CITSCIOZ21 – WE’RE GOING VIRTUAL!

‘Celebrate, Communicate, Co-create’

The 4th conference of the Australian Citizen Science Association

27 – 29 October, 2021

We are so excited to invite you to CitSciOz21 – an online citizen science conference experience from 27 – 29 October 2021.  Centered around the themes of Celebrate, Communicate, and Co-Create, our virtual experience will ensure a highly interactive and engaging event, with the capacity to network with your fellow attendees, speakers, and sponsors as well as providing you with the learning outcomes and benefits you would come to expect from an in-person event.

Celebrate

Explore, investigate and showcase successful citizen science projects from Australia and the rest of the world.

Citizen science is leading to amazing developments across the world. From the tiny to the huge, and from the personal to local, national and global. It’s important for our communities to take time to recognise how far we’ve come and what we’ve achieved. How do you celebrate your citizen science success?

Communicate

Showcase citizen science communication techniques for maximum impact.

The successful communication of citizen science and its outcomes is so important when it comes to educating the community about what we do, sharing knowledge and results with a diverse array of people and the ability to influence change at many levels. But successful communication is a science within itself. With whom and how do you communicate your citizen science data and outcomes so it will make an impact?

Co-Create

Encourage inclusiveness and bring together a diverse array of people to discover better science.

Co-creation is at the heart of citizen science, fostering the participation of end-users by actively involving them in the research process. But it’s still considered a challenging and sometimes risky approach for policymakers. Do you have a great co-creation example? Did the co-creation process lead to new and innovative ideas? How can we encourage co-creation for science policy, including UNESCO?  How can we make better co-created citizen science?

Abstract Submission

The programming committee invites abstract submissions for presentation in the following formats:

LONG TALKS will be grouped by the programming committee into thematically related areas and presented in concurrent sessions. Each presenter will be given 10 minutes to share their work, and 5 minutes for Q&A, for a total of 15 minutes. Long talks will be formatted as a Zoom webinar via the OnAIR virtual platform.

SPEED TALKS will be presented during dedicated speed concurrent sessions during the conference. Each speed talk will be 5 minutes long with a 1 minute changeover (to allow for the introduction of the next speaker). Speed talks will be presented in 60 minute blocks of 10 talks (max) followed by a 30 minute question/discussion period during which all presenters will be available for discussion with members of the audience. Speed talks will be formatted as a Zoom webinar via the OnAIR virtual platform.

SYMPOSIUM abstracts will require an outline of the proposed symposium session and what areas will be focussed upon. The duration for each symposia will be 60 minutes. Symposia presenters are responsible for leading the session, guiding participants through activities, and also coordinating PowerPoints if needed, timing, and facilitating the kind of participant involvement you would like. Symposiums can be formatted as a Zoom webinar or a Zoom meeting, depending on the type of participant involvement you would like, via the OnAIR virtual platform.

WORKSHOP abstracts will require an outline of the proposed workshop and what areas will be focussed upon. The duration for each workshop will be 90 minutes. Workshops should be interactive with an aim to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing between participants. Workshop presenters are responsible for leading the session, guiding participants through activities, and also coordinating PowerPoints if needed, timing, and facilitating the kind of participant involvement you would like. Workshops will be formatted as a Zoom meeting via the OnAIR virtual platform.

POSTERS will be digitally displayed in the poster gallery section of the virtual portal. We will have a dedicated poster viewing session in the conference program where delegates will be encouraged to visit the poster gallery and interact with presenters. Presentations are in the form of a one-way video chat where the delegates can view the presenter and their presentation materials. The presenter can choose who they wish to present to (usually up to 10 attendees at a time).

Key Dates

For abstract submission:

Call for abstracts open1 June 2021
Conference registration open1 June 2021
Call for abstracts close16 July 2021
Notification to authors16 August 2021
Draft program available16 August 2021
Early bird registrations close / deadline for presenting authors to register17 September 2021

Sponsorship Opportunities

We are currently seeking sponsors for this event. Sponsorship of the conference offers the following benefits to your organisation:

  • An opportunity to promote and raise your profile within the citizen science community before, during and after the event.
  • A significant opportunity to meet and network with citizen science representatives at a national level in one place.
  • Exposure to a target audience in an environment conducive to information exchange that will promote mutually beneficial business outcomes and leverage your organisation’s industry relationships.
  • A forum to share details about your organisation, including products and services directly to key decision makers and target audience.

If you are interested in sponsoring this event, please take a look at our Sponsorship Prospectus.

Want to get involved?

  • Join the conference working group and help us plan and organise the event. We are currently meeting once a month and would love your input!
  • Nominate a key note speaker – both national and international. Who would you like to hear from?

If you’d like to help out or have a speaker recommendation, please let us know.

2 thoughts on “CITSCIOZ21 – WE’RE GOING VIRTUAL!

  • Maree Treadwell Kerr

    Could you please give an indication of the cost of attending the online conference?
    We are a not-for-profit organisation with very little undelegated income and all donations go directly to assist wildlife carers feed animals in care. We cannot afford membership but we do run citizen science projects.
    We’d love to attend the conference but costs are a real obstacle for us.

    • Amy Slocombe

      Hello Maree, the registration fees are provided under the ‘Registration’ heading on the conference web page. Super Earlybird rates are in place until the end of this month. Attending the whole conference as a non-member will cost $131 per delegate at this rate.

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