A community comes together, remotely.
Since we announced that IAC20 will be a digital-only conference, more of everyday life has moved online. We’ve watched and thought carefully about how this might be affecting people.
We’re committed to providing a high-value conference that brings together the best and brightest minds in information architecture. We’re hearing that while some of you have lots of time on your hands, others are feeling overburdened and fatigued by increased work demands. We’re trying to strike a balance with the new format that will let as many people participate as possible while reducing the amount of attention people need to devote each day.
You no longer need to dedicate whole days to get value from IAC20. We’re mixing pre-recorded talks with live Q&A and discussion sessions to give every attendee the flexibility to consume content and connect.
We’ve spread out the sessions over several weeks, beginning April 20 and you can watch the recorded content whenever you have time. Q&A, social events, poster sessions and careers support and mentoring will fit a fixed schedule for real-time, live interaction. We’re making the most of our new digital environment.
Main conference registration
Since we switched to the digital format we’ve lowered the price to $850. If you paid more than this we’re giving you a credit for the extra amount. You have three options for how to use this credit.
- Use it to register for an extra IAC20 workshop
- Donate it to the IAC20 scholarship fund
- Receive a discount code for IAC21
Workshops
We’ve reduced the duration of some workshops and our workshops have been redesigned for remote learning.
We’ve reduced the price of workshops to $149. For those who paid the original price for workshops we’ll be refunding the difference.
We’ve adjusted the capacity on most workshops to allow more people to register and participate. Workshops will still have a cap on attendance.
We’re adjusting the schedule to make sure as many people as possible can attend — despite the disruptions to everyday life.
Format of the event
We’re all experiencing unprecedented times. The challenges we’ve faced organising this conference are insignificant when compared to the hardship that many people are facing. But as a team of volunteers and a community of experts, we’ve been trying to adapt and make IAC20 a bright spot at a time of uncertainty.
Every talk in IAC20 will be recorded
We will release talks to a schedule so that if your diary permits you can watch them at the same time as your peers and participate in a live Q&A session with the speaker and the community. We’ll release content each day of the conference at a set time, likely 3–4 talks each day.
We’ll host additional scheduled Q&As with speakers to continue the conversation and give you a second chance to interact.
We’ll provide access to all recorded talks and Q&As so you can consume both when your schedule permits.
Conference sessions will be released on weekdays, and follow-up, supplementary Q&A sessions will be scheduled on weekends
There will be an online social hour after each day’s live Q&A sessions have wrapped up.
We’re working with speakers at the moment to gather our content and support their participation despite everyone’s changed circumstances. Lives are disrupted across the world, so we’re being flexible. For this reason we’ll announce a new program and schedule of events on 15 thApril — or before — when we’re certain of logistics. Our releases and live sessions will begin on 20 th April.
A community coming together, remotely
These are strange and difficult times for many reasons. But they’re also offering chances to show what we value and care about. The move to digital has meant we’ve been able to extend our offer to support student attendance. Every qualifying applicant to the IAC20 scholarship program will now be able to attend. We’re working on extending this offer to a second round of applicants.
We ask for your forbearance and forgiveness in advance. We’re all trying to adapt to a situation that’s changing daily. As the IAC team, we’re going to do our best to adapt IAC 20 to the current moment, but we won’t get it all right. Please give us the latitude to make some mistakes along the way.
IAC20 is an event about making sense in challenging times. It’s now also a chance to build and strengthen a global community of designers, information architects and sense-makers united in intention and connected via technology. We look forward to you joining us and helping shape that conversation.
Originally published at https://www.theiaconference.com on March 14, 2020.
