Save the Date: OMRS20 Virtual Conference Dates: 30th Nov to 4th Dec 2020

Hey Everyone,

Thank you to all the community members that took the time to share their feedback on this talk post.

The OMRS20 Conference date will be 30th Nov 2020 to 4th Dec 2020. Add this to your calendars and keep a lookout for more information here and on talk.

Registrations will open in the next two weeks hence also keep a lookout for that as well.

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This is wonderful news! Added to my calendar. Can hardly wait :slight_smile:

Great new :slightly_smiling_face: .
Weldone @christine and the team for the organisations.

Great to have a “Save the Date” announced. Thanks!

Is this the week OMRS20 will take place? Or is the plan to actually have a five day virtual conference?

In feedback from past OpenMRS conferences, the general sentiment was <3 days was too short, but >4 days felt too long.

And with a virtual conference 3 days is too long, 1 is too short, 2 days seems to be the current sweet spot

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@christine Thanks for sharing this

@burke and @ssmusoke, here is a small description of what is in mind with regards to the conference breakdown:

It is estimated the conference will take place for about 4hrs to 6hrs in a day. The hackathon will have the longest timeline of about 6hrs and the normal conference day would take 4hrs. The times listed below aims at ensuring all timezones are taken care of:

The hackathon is targeted to be on the first two days or the last days of the week. The hackathon would start at 4:30 pm IST | 2 pm Nairobi | 1 pm Cape Town | 12 pm WAT | 11 am UTC | 6 am Boston | 3 am Seattle and run up to 10:30 pm IST | 8 pm Nairobi | 7 pm Cape Town | 6 pm WAT | 5 pm UTC | 12 pm Boston | 9 am Seattle.

The conference sessions would start at 6:30 pm IST | 4 pm Nairobi | 3 pm Cape Town | 2 pm WAT | 1 pm UTC | 8 am Boston | 5 am Seattle and run up to 10:30 pm IST | 8 pm Nairobi | 7 pm Cape Town | 6 pm WAT | 5 pm UTC | 12 pm Boston | 9 am Seattle.

Any plenary session would be scheduled between 6:30 pm IST | 4 pm Nairobi | 3 pm Cape Town | 2 pm WAT | 1 pm UTC | 8 am Boston | 5 am Seattle and run up to 8:30 pm IST | 6 pm Nairobi | 5 pm Cape Town | 4 pm WAT | 3 pm UTC | 10 am Boston | 7 am Seattle. This 2hr time slot is estimated to be ideal as it would be possible to have most community members, implementations, and representatives from MOH present.

The above proposal is subject to change based on scheduled activities and the community interests and hence we may use fewer days and hours or fully utilize the targeted days and hours.

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Thanks @christine. That makes sense – e.g., 4-5 days of 4 hours each instead of 3.5 days of 8+ hours each to accommodate timezones.

FYI – your timezones weren’t quite right, so I edited to your post with corrections. You might consider moving things an hour later, since your U.S. timezones didn’t account for the end of daylight savings time in November (placing Boston 5 hours behind UTC), meaning the times in Seattle are going to be quite early.

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