Our second Storify captures the final few hours before the conference REALLY Kicks off:
https://storify.com/JennyMurray/bcur-begins?utm_campaign=website&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email
Gabriele Neher (@gabrieleneher)
Uncategorized
⌗BCUR14 Programme at a glance
BCUR 2014 University of Nottingham
Programme at a glance
Sunday, 13th April, 2014
From 15.00 Accommodation keys available, Lenton & Wortley Hall
19.30-21.00 Quiz (for delegates in conference accommodation), Lenton & Wortley Hall dining hall
Monday, 14th April, 2014
9.00-11.00 Conference Registration desk Trent Building Council Dining Room
10.30-11.30 PlenaryWelcome: Professor Alan Ford, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Teaching & Learning, University of NottinghamKeynote talk: Professor Stephen Mumford (Nottingham) “Knowledge is power” Law & Social Sciences B63
11.30-12.00 Tea & CoffeePosters X pin up Trent Building Great Hall andSenate Chamber
12.00-13.00 Parallel sessions, S1 Trent BuildingL&SS LG11, LG18A1, A2, A4
13.00-14.00 LunchPosters X, even numbers Trent Building Great Hall andSenate Chamber
14.00-14.45 Network eventProfessor Mike Neary (Lincoln): People bingo Trent Building Senate Chamber
14.45-15.45 Parallel sessions, S2 Trent BuildingL&SS LG11, LG18A1, A2, A3, A4
15.45-16.45 Tea & CoffeePosters X, odd numbers Trent Building Great Hall andSenate Chamber
16.45-17.45 Parallel sessions, S3 Trent BuildingL&SS LG11, LG18A1, A2, A3, A4
17.45-18.30 Posters X take downPosters Y pin up Trent Building Great Hall andSenate Chamber
[17.45-18.30] [BCUR Steering Group meeting] [L&SS] [B62]
19.30 – late Conference Dinner Lenton & Wortley Hall Dining Hall
19.30 – late Conference Buffet Lincoln Hall Dining Hall
Tuesday, 15th April, 2015
9.00-11.00 Conference Registration desk Trent Building Council Dining Room
9.00-10.00 PlenaryKeynote talk: Professor Philip Moriarty (Nottingham) “Guilty Confessions of a YouTube Physicist” Keighton Lecture Hall
10.00-11.00 Parallel sessions, S4 Trent BuildingL&SS LG11, LG18A1, A2, A4
11.00-12.00 Tea & CoffeePosters Y, even numbers Trent Building Great Hall andSenate Chamber
12.00-13.00 Parallel sessions, S5 Trent BuildingL&SS LG11, LG18A1, A2, A4
13.00-14.00 LunchPosters Y, odd numbers Trent Building Great Hall andSenate Chamber
14.00-15.00 Parallel sessions, S6 Trent BuildingL&SS LG11, LG18A1, A2, A3, A4
15.00-16.00 PlenaryKeynote: Dr Helen Walkington (Oxford Brookes) “Get published!”PrizesReflections: Professor Stuart Hampton-Reeves (BCUR and Central Lancashire) Keighton Lecture Hall
For more information, refer to the main BCUR webpage
A list of the abstracts can be found here
Spotlight on the opening plenary for ⌗BCUR14: Professor Stephen Mumford, University of Nottingham
Every good conference starts with a plenary that brings together all the speakers, delegates and conference helpers. Its with the opening plenary that a conference’s scene is set, and that aspirations and hopes for the conference are set out. So, while this is the most coveted spot of any conference, this also means that the plenary speaker finds him/herself subject to rather intense scrutiny and the focus of the undivided attention of a full lecture theatre.
No pressure there then for Professor Stephen Mumford, who steps up on Monday 14th April, 10:30 am, to deliver his plenary on ‘Knowledge is Power’, to the fourth- and largest ever- British Conference of Undergraduate Research. At the latest count, Professor Mumford will address approximately 300 Undergraduate speakers and delegates, as well as a 40+ team of student and staff from the University of Nottingham supporting and running the convention.
So, who is Professor Stephen Mumford and what can delegates expect? If in doubt, I always say, lets look at what we can learn about our plenary speaker from his online presence. A basic search brings up his University of Nottingham home page, and this quickly leads to another web page with details about biography, publications and details about his research. The following quote is taken from Stephen Mumford’s online biography:
I was born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire on July 31st 1965 and attended Outwood Grange School. After working as a low-grade civil servant for three years, I read Philosophy and History of Ideas with Politics at Huddersfield Polytechnic (now University). After that I entered the Philosophy Department at the University of Leeds to take an MA in Philosophy of Mind. There I met Robin LePoidevin who became my PhD supervisor. I was awarded a PhD in 1994 for ‘Dispositions and Reductionism’ and was offered a two-year lectureship at Leeds. I left to join the Philosophy department at Nottingham in 1995, where I have been ever since. I was for three years the Head of Department and then for two years Head of the School of Humanities (the School of which Philosophy is a part). I am currently Dean of the Arts Faculty: a four-year appointment. While at Nottingham, I wrote my books Dispositions, Laws in Nature, David Armstrong, Watching Sport: Aesthetics, Ethics and Emotions and co-wrote Getting Causes from Powers.
Professor Mumford also blogs on Arts Matters and is an avid tweeter (as @sdmumford). Who better to open a conference that seeks to inspire and professionalise a new generation of researchers!
Gabriele Neher (@gabrieleneher)
Pointers for the Deputy Chair
Please familiarise yourself with the Pointers for the Session Chairs as outlined here. AS Deputy chair, your main role is to support the session chair by allowing him/her to chair the session effectively, that is, to concentrate on introducing the papers; keeping the speakers to time; chairing the session.
Your role is to support the chair and the speaker by taking charge of the audio-visual aspects of the papers, so please:
* help the speaker(s) to set up their presentation and familiarise them with the controls. All papers will be recorded, so advise them on where to stand!
*explain the traffic-light system of timing their presentation to them : white card= 2 mins to go; yellow card =start wrapping up; red card= time out. STOP.
*when the paper is finished, the chair will ask for questions to the speaker. Please use this time to stop the recording for the paper (do not record the questions), remove the speaker’s memory stick/flash drive/ laptop etc and set up the next paper. A successful deputy chair makes sure that the transition between speakers is seamless.
*at the end of the session, direct delegates to the next paper/ to refreshments
*remember to discuss with the session chair which presentation to nominate for the prizes.
@gabrieleneher
BCUR 14 on YouTube- our first video
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp_8yDmRz94
Have a look!
The Conference App
BCUR14 in Nottingham has grown to include close to 300 spoken and poster presentations- so the production of a conference programme was quite something. Nottingham University prides itself on its environmental credentials- so printing a conference handbook was out.
We are not providing a conference programme in hardcopy. Instead, the full programme is available through the Guidebook app. Please download this to your smartphone, tablet or other mobile device. Enter the code BCUR2014 to find the conference programme and other information. Please look at it before you come to Nottingham.
The app also works on the Desktop: follow this link, and as before, use the code BCUR14 to redeem.
In order to learn more about Nottingham’s green accolade, have a look at this article in The Independent from 24 January 2014.
Gabriele Neher (@gabrieleneher)
Advice for first-time conference presenters
Here is a truly marvellous blogpost from the thirteenthcenturyengland.wordpress.com site that looks in particular at issues that face first-time conference presenters. The BCUR14 delegates will almost without exception fall into this category, so plead have a look to get a sense of the issues facing the delegates!
I’ve been handing out a lot of this of late, so I thought I would centralize it here. Maybe you’re presenting at your first conference, or maybe it’s not your first time but it’s a really major meeting and you lack confidence. Either way, perhaps you should consider these points. Don’t be one of those people who give dire conference papers that everyone remembers for the wrong reasons.
1. It’s a conference paper, not a journal article
These two genres are very different, yet many people – especially in the humanities – treat them as if they are the same. In other words, to prepare a conference paper, many humanities students/academics sit down and write. They produce elegantly phrased sentences of complex construction. They delay the moments of ‘big reveal’, maybe by opening with an evocative quotation or posing a puzzling question that won’t be answered until the…
View original post 700 more words
Pointers for session chairs
For BCUR14, each session normally consists of 4 papers. The speakers have been instructed to make sure their presentation does not exceed 12 minutes, in order to allow for time for questions on each paper and to allow for time to swap between speakers.
The job of the chair is to ensure that this timing is adhered to; it is really important to be strict as otherwise an overly long paper at the beginning of a session squeezes the time available for later speakers. So, how can you chair a session effectively? The following points are not in order of priority, but may be helpful:
In advance of the session:
* be familiar with the abstracts of your four speakers and any biographical and personal information you have access to; it may be helpful to write the details down, so you have them to hand when chairing
*arrive 10-15 mins early, to check the layout of the room and ensure that you are set up for recording. A recommended layout is to have tables for a panel set up in front of the screen.
*display the BCUR opening slide-provided
* be there to greet the speakers! Introduce yourself to the speakers, and ask how they want to be introduced ( if you have your piece of paper with the details, add that information).
* with the help of the deputy chair ( whose main task is audio-visual support and logistics), set the presentations up. We recommend to drag the presentations on the desktop.
* brief the speakers about how you intend to chair. You need to ask them to make eye contact with you, and explain the signals to them. We will have a white card that reads 2 mins, a yellow card that reads Time almost up and a red card that means stop now.
* get the speakers to sit in the front row, so maybe reserve that space for them.
*if your session involves pre-recorded content and the need to skype for questions, we will make sure you have additional technical support.
During the session:
* You open and close the session, and you chair the papers, so your first task is to start the session by welcoming the delegates ( hi everybody, my name is ____ and I am the chair for this session. We will take questions after each paper, and there will of courste be an opportunity for you to talk to the speakers at refreshment breaks. First speaker for this session is _____ who will be speaking to us about his/ her research on xyz. Speaker, take the floor). This is just a suggested introduction, but if you are at all nervous, write it on an index card or similar and read it.
* time the speaker and if necessary, use the traffic light system with the cards to keep the session to time.
* at the end of each paper, the chair leads the applause (clap!), and thanks the speaker, while the deputy chair handles the IT and lines the next speaker up
* introduce the next speaker
*For questions, ask the delegates to state their name, their university affiliation, and to state clearly who the question is for. Don’t allow more than 2 questions in a row for the same speaker, and make sure every speaker gets a question. If necessary, YOU ask that question ( I recommend you have a back up question up your sleeve along the lines of ‘ how did you decide on pursuing this project’, something like this which can be made to apply to every delegate).
What to do if a paper is withdrawn?
When a paper has been withdrawn, the session chair will use the allocated 15 mins for a break, or for discussion, or networking at delegates. Please do not change the timing and order of the remaining programme for your panel, just pause proceedings and start again on time. This helps delegates who want to ‘session hop’ between sessions (they might want to hear a particular paper) to get to the paper on time.
Concluding the session:
* thank the speakers
* introduce to the delegates what is next, so tell them about breaks/locations and where to go next.
* either the deputy chair or another member of the support team will stand at the door and act as human signpost
* remember to select the best presentation/presenter from your panel and pass the response to Martin.
Gabriele Neher (@gabrieleneher)
#BCUR14 traffic light system for keeping papers on time
bcur14nottingham 