Slack is a messaging and conferencing platform that will allow you and participants of your conference to interact before, during, and after the conference. With Slack, you can:
- Post questions
- Post replies
- Discuss conference topics
- Chat
- Call
- Vote in Polls
Getting started
A Slack Workspace just for your conference will be set up by EAI several days before the conference starts, and an invitation link will be shared with you and all participants. You will be asked to sign in and confirm your email address.
You can use Slack within your internet browser, but if you want, you can also download apps for iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac: https://slack.com/apps.
Channels and Direct Messages
Once you enter your Slack Workspace, you will find the discussion pre-arranged in channels based on specific topics or individual sessions. Using these channels, every attendee can ask questions or discuss presentations during the conference in the appropriate channels.
Replies to questions can be sent in a thread to keep conversations organized.
While all attendees may participate in all channels, Slack also allows 1-on-1 conversations via Direct Messages.
Direct Messages also allow everyone to create their own group chats.
Every channel and 1-on-1 or group discussion allows you to start a conference call with everyone present in your selected conversation. You may also add people on the fly.
If needed, you can also delete your own messages.
Create interaction on the event
To motivate attendees, there are few things that you can to boost the interaction. Here are some examples from the GoodTechs 2020 conference Slack.
Welcome everyone in the beginning of the conference:
Committee Member: Welcome to the special session on ICt-Enhanced Education with Social Impact. The first talk is by Nina Slamnik-Kriještorac.
Introduce the main topics and speakers by posting the program link/youtube video to the program:
Committee Member: Hello, welcome to the [name of the conference].
Please do not hesitate to post questions to any speaker during the conference on this channel. You could find the full program on this link [link] and video on this [link]
Post initial questions:
Committee Member: Nina Slamnik-Kriještorac, you presented the results of a questionnaire submitted to the students. Did you also investigated how teachers rate the experience with the system?
Moderate incoming questions from participants (delete, reply), move the discussion on:
Committee Member: Erik, thank you for your presentation. Now it’s Roberta De Michele.
Last but not least, reply to the unanswered questions, if they are not answered by speakers. Address them to the speaker after the conference and post their reply later. If you would like to see even more interaction from this conference, open this blog article about highlights from 2 presentations.
Polls
You may also create polls in Q&A channels to boost interaction with the Polly app. Attendees can vote on the polls and see the results immediately. Polls could be scheduled for a specific time, so they will pop up during the conference but do not hesitate to create your own.
You can find even more step-by-step guides on how to use Slack on the Slack Help Center.