Don’t just observe, ENGAGE! The Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF) sessions are among the most interactive, popular, and well-attended sessions of the SC Conference Series. Now is the time to get your submission turned in. The BoF sessions provide a non-commercial, dynamic venue for conference attendees to openly discuss current topics of focused mutual interest within the HPC community with a strong emphasis on audience-driven discussion, professional networking, and grassroots participation.
SC17 will continue this tradition with a full schedule of exciting, informal, interactive sessions focused around a variety of special topics of mutual interest.
BoF sessions are an excellent opportunity to connect and interact with other attendees with whom you share a mutual interest. SC17 will feature BoF sessions about many HPC-related topics such as accelerators, programming models, big data, and education.
Click here to submit. Outlined below are complete details.
Q. What is a BoF?
A. A BoF provides a forum for audience-driven discussion, developing grass-roots participation and professional networking. BoFs are non-commercial with a focus on community building through highly-interactive discussion of a wide variety of topics.
Q. What isn’t a BoF?
A. There are a few things for which SC BoFs are not the appropriate venue:
-Vendors advertising their latest product release or feature (instead, consider the SC Exhibitor Forum); A session consisting solely or mainly of presentations and discussion between a small group of experts (instead, submit a proposal for an SC Panel);
-A project team meeting that is not focused on building community (e.g., by not allowing non- project team members in the discussion).
Q. How should a BoF be organized?
A. While we do not prescribe how a BoF should be organized, BoFs should have a format that ensure high levels of audience interaction and engagement. They are explicitly not to be dominated by unidirectional talks or presentations given by the organizers or anyone else for that matter.
Q. When will BoFs be held?
A. While a definitive schedule is not yet available, generally BoFs will be held in parallel tracks at approximately the following times:
Tuesday, November 15: Noon-1:30p and 5:00 – 6:30p
Wednesday, November 16: Noon-1:30p and 5:00 – 6:30p
Thursday, November 17: Noon-1:30p
Some BoFs will be held in parallel with the technical sessions (10:30 – 12, 1:30 – 3, 3:30 – 5) and Early Bird (7-8am).
Q. Can you schedule my BoF at time X because it conflicts with …?
A. We will try to accommodate scheduling constraints as best we can, but ultimately we will not be able to schedule all BoFs such that all organizer/attendee conflicts are avoided. It is best to make any potential scheduling conflicts known to us as early as possible.
Q. Can we make special equipment requests for our BoF?
A. In general, no. BoF rooms will be equipped with standard A/V equipment such as projectors and microphones including portable microphones for brief presentations and audience participation. We do not anticipate being able to accommodate any requests for additional equipment or reconfiguration of the provided equipment and furniture.
Q. Who can attend BoFs?
A. For past SC’s, anyone registered for the technical program, workshops, tutorials or as an exhibitor could attend BoF sessions. We anticipate this to be the same for SC17. We will update this FAQ with specific details when SC17 registration opens July 5.
Q. Is there an additional registration charge for access to the BoF?
A. No. See question above.
Q. Do BoF speakers, moderators or organizers receive an honorarium?
A. No.
Q. Do BoF speakers, moderators or organizers receive any registration waivers or discounts?
A. No.
For any additional questions, e-mail: bofs@info.supercomputing.org
