And the survey says... move slower. Thank you to the nearly 500 people who filled out the survey to help us shape the virtual AMC. In response to the question, “what do we need to be considering, as we make the shift to a virtual AMC?” we received an outpouring of wisdom. The five major themes that emerged are:
- Accessibility: How will we make the conference as accessible as possible for those with limited internet or computer access, and language interpretation needs, including ASL/closed captioning?
- Safety: What safety precautions will the AMC take to ensure there is privacy, holistic safe spaces and support mechanisms for presenters and participants?
- Ease & care: How will we ensure we can navigate a virtual conference with ease and respect for peoples on/off line self-care?
- Support for presenters: How will we support presenters as they pivot their sessions to a virtual space?
- AMC Magic: How will we (attempt to) translate the magical components of the AMC to the virtual world? Everything from the glorious AMC fashion to romantic encounters, to karaoke and dancefloors, and eating together?
Holding these things as priorities is essential. And, it will be no small feat. As a result, we have decided to change the days of the conference to July 23rd-26th. The additional month will give us breathing room to work at a more humane pace, while recalibrating all of our plans and essentially building a new conference.
We are also planning to massively scale down the amount of AMC content that we are presenting. We will only accept the number of sessions for which we can realistically provide all of the above. We are exploring options for an “AMC continued” series through which additional content can be shared beyond the conference weekend.
Read more about the survey results and browse the new schedule overview. Check back for more exciting updates coming soon.
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