

If you would like to read more, look at the APC policy on use of free/libre and open source technology and the APC WRP Feminist Practices and Politics of Technology.

Mattermost and mailing list

For one-on-one, one-to-many or many-to-many communications during the convening we will be using our mailing list and Mattermost. We are doing this to provide multiple entry points to access/receive/share information in ways that respond to personal preferences and connectivity. Both tools/platforms can be used for real-time and asynchronous participation. Using Mattermost during the convening will give you the possibility to have instant chat and share direct messages (DMs) with people you would like to e-meet.

APC Member Convening event website

Programme, schedule, information, manuals on tools, and anything about the convening will be available on the Member Convening website. Visit, use and enjoy it and the scheduling tools we have added for you to create your own personal event experience.

Practices and politics of technology

APC prioritises free/libre and open source software (FLOSS) and open standards for the following reasons:

The APC community applies the principles of FLOSS in our work in the following ways, wherever possible:

In addition, APC applies the core values of feminist practices and politics of technology:

Digital participation allowance

Moving from face-to-face events to online remote ones brings novelties, including finding sustainable, effective ways to support participation.

At the end of the convening, you will receive [insert amount] to help cover your connectivity expenses for the five days of the convening. Please note that if you or your team will need the allowance, you need to write to [insert email] requesting the support.

APC Member Convening useful contacts

APC Member Convening coordinating team is composed by many, many people:

APC tech support will be provided by Adolfo, Avi, Igor, k054, Maja and Rox. You can reach out to support2021[@] apc.org for any technical questions related to your access or any of the working spaces.

1 Mariana Fossatti, GenderIT editor, created the Readme format for the Second Feminist Internet Research (FIRN) Convening. We want to thank and acknowledge her for this brilliant hack of software installation practice.

2 https://www.chathamhouse.org/about-us/chatham-house-rule

Tech support during the convening

If you have any issues with any of the tech at the convening please write to support2021@apc.orgsupport2021@apc.orgsupport2021@apc.orgsupport2021@apc.orgsupport2021@apc.or

BigBlueButton manual for participants

BigBlueButton (BBB) Is  the open source conferencing solution that we will be using for our online sessions. It is hosted on APC's own servers and very safe to use.

Our BigBlueButton spaces

Tips for participation in BigBlueButton sessions

Using BBB

Quick overview

We highly recommend you to watch both videos below to get familiar with capabilities of BigBlueButton.

Additional video tutorials https://bigbluebutton.org/teachers/tutorials/.

Joining the meeting

To use BigBlueButton you just need open the session link your browser (recommended are Firefox, Chrome and Safari). And it works on mobile devices too.

There might be some hiccups with some browsers, especially on phones (in general when a phone goes to “sleep” the browser usually stops working), because each Android manufacturer deals with web browsing differently (iPhone should work fine). So, if you encounter problems, please be ready to re-enter the session with another browser.

When you join the session your browser will ask you if you want to join in Microphone or Listen only mode. Select Microphone as to be able to interact.

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Next you will need to enable microphone by clicking Allow button.

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Then you will be able to test your microphone with echo test.

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Speak to test the microphone (no one else will be able to hear you) and if you hear yourself, confirm it by clicking on Yes button. If you don’t hear yourself select No and you will be able to change your audio settings.

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You can use headsets but some operating systems might have “drivers” issues, so be ready to use another set of headsets or the internal audio/microphone of your computer.

Next you will join the session.

Remember not to use the BACK button in the browser, or you will leave the meeting. If you do, just rejoin and go through echo test again. If you have audio issues during the session (others can't hear you or you can’t hear them) click on the headset icon to select a different microphone or speaker.

The interface

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On the left hand side of the screen you can see participant’s list, public chat and access to the shared meeting notes.

In the middle of the screen you will see different things according to the setup (presentation, videos, shared screen, whiteboard, etc.) and you have a lot of control over your own view of the meeting (more on that below in the Video section).

You can use the buttons below the presentation to mute/unmute yourself, leave/join audio, share camera, share your screen, enable interpretation or closed captioning and raise your hand. Some buttons might not be visible due to the settings of the room or your role in the meeting (meeting organizer and presenter have more buttons than participants).

Participants

You can see a list of all participants in the session on the left hand side of the screen.

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Chat

Chat works like you are used to on other platforms, so we will only mention additional functions, that you might need.

Notes
Control audio, camera and sharing screen

You can use the buttons below the center screen to mute/unmute yourself, reconnect audio (leave and join again), share/unshare camera or share your screen. Some buttons might not be visible due to the settings of the room, and depending if you are meeting organizer, presenter or participant.

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Mute and unmute your audio

To mute or unmute you can click on the microphone icon. You can also select mute/unmute in your status (by clicking on your name in the list of participants) or press spacebar on your keyboard.

Reconnect audio

Leaving audio and reconnecting is useful when you encounter issues with your audio, if you connect or change your headphones or when you get back to the main room from a breakout room. To reconnect audio click on the phone icon and follow the instructions on the screen.

Share camera

To share your camera:

  1. click on the camera icon,

  2. allow browser to access the camera,

  3. preview the shared camera image and

  4. click on the Start sharing button.

Share screen

If moderator made you the presenter you can also share your window or entire screen. Click on the share screen icon and follow the instructions on the screen.

Using interpretation

When interpretation is enabled, the blue “globe” icon allows you to choose the language you would like to listen to.

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 If the language is being spoken by someone in the session, you will hear the original audio. If an interpreter is speaking in that language, you will hear the interpreter’s voice as well as the original audio at the background. You can increase interpreter's volume or original audio volume as it best suits your hearing.

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When an interpreted language is chosen, a new slider control will appear on the left hand side menu, above the list of names. This slider allows you to select the volume of the original language vs the interpreted language. This is particularly helpful when a speaker has a very loud microphone or voice and it is difficult to hear interpretation above it.

If a BBB session’s audio is being recorded, the recording will only reflect the original audio or “floor”.

Note: some participants have indicated that when they switch from one interpreted language to another, they can't hear well, but it will certainly work if you switch to the floor sound first and then to the other language channel.

Raising your hand

If you click the icon to raise hand in the lower right corner, everyone will be aware that you are requesting to participate. Also, your name will show first in the participants list.

Click again to lower the hand.

Closed captioning (CC)

If closed captions are enabled (live subtitles) a CC icon will appear at the bottom of your screen. Click to enable it and select font and color of the subtitles.

Adjust what you see

When presentation or cameras are shared, you can adjust how they appear on your screen.

Camera

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Presentation

Interaction with drawing tools

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Connection status

A connection status icon at the top right of the screen allows you to see how good connection you have and adjust data usage. This is especially important for mobile phones on slow connections.

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If it becomes red, your bandwidth is not very good at the moment and it is recommended that you click on it and disable cameras and desktop sharing.

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Personal settings

Clicking on three dots icon will open personal settings window that enables you to optimize your experience in BigBlueButton.

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Here you can adjust the user interface - animations, audio filters, application language.

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And in the Notifications tab you can adjust audio and popup alerts.

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Breakout rooms

When moderator opens breakout rooms you will receive a notification. If moderator has assigned you to a specific room you will be asked to join that one.

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When the choice of which room to join is left to participants, there will be an additional dropdown menu to select the room before you can join it.

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When you enter the breakout room you will see time left until the breakout room closes displayed on the top of the window. Other functionalities are similar to the main room (recording is not available though).

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To leave the breakout room just close the browser tab or window. If that happens accidentally, moderators in the main room can place you in a specific breakout room.

When you enter the main room again, reconnect audio and you will be able to participate.

BigBlueButton manual for organisers

Manual for organisers shows advanced features for moderators of the sessions and extends the manual for participants.

Recording the session

Moderators of the room will see a button Start recording at the top of the meeting room.

To record, click on the Start recording button.

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A pop-up will notify you that you can pause the recording and resume it later. Click Yes to start recording.

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The Start recording Button will change and indicate the length of recording.

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To stop the recording click on the button again. After confirming you want to stop recording in the pop-up notification your recording will be stopped.

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Button will change and be ready to resume the recording.

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After you end the meeting the recording will become available on your main room page. It usually takes a few minutes for the recording to be available.

Note: If you record the meeting for one second all the notes and chat will be saved as the result.

Make participant a presenter

As only one user can be a presenter at the same time, user with moderator role will need to assign Presenter role to the user that needs it. Moderator can also take away the presenter role and assign it to themselves. 

To give Presenter rights to the user, click on their name in Users list and select Make presenter.

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To get Presenter role back, click on your name and select Take presenter.

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Promote participant to moderator role

To promote the participant to moderator role click on their name and select Promote to moderator. Now they will have the same rights to manage the room as you have.

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Managing presentations

For best results uploading an Adobe Acrobat document (.pdf) document is recommended, although BigBlueButton will accept other file formats, for example Office documents (.doc .docx .pptx), text documents (.txt),  images(.png , .jpg).

Please note the maximum size is 30 MB or 150 pages per document. You can upload multiple documents as long as they are under the size restrictions.

To upload a presentation first click on the blue (+) button at the bottom and then select Manage presentations.

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A window where you can upload your presentation will open. 

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The default presentation is on the top of the list and you can add new ones by dropping them on the Drag files here to upload area or selecting them by clicking the upload area or browse for files link.

After you select the file, it appears on the list with To be uploaded... status

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To upload it, click on the Upload button at the top of the screen. It will take a few seconds for the presentation to be uploaded and converted to PDF.

The uploaded presentation will immediately appear in the room (so if you don’t want to show it now, load it beforehand or include an empty slide).

If you would like to select or upload another presentation go to blue (+) button again and select Manage presentations. The current presentation has a label CURRENT and a green circle checkbox.

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To select another presentation click in the empty circle and click button Confirm at the top of the page.

If you would like the users to be able to download the presentation then enable sharing by clicking on the down arrow icon next to green circle checkbox. The users will now have a little download icon available in the bottom left corner of the presentation.

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To remove a presentation click on trash can icon.

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You will be able to use additional features to write and draw over the presentation. Review the available tools by clicking on the hand icon on the left side of presentation. If you are the moderator, you can also make these tools available to other participants. Click on the multi-user whiteboard icon at the bottom to enable it.

Drawing tools

Share external video

To share an external video (available on videos.apc.org, Vimeo, YouTube, Twitch...) you need to have a presenter role, then click on the Plus (+) button and select Share an external video in the menu.

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Next, paste the video URL into the text field and click on the button Share a new video. share-external-video-popup.png

The video will start playing in the main window. Participants can pause and play the video on their screen. Beware that not all participants might see the video as the content of the video might be geo-blocked by YouTube or other services.

To stop the video click on Plus (+) icon and select Stop sharing external video.

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Share screen

As a moderator or presenter you can share the screen. Click on the Share your screen icon below the presentation.

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When the browser’s notification pops up select the screen you would like to share:

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Confirm your choice with a click on the button Allow.

To stop sharing the screen click on the Screen icon again.

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Polls

You need to have a Presenter role in order to run a poll.

To create a poll click on the blue Plus (+) button and select Start a poll.

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Next you will see a window with poll options. You can select one of the predefined polls or create a custom one.

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Create breakout rooms

You have to have Moderator role in order to use this feature. Breakout rooms can be created by clicking on the gear icon in the Users list and selecting Create breakout rooms.

Warning: when you enter this menu you cannot manage any other option in BBB until you finalize or cancel the breakout rooms, ie you cannot unmute yourself, nor see the chat. Best practice is to to open another browser tab to create breakout rooms.

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Next select the number of rooms you would like to create (between 2 and 16) and assign users to them.

You can drag and drop the users’ names, randomly assign them to rooms OR let each choose the room that they want to join. You will also need to define the duration of breakout rooms.

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Confirm the settings and open the breakout rooms by clicking on Create button.

The participants will get a notification to join the breakout room. When they join the room a new tab will open in their browser and mute them in the main room. When participants join the breakout room they will see a notification about remaining time on top of the window. 

In the main room any moderator can join any breakout room and move around, as well as join “audio only”.

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Participants can be called back to the main room by the Presenter, or can return by leaving their breakout room, which will bring them back to the main room.

Warning: You cannot assign people randomly to rooms if more than one participant is a moderator!

Warning: Breakout rooms can end abruptly, even before the warning countdown is done. It’s important to save/copy notes, especially since breakout rooms cannot be recorded.

You can send private messages to participants in breakout rooms from the main room.

Select a random user

Sometimes you would like to call out a random user and a feature Select random user can help you make a more random selection. Click on the Plus (+) button and Select random user.

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On the screen all participants will see a popup window with a randomly selected user.

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Interpretation

Meeting moderator can setup and manage interpretation in several languages.

Activate the interpretation

To start interpretation, click Languages in the left sidebar.

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Then introduce the language names (+ Add language) and click Confirm. Define the speech detection threshold for interpreter audio input (between -100 for noisy environments to 0 which means off ): -70 is the default and you can leave it as it is.

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When you are ready, click on Start interpretation.

Participants will see a new globe icon that allows them to select any of the interpreted languages. 

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Assign interpreters

In order to assign interpreters, first promote them to moderators: click on their names in the left sidebar, then Promote to moderator.

When they are moderators, they will see a new, purple button to the far right of the bottom menu. They can each select the language they want to interpret into.

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When they are interpreting, their mic icon is violet (instead of the normal blue of participants).

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Closed captions

Meeting moderators can enable close captioning on the meeting.

Select the gear icon and Write close captions.

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Then select the language.

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You can start typing text and participants who had enabled CC (clicked on the CC icon) will be able to see the closed captions.

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Several people can take turns writing subtitles in the same language.

 

Convening chat on Mattermost

What is Mattermost?

Mattermost is an open source application for team collaboration, similar to Slack, for those of you who have used Slack before. It runs on APC's server, so your conversations are securely stored and data protected. Confidentiality is guaranteed as not even system administrators cannot have access to your private conversations.

How to connect?

Simply click on https://mm.apc.org/convening and enter your username and password - the same one you use at inside.apc.org and convening21.apc.org.

If you have forgotten your username and password, you can reset it using your registered email address at inside.apc.org

To access Mattermost you can also use apps on your phone or desktop. Check available apps at mattermost.com/download/#mattermostApps and use server name mm.apc.org and same credentials when logging in.

You are all part of the 'convening' team on the APC's Mattermost server.

Channels

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Once you login you will see channels (and direct messages) in a sidebar on the left.

Use 🐢 ALL Participants - Sea turtles to get updates on sessions and other announcements and to connect with everyone at the convening.

Use Tech Support -Ocean park to ask for help from the tech team on any tech issues you might be having. Someone in the tech team is always monitoring the chat.

Direct messages

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Below the channels, you will see your direct messages. You can send a direct message to any person in the convening team, every APC member, partner, and staff participating in the convening. You can send Direct messages to just one person or to multiple people at the same time.

Click on the `+` sign to start a new conversation.

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Select people you would like to contact and click on Go.

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Initiate a BigBlueButton session

When you would like to have an instant voice or video chat, you can initiate it directly from Mattermost.

Note: This feature works only inside the browser (and not in apps).

In the direct message select the BigBlueButton video camera icon at the top of the window.

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Then select Call [username].

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The information about BigBlueButton room will appear in the chat. Click on Join Meeting button and BigBlueButton session will be initiated.

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When people join the session the message will display who joined

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Notify users about the message

When you want to reference someone in a conversation use @ followed by their username, ie @shivi. That person will receive a notification and be informed about the conversation they are a part of. This feature is useful in cases when you have direct messages with multiple people but you want a certain person to be notified about the conversation.

@all and @channel notifies everybody in the channel

Setup notifications

If you would like to be notified about new messages, you can set up your notification preferences (with or without notification sounds). Click on three lines next to your name and select Account Settings.

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Then go to Notifications tab and Edit your Desktop, Email and Mobile Push Notifications.

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Send a file

You can send a file by clicking on the clip icon , selecting the file and adding an optional message.

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Convening FAQ

Where can I find an overview of what the convening is about?

Please visit the "Read me" document here.

Where can I write to ask questions or send requests?

Please write to convening@apc.org. You can also drop your question in the chat platform here.

I prefer to use email and I have questions. Who can I contact?

Please send an email to convening@apc.org and we will do our best to help!

Where can I find tech support if I need it?

In the chat platform, in this channel: https://mm.apc.org/convening/channels/tech or by sending an email to support2021@apc.org.

Where can I see all the sessions, their times and the organisers?

The full convening schedule can be found here. https://convening21.apc.org/ Please note that:

  1. Timing is in UTC
  2. You can choose list/day/week view
  3. The little dots in front of the name or title of the session mean:

What are the “interconnection” and “pop-up” sessions?

These are regional and/or thematic conversations on issues and projects, proposed by the APC member community. Pop-up sessions are shorter sessions between 30 and 60 minutes, on any topic. You can create your pop-up session during the convening.

How can I organise a pop-up session?

To book a pop-up slot please write to convening@apc.org with the following details:

The convening group will send you the link to a meeting room.

You can also send a direct message to Natalia (@natalia) and Shivi (@shivi) on the chat platform for quick queries on pop-ups.

If you want to host a pop-up with up to seven people, you can do this on your own by initiating a meeting room from within the chat platform (Mattermost). First you create a group chat with the participants and then you initiate the call. Otherwise the organising committee will provide you with a link to an available room.

Is only one person per organisation allowed to participate in the convening?

No, you can bring in as many colleagues from your organisation as you want, as long as they are registered here. 

Will all the sessions have captions and interpretation available?

Sessions are being organised in three languages in addition to English. The details on the availability of these services per session are indicated in the schedule available here https://convening21.apc.org/ and coded as follows:

How do I join the sessions I am interested in?

Go here and log in (you will find instructions on how to log in there). Once you are logged in, you will see the convening schedule. Click on the name of the session you want to join and click on the room name. It will take you to where the session is taking place.

Where can I find a specific room?

Go to the convening page: https://convening21.apc.org and scroll down. You will find all rooms under “Convening rooms”.

How do I use the chat platform? (Mattermost)

Please refer to this short manual here. Even if you don't like instant messaging it is quite important that you connect to this one (it is just temporary). Otherwise you might miss important updates about the event. You can access it here with the user name and password you received after registration.

How do I use the meetings platform as a participant?

Please read here.

How do I use the meetings platform as a session organiser?

Please read here.

What are the Best Futures Awards?

These are awards for members under four categories: Solidarity, Collaboration, Innovation, Creativity. You can nominate a member for these awards during the course of the convening. Read more about the awards here.

How can I make my nomination/s for the Best Futures Awards?

At the end of each day you will be asked to share your nominations for the Best Futures Awards. You can share just the nomination or a line with your reason. It can be as simple as: I like them. On Day 5 all nominations will be shared and winners will be announced.

I could not attend many sessions that I was interested in. Where can I find out more about how they went?

Throughout the five days of the convening, we will be sending you daily summaries from the convening, called Dish of the Day. You can also read them at your own pace here.