CW20 Publicity

Publicity and clear communication were key for transitioning CW20 from an in-person to a virtual event within three weeks.

Before the event

We published a news item announcing that CW20 would move online. We asked our community to please bear with us while we updated the Eventbrite page, the CW20 website and modified the format of the workshop to make the experience as useful and enjoyable to our participants as possible. We included information on what participants could expect with regards to registration and general advice to participants on reclaiming travel costs.

We updated the Eventbrite page description to include our response to the situation around COVID-19 and that the event would move online, edited the location to Zoom, and changed the registration ticket options and prices to the new reduced rates.

We edited the CW20 website to:

  • Update the workshop description and image to reflect that it would now take place online.
  • Add a Response to Coronavirus (COVID-19) section notifying the community of the decisions made around the event.
  • Update the agenda with the reformatted programme.
  • Update the venue information with instructions on installing and using Zoom.
  • Update the Code of Conduct to include additional online interactions and reporting.

During the event

We used the Twitter hashtag #CollabW20 to promote the event on social media, following the convention of previous CW events. We assigned a staff member as Twitter Monitor to tweet throughout and amplify the event.

After the event

After the event, we solicited feedback from participants through a Google Form, motivated by a random prize draw for those who submitted it. Overall, we received very positive feedback regarding the general structure, organisation and communication of the workshop, and how useful and enjoyable it was.

We published several blog posts after the event, including:

We made the keynote presentation slides, lightning talk presentation slides, and infrastructure resources available through a CW20 conference portal on Figshare and announced their availability through a news item after the event. We also made the CW20 session recordings available via the Institute’s Youtube channel and announced their availability through a news item.

Finally, we contributed a recipe for how to run the virtual Collaborative Ideas session to the Center for Scientific Collaboration and Community Engagement’s (CSCCE) guide to Using virtual events to facilitate community building: event formats, which has been viewed 6,000+ times and downloaded 5,000+ times.