Rebecca Nicholl – EMBL Events

Meet the EMBL Events Team: Meredith

This week we meet Meredith Willmott, one of the Course Organisers at EMBL-EBI focussing on organising the on-site, and now virtual, courses. Meredith is no stranger to the team, previously having done an internship in the training team in 2017 before returning to a new post in 2019.

At EMBL since: April 2019
Number of organised courses: 9 to date

Meredith standing in front of one of the 'm' signs in Amsterdam — Meredith standing in front of one of the M signs in Amsterdam

Favourite place in Hinxton area?
My favourite place in Hinxton is the grounds on the campus, it really is beautiful and it’s so nice to be able to go for a walk during lunch and take a break from my desk.

EMBL-EBI south building - home to the EMBL-EBI on-site courses — EMBL-EBI south building – home to the EMBL-EBI on-site courses

First thing you do before a course starts and first thing you do after a course finishes?
First thing I do before a course is to double-check my to-do list to ensure I have completed everything before the delegates arriving. The first thing I do after a course has finished is to give a big high five to the scientific organiser for another successful course.

If you weren’t a course organiser what would you be?
A wedding planner! I love the thought of being involved in someone’s big day and making it perfect for them.

What are the challenges/differences of organising a virtual course?
I think the biggest challenge is not meeting the delegates in person as this is one of my favourite parts of an onsite course. Also remembering to smile while on camera!

How have you adapted your role during lockdown?
My role has changed a lot in lockdown, going from onsite courses to virtual courses has its challenges, and it takes a lot of testing and back and forth. Another adaption which isn’t part of my role, but sharing an office/spare room with my partner has been a big change.

If you were a superhero what power would you like to have?
I would like to be able to be in two places at once! Running the courses is often very busy and it would be great to be able to do 2 things at the same time.

And finally, what is your favourite film?
Father of the Bride, I have loved this since I was young and it still is my favorite film.

Upcoming events Meredith is organising:
Structural bioinformatics 2020 – Virtual
Applications close 18 September

Meet the EMBL Events Team: Charlotte

This week we meet Charlotte Pearton, Events Lead at EMBL-EBI. Charlotte manages a team of eight events, marketing and administrative staff who work on the EMBL-EBI training programme.

Charlotte Pearton, Events Lead at EMBL-EBI

At EMBL-EBI since: 2015
Number of events organised: 39

Favourite place in the Hinxton area?
The campus is beautiful. The woodland paths are great to walk through in all seasons, but especially autumn. In summer, the flowerbeds are a real burst of colour.

Across EMBL, the events teams have been facing the challenge of virtualising their work and events.

What are the differences in organising a virtual course compared to the usual face-to-face format?
Firstly there was the timeframe! We had to put a structure together very quickly. Also how to adjust the content to make it workable and engaging, and how to maintain good comms and networking. Our first virtual course was a great success and we will continue to build on this experience; we are embracing the challenge.

How have you adapted your role during lockdown?
I have maintained a daily structure and routine. I am in almost constant contact with the team via Slack, Zoom etc. We have all become increasingly proficient in the art of the on-line meeting over the last few months!

What is the first thing you do before a course starts:
I’ll run through my checklist of preparatory tasks, make a note of anything I need to remember, take a deep breath, a sip of coffee, and also some comfort in the fact that our events are a real team effort and I’m not in this alone!

And how about the first thing you’ll do after a course finishes?
At the end of each course, I enjoy the sense of job satisfaction. I love the cyclical nature of events, at our face-to-face events I love waving people off knowing they have had a great experience. You really build a rapport with your speakers and delegates – it starts months before they arrive, then really develops during the week they are actually with you on campus. By the time they leave you can really feel the sense of warmth and genuine appreciation. It’s a great indicator of our success.

That is something we are still finding with the virtual courses I am pleased to say. Even if the wave goodbye at the end of the course is now through Zoom!

If you weren’t a course organiser what would you be?
A world-famous author of fiction… probably something dark like crime or horror, and writing under a pseudonym to keep an air of mystery! In reality, I’ve always veered towards events in an educational field.

What is the strangest/funniest thing that has ever happened in a course?
We organised a ‘sabrage’ to celebrate 10 years of training – seeing Cath (Brooksbank, Head of Training) wielding a sword to slice the top off a bottle of champagne outside the training rooms isn’t something you see every day. It was great fun.

Cath Brooksbank at the ‘sabrage’

If you were a superhero, what power would you like to have?
Teleportation! An early morning walk on the beach in the Seychelles, fine dining and shopping in Paris in the afternoon, party all night in New York. Green travel!

And finally what is your favourite book or film?
I couldn’t choose a favourite book or film very easily, but I did revisit a 2008 documentary recently which always has me gripping the sofa – ‘Man on a Wire’. The story of Phillippe Petit, who tight-roped across the US twin towers in 1974. Just a fascinating story on many levels – watch if you dare!

Meet the EMBL Events Team: Rebecca

This week we meet Rebecca Nicholl, Events and Marketing Officer at EMBL-EBI. Rebecca is responsible for the marketing of the EMBL-EBI Training programme as well as running some of the on-site (and now virtual!) training courses. She also attends exhibitions to represent EMBL-EBI Training.

Rebecca on Rebecca Street in Hamilton, Canada

At EMBL since: April 2019
Number of organised conferences/courses: 11-ish! Some of these I had started but sadly had to cancel as they were due to run during the early stages of lockdown.

Favourite place in Hinxton: It’s got to be the Red Lion pub just outside the campus gates. Especially the beer garden in May/June when the wisteria is in full blossom. We usually have one dinner at each course here, and the delegates love the history of the traditional 16th-century British pub.

The wisteria in bloom PHOTO: Red Lion, Hinxton

Since lockdown began. EMBL has had to change the way we offer events. What are the challenges/differences of organising a virtual conference?
For me, it’s the constant video calls that are involved in preparation, tests and meetings involved in virtualising a course. I never really paid much attention to the way my face looks or my mannerisms in face-to-face meetings, but now I am going over the top to show I am enthusiastic and engaged in the content, which felt very unnatural at first.

How have you adapted your role during lockdown?
I am lucky to have a split role, and so during this time, I have focussed more on my marketing skills rather than my events role (especially when my first few events got cancelled during the early part of lockdown in the UK). I ended up joining a cross-EMBL comms channel to help support each site during the #EMBLatHome social campaign, and met some colleagues (virtually of course) I hadn’t previously worked with.

Rebecca celebrates World Chocolate Day during her virtual course

And the other challenge of working from home I am sure we have all found, is the endless eating, snacking and grazing!

I couldn’t help tucking into this chocolate box selection to celebrate #WorldChocolateDay during our Cancer genomics course tea breaks! (Don’t tell my husband, these were part of his birthday present!)

Back in the time before virtual courses were the norm, what was the first thing you did before a course started and the first thing you did after it finished?
First thing I did is fill up my water bottle and put on my Fitbit – with such long hours it’s important to stay healthy. No longer can I survive on coffee and carbs alone! Although since lockdown, those have been my diet staples… Last thing – catch up on the all-important sleep I missed out on.

If you weren’t an event and marketing officer what would you be?
At school I wanted to train to become a town council planner; I guess I always wanted to organise something!

What is the strangest/funniest thing that has ever happened in a course?
I did have a phone call from someone asking for a refund for an upcoming course her mum had signed her up for without her knowing as a surprise birthday present. The girl was still studying for her A-levels rather than the masters’ students audience we are advertising at.

If you were a superhero what power would you like to have?
The ability to be in two places at once; so I can be in the room making sure my speakers are keeping to time, as well as being at the event desk or checking catering, coaches and so on.

Favourite TV show?
The Great British Bake Off, and I do try to bake along with the show. But in the 2019 series, I bowed out at the quarter-finals, who wants a savoury Tarte Tatin anyway!

Upcoming virtual events in 2020 Rebecca is organising:
Cancer genomics
6-10 July

Mathematics of life: Modelling molecular mechanisms
28 Sep – 02 Oct 2020
Applications now open

10 Simple Rules for Making Training Materials FAIR

Written by Melissa Burke
Scientific Training Officer, EMBL-EBI

As a Scientific Training Officer I often have to pull together training on topics that are new to me. What’s the first thing I do in this situation? Well, I draw on all of my scientific training and research skills and … Google it. Yep, an internet search is my first step in figuring out what the topic is about and what’s been taught before, and whether there are any materials/images, etc that I can reuse. It’s a great source of inspiration!

But this can also be frustrating and takes quite a lot of time. Material and information tends to be scattered all across the internet. It can be hidden behind paywalls, require a login to access, or lack enough context to be fully understandable. And even then, it is hard to know whether the materials can be reused nor how to credit the original author. I often find myself going round in circles and end up recreating new slides from scratch. Why isn’t there a better way of sharing materials? One that makes them easier to find?

These frustrations are familiar to many trainers across ELIXIR and we’ve been working together to figure out what we can do about it. As bioinformatics trainers we are also scientists or researchers and this problem is something that we’ve experienced with, for example, research data.

The good news is that things are getting better for research data because of the development of the Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable principles that states materials should be quick to find, easily accessed, will work across a variety of platforms & settings and can be used time and time again. Could the same be possible for training materials?

Wiegers, Luc and van Gelder, Celia W. G. Illustration for the paper “Ten simple rules for making training materials FAIR”. DOI 10.5281/zenodo.3593257

To help answer this question we picked up on work that started at the ELIXIR BioHackathon Europe 2018 to put together 10 Simple Rules for Making Training Materials FAIR

Share
Describe properly
Give a unique identity
Register online
Define access rules
Use interoperable format
Make (re)usable for trainers
Make usable for trainees
Welcome contributions
Keep materials up-to-date

Hopefully these simple rules make it a little bit easier for trainers to start sharing their materials in a way that makes them easier to find, (re)use, and cite. Let’s use this opportunity to spark conversation and collaboration within global training communities that lead to wider and better sharing of materials (and the inspiration that comes with them!).

Want to know more? Read the rules in full in PLoS Computational Biology. Which of the FAIR principles do you think is most important for Training materials? Let us know in the comments.

Meet the EMBL Events Team: Emily Pomeroy

Meet Emily Pomeroy, who has recently joined the EMBL-EBI Events Team in the role of Events and Marketing Officer for the EMBL-EBI Industry Programme.

PHOTO: Emily Pomeroy

At EMBL since: February 2020

Number of organised conferences/courses:

I am looking forward to helping on my first event for the Industry Programme in May this year.

The EMBL-EBI Industry Programme is a subscription-based programme for global companies that make significant use of the data and resources provided by EMBL-EBI as a core part of their R&D. The programme is unique, providing regular quarterly strategy meetings, expert-level workshops on topics prioritised by the members, webinars and other activities.

Favourite place in Hinxton area:

Royston Heath, not too far from Hinxton. A lovely place on a warm sunny afternoon for walking, exploring the woodland with the children and a glass of wine afterwards on the lawn outside the Heath Café Bar.

If you weren’t an events and marketing officer, what would you be?

A travel photographer

What is the strangest/funniest thing that has ever happened in an event you have organised?

In a previous job, my colleagues and I all had to dress up as clowns for a circus themed dinner, then walk through Leeds city centre to add to the embarrassment.

If you were a superhero what power would you like to have?

The power to make my children listen to me!

Favorite food/book/TV show/film.

Thai food is my favourite, I have watched Notting Hill more times than I can count and love reading a good travel journal.