Participant instructions for ISERN'04

The following contains brief instructions for the participants of ISERN'04.  The topics are listed as ISERN member and their co-participants, candidate members, Observer guests, and Session chairs and contributors. 

ISERN members and their co-participants

All ISERN members are requested to prepare a member information page to be posted on the meeting wall.  This "membership showcase" is used to support networking and information sharing between members and meeting participants.  
You should fill in and send in your member information sheet using the PowerPoint template available at 
http://www.soberit.hut.fi/isern04/Member_info_sheet.ppt  
(NB: template updated on July 28: instructions for additional member representatives added)

Instructions for the template: 

• The file contains three pages, first one has instructions, second one is an "empty" template, and a third one is a dummy sample so that you can see the general layout.  Return only the pages you want to be posted
• Fill in one page per participant in the meeting.  If you are a participant that is accompanying the "official" member of your organization, you may indicate the name of the "official" member in the 'Member since' line (see the updated template for an example)
• Keep the font size as it is: summarize and shorten the message rather than tell too many details (there will 30-40 other info sheets on the wall) 
• If you are substituting a member, you may both have your own page 
• You can insert your logo on the page if you want 
• Send your info sheet to jyrki.kontio@hut.fi by Aug 13 by 13:00 hrs Finnish time and bring a backup hardcopy with you

Candidate members

As a candidate member of ISERN, you are kindly requested to prepare a poster that presents your motivation, expectations and  planned contributions to the ISERN community.  Here are the instructions for the poster: 

• Include the single page information sheet as a part of your poster (file available at http://www.soberit.hut.fi/isern04/Candidate_info_sheet.ppt 
  Send also a separate such a sheet to jyrki.kontio@hut.fi by Aug 13 by 13:00 hrs Finnish time to be included in the participant showcase
• Your poster can be a single sheet, full poster or consist of other single pages that you put together on site
• Your poster should describe the type of research you do, your institution and your background, specifically focusing on empirical research
• You may have hardcopies of your most relevant papers available as well
• Keep the font size big enough so that people can read your message from a normal poster viewing distance
• Keep your main message short and clear: you can discuss the details in person or provide additional background material to those that are interested in details
• Prepare your poster and be prepared to set it up on site before the meeting starts (further instructions on this to be posted here later)

Note that if you already submitted a poster for the ISESE symposium, you do not need to make an additional poster, your poster will be available during the ISERN'04 meeting as well.  However, in this case we still hope that you will fill in the candidate member information sheet (using the link above). 

Observers

If you are a guest observer at the ISERN'04 meeting, we recommend that you prepare and fill in an information sheet that will help other participants get to know you better.  You can use the template provided to present yourself to the community:
http://www.soberit.hut.fi/isern04/Observer_info_sheet.ppt

Here are some instructions for filling in the template:

• Keep the font size as it is: summarize and shorten the message rather than tell too many details (there will 30-40 other info sheets on the wall)
• You can insert your logo on the page if you want
• Send your info sheet to jyrki.kontio@hut.fi byAug 13 by 13:00 hrs Finnish time and bring a backup hardcopy with you

Session chairs and contributors

Plan and prepare the session and submit the information well in advance to the ISERN'04 web site so that all participants do their homework on your topic.  In particular, plan and communicate the objectives and planned results of your session. 

One particular goal we have this year is for each session to produce some concrete result that can be documented and built upon during the following year and used as a new stepping stone the following year.  Plan the format of your session accordingly and discuss and plan whether some post session activity should take place to make this happen.

 Remember the ground rules:

• No person should speak in more than one session
• No one should speak more than 10 mins plus 5 minutes for questions
• Each session has max 3 speakers (plus chair)
• No session should be just presentations
• Don't present your existing stuff: your presentations must be new and issue oriented

The bottom line is: focus on making very concise and clear initial statements to set the scene and thrive on the discussion -- that's what makes ISERN unique and valuable.

If you want to have hand-outs available as hardcopies of your presentations, they need to be sent to local organizers by AUGUST 2. Also note that you can use the ISERN'04 website to let people see your presentations or material in advance.