{"id":6651,"date":"2016-05-02T09:09:20","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T09:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6651"},"modified":"2016-05-02T09:09:20","modified_gmt":"2016-05-02T09:09:20","slug":"derby-day-overcrowding-is-now-the-norm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2016\/05\/02\/derby-day-overcrowding-is-now-the-norm\/","title":{"rendered":"Derby Day \u2013 overcrowding is now the norm"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 2016 Nature Connections\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.derby.ac.uk\/media\/derbyacuk\/contentassets\/documents\/conferencing\/NC2016-Programme--DRAFT-.pdf\">conference<\/a>\u00a0in Derby in June\u00a0has the theme of\u00a0Getting Connected to Nature. \u00a0Whilst I\u00a0quite fancy going because of the theme and topics to be discussed, looking at\u00a0how stuffed full of brief inputs the programme\u00a0is, suggests that I'd only get annoyed (again!). \u00a0On Derby day, there are 29 15-minute speaker slots (presumably 10 minutes input + 5 minutes questions), and a couple of 20 minute 'keynotes'.<\/p>\n<p>So, yet again, the TESCO style, pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap approach (so favoured by Natural Connections) is to the fore. \u00a0All down to economics, I guess. \u00a0Derby needs lots of people there to cover its\u00a0costs, most attendees need to be seen to speak to get their expenses paid, and the result is less and less time for discussion and meaningful exchange.<\/p>\n<p>People who justify this sort of programme usually say that discussion\u00a0can take place in the breaks \u2013 which are a\u00a0decent length at this event\u00a0\u2013 but this means that these will be one-on-one conversations that few if any will overhear let along take part in. \u00a0These are no substitute for the exchange of experience and insight that can happen in a seminar where a skilled chair allows a flow of ideas that everyone hears and can take part in. \u00a0The challenge for conference organisers (which most fail) is to get as close to these conditions whilst enabling as many people to participate as possible.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2016 Nature Connections\u00a0conference\u00a0in Derby in June\u00a0has the theme of\u00a0Getting Connected to Nature. \u00a0Whilst I\u00a0quite fancy going because of the theme and topics to be discussed, looking at\u00a0how stuffed full of brief inputs the programme\u00a0is, suggests that I'd only get...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6651\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}