Info for participants

Gather town

Gather town is a platform that allows virtual conferences to happen in a more realistic and fun way. Each participant in the conference will have a character who can be moved with the arrows of the keyboard UP, DOWN, LEFT and RIGHT. Or if you prefer the gamers' way W (up), A (left), S (down), D (right).

When you move closer to someone in the Main room (map below), their video appears for you, and you can communicate. If you are a few squares away, their video will disappear and you won't be able to hear them.

Below is the layout of the Main room of our Gather town. Arrows and sign are showing the locations of the:

  • Poster rooms (check out Posters to find the two rooms available for the current day)

  • Workshop rooms, 4 in total, will be used for Workshops and ECR talks (for locations check Workshops and ECR talks).

Important to know

  • Mute yourself before entering a workshop or keynote lecture, unless you are on a spotlight square (orange squares) and asking questions

  • Move away from a spotlight square once you have asked your question

  • When switching tabs in your browser, your audio and video will stop. Someone may ring you to bring your attention back to the gather town tab.

Logging in and creating your character

When you open the link for the first time, you will be prompted to personalise your character. Please use the full name that you registered with.

Please allow your microphone and camera to be used by gather town when logging in for the first time.

Messaging

Apart from being able to communicate by moving close to someone, there will also be a messaging function.

  • You can message someone who is nearby, a specific person, or everyone (please avoid messaging everyone).

  • Follow the messages for update by us during the conference.

Interacting with objects

To interact with a poster, stand in front of it and press 'x' on the keyboard. This will open a website, video, or image. To close it press the 'x' again, or X on the top right corner.

Visiting Posters

Below (right) is the layout of an example poster room. You can interact with a poster when you stand directly in front of it. The presenters will be standing on the orange square in front of their poster. To interact with a poster, stand in front of it and hit 'x' on the keyboard. This will open the poster in full screen, to close it click the 'x' on the top right corner.

Once in the full screen of the poster, you can ask questions and point on the poster by clicking the button, as shown below.


FIGURE: Clicking the shown button, will allow you to point on the poster and ask the presenter about specific images or text.

FIGURE: Example poster room.

Workshops and ECR talks.

Workshops and ECR talks will be across the 4 Workshop room.

Following someone

You can follow people by clicking on their name on the left-hand menu, and then clicking on 'follow'. This way you will not have to press the move buttons.

You can also locate someone on the map.