Report from Copenhagen: First ASIS&T miniBARcamp

We, the European Student Chapter, invited ASIS&T members in Copenhangen for the 2016 Annual Meeting and people from Copenhagen to join us for an informal get-together in Copenhagen on October 15, one evening before the meeting began. We sent invitation letters to professors, students and practitioners from the information science field in Copenhagen and to all colleagues from ASIS&T.

Our intention was to encourage people to get in touch with others interested in the same topics – members and non-members of the ASIS&T community. Thus, everybody who participated was invited to bring ideas and for discussion. First up for discussion was Tjaša Jug with her award-winning Movie Meets Science video about book metadata and readers. The audience started to discuss with Tjaša her video presentation, creating our first topic table.

Next we invited the audience to suggest further topics. Finally, five topic tables were generated at which the miniBARcamp guests met and talked about their backgrounds, their research and their ideas.

As an unexpected special treat, Greg Welch, scheduled as the first keynote speaker for ASIS&T AM on the following afternoon, joined us with the topic virtual reality.

The miniBARcamp was a big success. We thank Tjaša and all other guests of this introductory effort for the nice evening. We particularly thank ASIS&T president Nadia Caidi and president-elect Lynn Connaway for taking the time to join us.

The miniBARcamp was an attempt to represent the ASIS&T community in Copenhagen and to invite people who are not yet in our community. The European Chapter providing initial funding with additional support from the chapter development fund of ASIS&T. We would love to see continuing the miniBARcamp in the following years to promote the community of ASIS&T at the city where the Annual Meeting is held. Thus, we are looking forward to meet next year with professors, students and practitioners in Washington, DC, for a joyful miniBARcamp one evening before the 80^th Annual Meeting of ASIS&T.