Who Attends? | Registration | Venue & Accommodations | Key Dates | Sponsorship | Special Events | Co-Located Events | Social Media | Draft Schedule
The theme of the 2016 Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Summer Meeting is Frontiers in Earth Sciences Big Data. This was chosen by the ESIP community to promote dialogue about the massive amounts of data generated by the Earth sciences, the valuable patterns and information that lie within this data, and the art and practice of visualizing Earth science data.
Among the topics we plan to discuss are:
- What ‘big data’ means in Earth and space science
- The volume, variety, veracity and velocity of Earth sciences big data
- How big data technologies will benefit Earth and space science research
- How to increase the productivity and effectiveness of scientific data analysis
The meeting is an opportunity to network with Earth scientists interested in data and informatics; learn about the latest techniques in geospatial data management, analytics and visualization through workshops and informal sessions; and receive funding for new projects through mini-grant competitions. A mix of plenary talks, breakout sessions, poster presentations, technical workshops and networking opportunities encourage discussion about emerging and persistent topics in Earth science data, provide exposure to new technologies and emerging concepts, and facilitate relationships with colleagues from across institutions and disciplines.
Special note: North Carolina, the site of our Summer Meeting, recently passed House Bill 2 (HB2), a law that runs counter to ESIP's values. In response, we moved the meeting location from Chapel Hill to Durham, North Carolina. We want to assure meeting attendees that all of our meetings are safe, open and welcoming to everyone. Please read our statement on HB2 [1] for more information.
Who Attends ESIP Meetings?
ESIP a community of innovative science, data and information technology practitioners who catalyze connections across traditional institutional and domain boundaries to solve critical Earth science data stewardship, information technology and interoperability issues. Through this work, ESIP improves Earth science data management practices and makes Earth science data more discoverable, accessible and useful to researchers, policy makers and the public.
Much of ESIP’s work is done online and through telecons, but we value face to face interaction. Our biannual meetings are a chance for the Earth science data and informatics community to get together and discuss current trends, problems and emerging issues facing the community; our meetings also spark new collaborations and ideas, advance the mission of ESIP and meet the professional development needs of our members. ESIP meetings are open to anyone interested in discussing and learning more about Earth science data, not just our members, and our meetings typically draw around 300 attendees from diverse Earth, space and environmental science backgrounds. Meeting attendees include Earth science data and information technology practitioners; researchers representing a variety of scientific domains that include land, atmosphere, ocean, solid earth, ecology, data and social sciences; science educators; and others working in science and technology-related fields who are interested in advancing Earth science information best practices in an open and transparent fashion.
Check out the summaries of the 2015 ESIP Summer Meeting [2] and the 2016 ESIP Winter Meeting [3] to learn more about what happens when the ESIP community gets together. Share our our meeting 'one-pager [4]' with anyone else you think would be interested in attending!
Registration
Early registration (through June 27, 2016) is $415 for members and $550 for non-members. After June 27, the registration fee rises to $515 for members and $650 for non-members. A student registration is available for $150. A special one-day attendance is available for $200. A full refund will be given until June 27. No refunds will be issued for canceled registration after June 27.
Register for the ESIP Summer Meeting [5]! [5]
All registrations include lunches, morning and afternoon food and beverage breaks and the poster session reception. We encourage attendees to go green and use online meeting materials and the ESIP Connects app [6] to navigate the meeting, but printed copies of the program and schedule will be available upon request.
Venue & Accommodations
The meeting is at the Durham Convention Center [7] in Durham, North Carolina. Our local host is the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) [8].
The primary meeting hotel is 21c [9]. For reservations, please call the hotel reservations desk directly: 919-956-6700. Supply our group name (Federation of Earth Science Information Partners) and any special requests. Reservations must be made by the cut-off date of Saturday, June 18. After this date, additional reservation requests will be honored based upon availability and prevailing rate.
Other hotel options:
Durham Marriott City Center [10]—A block of rooms is available at the GSA Per Diem Rate of $99/night. The hotel is attached to the convention center. Guest will have 24 hours before arrival to cancel their reservations without any charges. Make your reservation here [10].
Aloft [11] is also offering the GSA per diem rate of $99/night. Aloft is a few blocks from the Convention Center.
Although North Carolina recently passed House Bill 2 (HB2), a law that runs counter to ESIP's values, we want to assure meeting attendees that all of our meetings are safe, open and welcoming to everyone. Please read our statement on HB2 [1] for more information.
Call for Sessions
Call for sessions has closed. Please contact Annie Burgess ([email protected] [12]) if you were not able to submit on time.
Key Meeting Dates
February 11: Call for Sessions Opens
February 16: Registration Opens
April 1: Session Submission Deadline
June 10: Research As Art Submission Deadline
June 21: Abstract Submission and Early Bird Registration Rate End
July 11: Hotel Room Block Expires for Marriott City Center
July 19-22: ESIP Summer Meeting
Special Events
Plenary: Wednesday, July 20 from 8:00 to 10:30 a.m.
Learn from experts on climate change, data visualization, science communication and more—meet our plenary speakers here. [13]
New! How-to Plenary Talks: Wednesday, July 20 from 11:00-12:30 p.m.
Part of the Summer Meeting plenary session will be devoted to a series of short how-to talks by community members that show how they use, manage or visualize Earth sciences data. These will be in the form of five-minute talks with 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds and nine-minute TED-style talks where the presenter remains in control of their slides. See the full list of lightning talk presenters [13].
New! Research as Art: Wednesday, July 20 from 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Research as Art is a gallery-style event that uses visual media to show how the ESIP community uses data. We’ll display a range of entries that show the diversity of research done by members of our community, as well as their creativity and the impact of their work, in an engaging and accessible way. Drinks and snacks will provided. The call for Research as Art entries is now open and closes June 10. Read more [14] about the kinds of entries we’re looking for and learn how to submit yours [15]. Please note that this event replaces the traditional Wednesday evening poster session.
FUNding Friday Networking: Thursday, July 21 from 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Join us at the Full Steam Brewery and Tavern [16] for a collaborative, creative poster-making session that will help you prepare for FUNding Friday (details below). Please plan to attend if you’re going to pursue a FUNDing Friday grant, we’ll have poster-making supplies on hand. This event is also for those looking to brainstorm a FUNding Friday project and people who wish to find project collaborators, but anyone is welcome to attend. The bar hosts trivia beginning at 8:00 p.m. for those who’d like to continue exercising their brains.
FUNding Friday: Friday, July 22 from 8:00-9:00 a.m.
ESIP provides small grants to members and students to allow them to test new technologies and innovative ideas. We recognize that innovation requires a willingness to take risks; these grants give the community the freedom to be inventive and apply creative approaches to challenging problems. During this event, members and students are invited to pitch a project to meeting attendees via a poster and brief talk. Several grants of $5,000 are given to ESIP members and several grants of $3,000 are given to students whose projects are selected by attendees for funding. Awardees are expected to present the results of their project at a future meeting. See the list of previously funded projects here [17].
Co-located Events
DataONE Users Group Meeting [18], July 17-18, 2016
This two day meeting features plenary presentations, topical breakout sessions and community led discussions. The 2016 meeting theme, Expanding Data Networks, will focus on the new challenges and efforts in making data accessible, discoverable and deliverable while promoting open data policies, standards and compliance with funders’ emerging data management requirements. A strong emphasis is on data synthesis and technological progress made in data network infrastructure. DataONE encourages DataONE Member Nodes, data scientists, researchers, scientists, students and others to submit abstracts for posters and talks.
Meeting Sponsorship
ESIP gratefully acknowledges the funding it receives from NASA and NOAA, which supports the work of the ESIP community and makes our meetings possible.
We're seeking sponsors to help support ESIP meetings and our Student Fellows [19]. We'd like to partner with corporations, foundations, and other organizations and individuals who share our goal of furthering the use of Earth science data. Meeting sponsors have the opportunity to align their brand with an educated, tech-savvy audience of leading scientists, data practitioners, technologists and decision-makers who embrace innovation and fresh points of view. Sponsors increase their visibility and have the opportunity to promote products and services—and gain solid science credibility for being associated with ESIP.
Sponsors can choose to provide general meeting support, fund student participation or host conference events, including hackathons, breaks and receptions. If your organization is interested in sponsoring an ESIP meeting, see our Sponsorship page [20] for more details and contact Erin Robinson, Executive Director: [email protected] [21] or (314) 369-9954.
Sponsors
Social Media
We encourage social media users to follow @ESIPfed [22] on Twitter and @Federation-of-Earth-Science-Information-Partners-ESIP [23] on Facebook for meeting updates and information. Please share your meeting experience and photos on your social media platform of choice, and tag your posts with #ESIPFed [24]. Later we’ll gather some of these posts and media into a Storify to tell the story of what happens at an ESIP meeting.
Draft Schedule
The draft schedule can be found here [25].
Submitted Meeting Content