Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to attend POM?
- Participation, whether speaking or watching, is free of charge. In order to provide everyone with the webinar link, we are asking that everyone register.
When is POM?
- Presentations are on Monday, November 13, and Tuesday, November 14, 2023. The poster session will start on twitter, and will continue indefinitely.
I don’t have a twitter account. How can I participate in the poster session?
- To participate in the poster session, you must have a twitter account, and POM is a great opportunity to join the wonderful conversation and community on #scitwitter (scientific twitter). Alternatively, many lab groups have twitter accounts. Using a lab group account would be a great alternative. However, if twitter is not possible in your country, then we are happy to post your virtual poster from POM’s account.
POM is happening in the middle of the night. Can you change the time?
- Unfortunately, there is no single perfect time for everyone on the planet due to the vastly different time zones and population densities. For the second POM, our focus is optimized for Europe, Asia and Oceania. Future POM events could be “timezone”-centered on other continents. To address this concern, all of the presentations will be available for 1 week after the conference.
How long will the presentations be?
- The invited presentations are 25 minutes + 5 minutes of questions. The contributed presentations are 13 minutes + 5 minutes of questions.
Will the talks be recorded?
- Yes. All presentations will be recorded. Given the nature of the meet-up event, there is no perfect time. As such, we are recording all presentations to allow researchers to view them off-line after the conference for a limited time.
Is it required to record and post my presentation?
- Yes. Given the international nature of the audience and the numerous time zones, not everyone will be able to attend the meetup live. To expand the impact and accessibility, we want to make presentations available.
Will there be other POMs?
- We are planning on having 2 flagship POMs a year, as well as multiple independently hosted sup_POM events a year.
How will my presentation be controlled while I’m speaking?
- The speaker will control the presentation. Verifying compatibility of speaker presentation software with webinar interface and making sure the speaker is comfortable with the webinar interface is one reason for the practice session.
How do I register?
- Please go to the registration page and fill out the very short survey. Several days before POM, you will be sent a login link for the event. If you have questions or are concerned that your registration did not go through, please email us directly.
Why do I need to register if the event is free?
- We do not want to post the conference link on our website, so we are controlling the dissemination to researchers who register. Your contact information will solely be used for receiving the email with the webinar link and a single follow-up survey email. The additional three pieces of information requested during registration are to help us gauge the audience (size and expertise).
Do I need to be a member of a society or club to register?
- No. POM is not officially affiliated with a professional society. However, we are hopeful that student chapters will host hub sites to watch the different sessions, if social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer an issue.
How is the meet-up financially supported? Can my organization contribute?
- The meet-up is entirely volunteer-run and organized with the webinar software and IT technical staff of the host organization. For future meet-ups, there will most likely be financial support needs as related to IT.
How can I help with POM?
- While the organization of the primary POM meet-up is well-supported at this time, we would like to see researchers participate in POM as groups, instead of individuals, thus forming POM hubs or sites, if social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer an issue. The creation of these sites requires a continued grassroots effort to which everyone can contribute.
Can I suggest topics? How were the topics selected?
- The topic selection is at the discretion of the organizing committee. From the POM21 January meeting, the committee sought feedback from its followers on social media. The topics were handpicked from these suggestions.