We’re @Vconnecting from #HASTAC2019

We’re excited to be Virtually Connecting from #HASTAC2019, “Decolonizing Technologies, Reprogramming Education”, held at the University of British Columbia in Unceded Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm) Territory, also known as Vancouver, Canada, during 16-18 May 2019.

If you’re interested in having conversations with some of the folks onsite, we have the following virtual session planned. To join live, tweet us @vconnecting or leave a comment below. We’ll ask for your email address so we can send you a link to the session just before it goes live. Title times are local of the conference site, scroll below to find the times adjusted to your timezones and the links to watch the sessions live or recorded if you can’t make it into the session itself.

Saturday 18 May 5–5:30pm Pacific Time

We are excited to welcome onsite guests Adele Vrana (@AdeleVrana), Khairani Barokka (@mailbykite), Leslie Chan (@lesliekwchan), Persephone Lewis and Siko Bouterse (@sikob), with onsite buddy Christina Hendricks (@clhendricksbc) and virtual buddy Maha Bali (@Bali_Maha).

How to Participate

If you’re new to Virtually Connecting, read more about us.

You can participate virtually in any of the following ways:

1. Active session participation: be a participant in the session and talk to the guests and other participants. To do so, you need to register by tweeting us @VConnecting or leaving a comment below. One of us will contact you to get your email address, and then you will get a confirmation email a day or so before the event, and a link to participate in the Google hangout around half an hour before the event. All you need in order to do this is to have working audio on your computer (update your hangouts plugin) or phone/tablet (update your Hangouts app). You can also participate in the session and communicate with other session guests via text chat (this will be seen by people inside the session but not those outside the session; but the virtual buddy will occasionally read out what you wrote or invite you to say it out loud).
2. Watch and tweet: watch the session live (see the embedded videos above or go to our YouTube channel). If you choose to Tweet along, please tag @VConnecting and add the conference hashtag. One of our buddies is likely to pick up on your questions on Twitter and relay them to the participants in the live session.
3. Watch the recording later: watch the session recorded (again, same embedded videos above, or our YouTube channel).
4. Become a buddy: If after you’ve participated you’d like to join our team and help organize future events, become a “buddy” by joining Virtually Connecting. We’ll add you to our Slack team which we use for this purpose.

Are you physically at the conference?

If you are attending the conference and wondering what’s for me, stop by we would love to see you!! You don’t have to appear on camera. We would love for you to come by, listen to the conversation, take pictures, and tweet about the experience (don’t forget to tag us @VConnecting and use the conference hashtag). Sometimes those watching and listening onsite want to jump into the conversation and appear on camera. Depending on the session, how many people are there, and other logistical factors specific to that onsite moment we may or may not be able to accommodate this.

So, how do you find us? The key to joining up with us onsite is connecting with the onsite buddy listed above for each session. Connecting with us onsite can be tricky because each conference treats our sessions differently — sometimes we have a set room but other times we are just in a corner in the hallway somewhere. But please connect and come by, it would be great to meet you and you might be our next onsite or virtual buddy.

Please note that even though we have events scheduled ahead of time, sometimes we start a little earlier than planned for various reasons. While we plan to spend around 30 minutes with those onsite, sometimes they may have to leave earlier, and sometimes they may be willing to stay longer. We embrace imperfection and spontaneity and we hope you will too, understanding the nature of hybrid connections.