How to Produce an Access Grid Event

1
How to Produce an Access Grid Event

• Jennifer Teig von Hoffman
• Boston University National Computational
  Science Alliance

2
What Well Cover Today

• How much planning is needed?
• How can I attract participants?
• What do I need to do before my event?
• How much staff will I need during my event?
• How can I evaluate my event?

3
Todays Focus

• Big, polished AG events require plenty of
  planning and preparation
• Informal AG events require minimal preparation
  theres not much there to talk about from an
  event planners point of view

4
Questions

• Please jump in at any time with questions or
  comments

5
Primary Reference

• Access Grid-in-a-box tutorial, How to Produce an
  Access Grid Event An Elementary Guide for
  Technical Users
• http//webct.ncsa.uiuc.edu8900/public/AGIB/

6
A Sound Beginning

• Todays seminar will introduce you to general
  concepts, giving you a good starting place for
  planning events
• As technology changes, best practices in planning
  change
• 1999 -gt the present -gt the future

7
Introductions

• At each site, please tell us
• Your name
• Your experience with the Access Grid
• Your role in Access Grid events

8
Getting Started

• How Real Life Translates into Life on the
  Access Grid

9
Common Sense

• The technology is revolutionary, but (for now at
  least) the planning skills are mostly common
  sense
• However, the distributed nature of the AG means
  that the consequences of poor planning can be
  more disruptive

10
What is an AG Event?

• Anytime people get together on the AG
• Each AG event takes place in a Virtual Venue
• Virtual Venue virtual conference room
• Some Venues require reservations

11
Some Need Lots of Planning

• SC Global
• PACS Training Workshops
• Virtual Conference on Genomics and
  Bioinformatics)
• Demonstration for Governor of Illinois

12
Some Need Little Planning

• Planning meeting with Mary and Ariella
• U. Australia management meetings
• SC Global planning meetings
• First Annual Access Grid Symposium on Beerology

13
Be Minimalist When You Can

• Planning your first few events will help you
  learn where and how you can minimize preparations
• Unnecessarily rigid or excessive preparation
  requirements can discourage sites from
  participating

14
Factors to Consider

• Tolerance for interruptions
• Potential consequences of failure
• New technologies and/or new operators

15
Interruptions

• Ask yourself could you pause for
• Audio adjustments?
• Loading presentation files?
• Other unforeseen circumstances?
• The larger the number of participating sites, the
  higher the likelihood of interruptions

16
Consequences of Failure

• If the meeting doesnt go smoothly
• Would critical work go unfinished or be
  unacceptably delayed?
• Would a public relations or political problem
  result?

17
New Tech or Operators

• Are there new nodes at any critical participating
  sites?
• Have you recently upgraded hardware or software?
• Any changes in your networking?
• Are any of the participating sites being managed
  by new operators?

18
Marketing Your Event

• How to Attract Participants and Participating
  Sites

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Recruiting Participating Sites

• Network within the AG community to find
  interested sites, asking for their commitment to
  participate before announcing the event
• Or, require participants to ensure they have
  appropriate access to an AG node
• Consider who your audience is

20
Get the Word Out

• AG mailing lists
• ag-tech_at_mcs.anl.gov must be subscribed to post
• accessgrid_at_mcs.anl.gov
• Any other mailing lists to which your event would
  be relevant

21
Choose Words Carefully

• NOT Attend at any of the AG locations listed on
  the AG web site link
• INSTEAD Attend at any of the following AG
  locations list of participating sites.
• OR Participants are responsible for ensuring
  they have use of a well-functioning AG node.

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Time Zones Matter

• Always list local time zone and GMT
• Consider non-US participants
• Multiple sessions in staggered time zones?

23
Managing Registration

• Central registration
• One registration form, including list of
  participating sites
• Forward participant data to participating sites
  as appropriate
• Distributed registration
• Each participating site has own form
• Organizer requests data as appropriate

24
Planning Your Event

• Developing Appropriate Strategies

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You Need a Good Foundation

• Stable, fully debugged multicast networking
  (which must be monitored over time)
• The latest release of AG Toolkit software
• All hardware and software consistent with the AG
  specification or requirements
• Technical staff with sufficient time available to
  keep their skills current and the node
  well-maintained

26
Make It So

• You must ensure that your staff have access to
  the resources they need
• Hardware/software
• Network support
• Time

27
Bare Minimum Preparations

• Just reserve a room and show up ?
• Node ops may want to arrive a bit early
• Work with your node operator on technical issues
  as you go along
• Presentation files
• Audio adjustments
• Camera adjustments

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Big Events as Proving Grounds

• Its not unusual for a new (and possibly
  temporary) node to be set up for a big event
• If youre the main site, and setting up a new
  node, double your prep time
• Networking
• Audio

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When You Need More Polish

• Amount of necessary preparation varies widely
  depending on several factors
• Some is prep you need to do anyway
• Developing and finalizing agendas
• Coordinating with presenters
• Marketing and registration
• Evaluation

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Getting Started

• Determine approximate number of presenters,
  participants, and participating sites
• Develop a draft agenda
• Develop marketing and evaluation plans
• Meet immediately with your technical team leader

31
On Your Draft Agenda

• Order and physical location of speakers
• List of all participating sites
• Work with your technical team leader to include
  info on issues including
• Presentation software and media
• Backup/contingency plans
• Appropriate redundancy or breaks for tech staff

32
Practicing for Your Event

• Test Cruises and Content Rehearsals

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Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse

• The bigger and more formal the event, the more
  rehearsals you need
• Two types of rehearsal
• Test cruise
• Dry run

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Test Cruises

• Ideally, should be planned and led by your
  technical team leader
• Objective Ensure that all sites have
  well-debugged nodes and network and are
  well-versed in all relevant technologies

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How Many Test Cruises?

• Your technical team leader should consider
• How experienced is your local team?
• How many participating sites?
• How many of those sites have new nodes?
• How many new or unusual technologies will be in
  use?

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What to Test in the Cruises

• All technologies which may be used in the actual
  event
• Standard AG audio, video, and MOO
• Distributed or Remote PowerPoint?
• Telephone backup channel?
• Distributed VR?

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Dry Runs

• To determine how many to hold, and whose
  attendance to require or request, ask yourself
• Have these presenters spoken over the AG before?
• Are they comfortable with the AG?
• Will they facilitate complicated interactions?

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Holding a Dry Run

• Invite speakers to do abbreviated versions of
  their presentations
• Rehearse any complicated interactions
• Music, art, dance?
• Facilitating group discussion among large number
  of people/sites?

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Recommended Reading

• Tips on Communicating Effectively over the AG
• http//www.accessgrid.org/agdp/tips/comm-tips.htm
  l
• Beginner's Guide to Facilitating Interactive
  Communications on the Access Grid
• http//www.accessgrid.org/agdp/guide/facilitation
  .html

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Final Test Cruise Pre-flight

• Technical staff should arrive at the appropriate
  virtual venue 30-60 minutes before the event
  begins
• If participants will be arriving in the nodes
  physical space early, you and your staff may need
  to arrive even earlier
• Ideally, presenters should participate in final
  audio tests

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Staffing Your Event

• Roles and Responsibilities

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Again, General Guidelines

• Well discuss one way to divide up the labor
  again, your mileage may vary
• When you design your own staffing plans, keep in
  mind
• The strengths and weaknesses of the people on
  your team
• The needs of your particular event

43
Each Site Has Its Own Staff

• Each site participating in a given event is
  responsible for developing their own staffing
  plan, and filling the roles appropriately
• You may wish to work with representatives of each
  site on their staffing plans

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Each Venue Is Different

• The size of your physical venue plays a large
  part in determining the size of your staff

45
The Bare Minimum

• At the main site
• Meeting leader (ie, meeting chair)
• Node operator (might be the meeting leader)
• At all other sites
• Node operator, if necessary

46
Bigger, More Polished Events

• Producer of overall event
• Usually also acts as local Producer too
• Technical Director of overall event
• Usually also operates node in some capacity
• Floor Manager
• Additional node operators/assistants

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Producers Responsibilities

• Manage and support local team
• In many small- or medium-sized events, Producer
  and Technical Director merge into one role

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Producers Responsibilities

• In collaboration with the Technical Director,
  develop technical web page for event
• Also known as Production Plan or Technical Agenda
• During event, determine how/when it is
  appropriate to deviate from the agenda

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Technical Directors Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership and guidance to the
  entire team
• Locally and for the whole event
• Collaborate closely with the Producer
• Test cruises and content rehearsals
• Technical web page

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Technical Directors Responsibilities

• Collect and place online all required files for
  participating sites
• Ensure arrangements are made for technical
  considerations
• AG Venue reservation, if necessary
• Back-up public channel telephone line

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Master of Ceremonies Responsibilities

• Introduce presenters and keep them on schedule
• Manage audience in case of any disruptions to
  event
• May give brief explanation of any pauses
• May use opportunity to share anecdotes
• Manage flow of questions

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Floor Managers Responsibilities

• Ensure all presenters arrive at the podium on
  time
• Keep track of time, and let MC know if presenters
  need to be nudged along
• May support MC by communicating with presenters
  using cue cards
• 5 Minutes Left, Times Up

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Other Operators/Assistants

• Monitor outgoing and incoming audio
• Manage front display wall
• Monitor outgoing video streams
• Manage microphones
• Manage podium laptop with presentation tools

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Essential Communications

• Use the MOO, the official Access Grid
  back-channel
• Communicate among staff at all participating
  sites
• Communicate among staff at local site
• Optionally, use telephone back-channel
• Optionally, use headset radios within the room

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Evaluating AG Events

• Learning from Your Experience

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Special Considerations

• Participants geographically distributed so
  event experience may vary significantly from site
  to site
• Quality of audio system?
• Appropriate size of room and screen?
• Effective and efficient management of front
  display screen?

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Areas to Evaluate

• The content of the event
• You can adapt your current evaluation form for AG
  events
• The technology and how well it supports the
  content
• Audio, video, presentation materials clear?
• Communications among sites work smoothly?

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A Suggested Strategy

• Web-based evaluation form with no required fields
• Announce URL of evaluation form during event
• Follow-up email to participants the next day,
  including URL

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Share Your Results

• Understanding how and why AG events succeeded, as
  well as failed, helps us all

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Case Studies
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Case Study SC Global 2001

• A component of Supercomputing 2001 (Denver,
  11/01)
• Volunteer planning committee, representing many
  organizations

Dancing Beyond Boundaries, Presented by U. of
Florida As Viewed from University of
Manchester, United Kingdom
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An Unprecedented Event

• Very structured, high-visibility, and
  technically-risky
• 40 participating sites, some contributing
  content, some just lurking
• 100 participants at many locations
• Four days of content, often in four or more
  concurrent tracks

63
Diverse Content

• Visual arts
• Music and dance
• Technology demonstrations
• Technical Papers
• Panels
• Birds of a Feather sessions

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Unprecedented Preparations

• Application process winter/spring 2001
• Separate proposal processes for presenting
  sessions and participating as a Constellation
  Site
• Test cruises twice a week, July November 2001

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Required Training for All Sites

• Production Institute, September 2001
• Production-oriented training for staff at all
  sites contributing content
• Mega-cruise, October 8
• Dry runs of (most) all content

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SC Global Successes

• Innovative sessions a big hit
• Many successful new AG deployments, both before
  and after SC Global
• Enabled people to interactively participate in
  SC01 conference who would not otherwise been able
  to do so, both as presenters and as audience

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SC Global Lessons Learned

• Never underestimate the importance of adequate
  lead time for new AG installations, especially
  with regard to network debugging
• Create redundancy in staffing and equipment
• Prepare evaluation strategy well before the event
• Bring more widgets than you need

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SC Global Lessons Learned

• Practice pays off
• Some of the most successful sessions were also
  the most practiced, in some cases because they
  were innovative AG uses
• Calculated risks are worth taking
• As always, your staff is your most important asset

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Sneak Preview SC Global 03

• Phoenix Arizona, November 2003
• One physical venue in Phoenix
• Proposal process tightly integrated with SC03
  Technical Program
• Strong preference for sessions featuring
  technical advances in advanced collaboration
  environments

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Case Study MPI Workshop

• Report on March 28 29, 2001, MPI Workshop over
  the Access Grid, Leslie Southern, Ohio
  Supercomputer Center, April 2001
• http//alliance.osc.edu/mpi/report.pdf
• Excellent overview of preparation for and
  evaluation of the event

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In Closing. . .
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Recommended Reading

• Access Grid Documentation Projecthttp//www.acces
  sgrid.org/agdp/
• As you gain expertise and confidence, please
  consider writing documents to submit to the AGDP

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Practicing What We Preach

• Please fill out our evaluation form
• http//scv.bu.edu/accessgrid/seminars/eval.html
• Ideas for other seminars? Please let me know ?