ScienceOnline Oceans starts on October 11th, one month from today! Here’s what you need to know in order to make the most of the meeting.

1) There are still spots available! If you’ve been considering attending (or if you are already planning attending and know others who might be interested), there are still spots available! The conference registration fee remains $150 for students and $200 for others. Register here.

2) Make your hotel reservation this week!  If you haven’t yet made your hotel reservation, you need to do it THIS WEEK! We strongly recommend staying at the conference hotel, as bus transportation to conference events and field trips is to and from the hotel. Additionally, the hotel bar is the evening social gathering place for the conference. We consider time at the hotel as part of the conference! You don’t need to pay at the time you make the reservation, you pay when you check out.

**Please note that if you are planning on participating in a Friday afternoon workshop, it may be easier to fly in Thursday night, and if you are participating in a Sunday field trip, it may be easier to fly home Monday morning. A limited number of hotel rooms are available at the conference rate on both Thursday and Sunday evening.** Read More

I have a few important updates to share about ScienceOnline Oceans! For those of you who haven’t yet heard, ScienceOnline Oceans is a conference (affiliated with the NC-based ScienceOnline) that will explore how marine scientists and conservationists can use the internet for collaboration, education and outreach. The meeting will take place October 11-13th at the University of Miami (Miami, FL), and will include an expert panel discussion on current ocean conservation issues, a day of conference-style programming, and a day of field trips allowing attendees to explore south Florida’s marine environment. Scientists who want to learn more about collaboration and outreach applications of the internet are welcome, as are science communicators who want to learn more about ocean issues.

1) The Planning Wiki is now online, and will be until April 1st! If you have an idea for a session, now is the time to submit it!  For those of you new to the ScienceOnline community, theplanning wiki can be thought of as similar to a traditional conference submission page, but there are three important differences:1) everyone can see what everyone else has submitted, 2) anyone can add to what anyone else has written (including questions, suggestions, etc.), and 3) the person who proposes a session can, but does not have to, actually run that session- you can simply suggest a topic that you’d like to see discussed and ask people to volunteer to run it (and you can also volunteer to help run sessions that others have suggested).

We are offering four kinds of sessions at ScienceOnline Oceans. Skills workshops (taught by a hands-on leader to help people learn a skill), panel discussions (3-4 experts on a topic sharing their expertise, possibly including time for audience questions at the end), directed discussions (led by 1 or 2 discussions leaders, primarily consisting of the audience asking questions of the discussion leaders), and facilitated conversations (unconference-style discussions, essentially discussions between audience members facilitated by 1 or 2 moderators, which can be a follow-up to a panel discussion or directed discussion). Here is the link to the planning wiki.

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