How to Produce an Access Grid Event

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How to Produce an Access Grid Event

• Jennifer Teig von Hoffman
• Boston University National Computational
  Science Alliance

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Objectives

• Types of AG events
• How to prepare for events
• Staffing recommendations
• Weve got a lot to cover, so please hold
  questions until the end of each section
• Ill ask for questions by show of hands

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Primary Reference

• Access Grid-in-a-box tutorial, How to Produce an
  Access Grid Event An Elementary Guide for
  Technical Users
• . . . Which in turn refers to presentations by
  Lisa Childers of Argonne National Laboratory,
  Russ Wolf of Boston University, and myself

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An Ongoing Process

• Todays seminar will introduce you to general
  concepts, giving you a good starting place for
  planning events
• As technology changes, best practices in planning
  change
• 1999 - the present - the future

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Introductions

• Please wave when I say hello to your site

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Types of Access Grid Events

• How Real Life Events Translate into Life on the
  Access Grid

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What is an AG Event?

• Any occasion for which people get together over
  the AG
• Each AG event takes place in a Virtual Venue
• Virtual Venue virtual conference room
• Every event should have a Virtual Venue
  reservation (can be made last-minute)

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Some Events Are More Complicated Than Others

• Not complicated
• Staff meeting
• Chatting with friends and family
• Complicated
• Multi-site collaboration using virtual
  environments
• International conference

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Two General Categories

• AG events are often spoken of as formal or
  informal
• In this context, formal and informal describe
  types of interactions more than they do apparel,
  etiquette, or language
• These categories and related guidelines are
  general youll develop your own strategies for
  each specific event

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What is a Formal Event?

• For these purposes, well define a formal event
  as an event which requires structured planning
• The opposite An event which requires little if
  any planning

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Examples of Formal Events

• SC Global
• PACS Training Workshops
• Virtual Conference on Genomics and
  Bioinformatics)
• Demonstration for Governor of Illinois

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Examples of Informal Events

• Planning meeting with Mary and Ariella
• U. Australia management meetings
• SC Global planning meetings
• First Annual Access Grid Symposium on Beerology

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Is Your Event Formal?

• The answer may be obvious, based on the content
  of the event
• Otherwise, consider
• Tolerance for interruptions
• Visibility and potential consequences of failure
• Level of technical risk

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Can Your Event Tolerate Interruptions?

• Ask yourself could you pause for
• Audio adjustments?
• Loading presentation files?
• Other unforeseen circumstances?
• The larger the number of participating sites, the
  higher the likelihood of interruptions
• If interruptions would be a problem, consider
  your event formal

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How Visible is Your Event?

• Whos expected to attend? Will success or failure
  be an important matter?
• When the event is high-visibility, consider it
  formal
• Demonstrations for VIPs
• Site visits
• Events for the press

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How Technically Risky Is Your Event?

• Many factors may create technical risk
• New node installations
• New technology
• New node operators
• Technical risk should be considered along with
  other factors
• If its risky but not high-visibility, its
  probably informal

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Be Minimalist When You Can

• Unnecessarily rigid or excessive preparation
  plans can discourage participating sites
• It is good for the health of the AG community for
  us to reduce event preparation time as much as
  possible without sacrificing quality

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Questions?
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How to Prepare for Events

• Developing Appropriate Preparation Strategies,
  With a Focus on Formal Events

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You Need a Good Foundation

• A well-functioning AG node requires (at a
  minimum)
• Stable, fully debugged multicast networking
  (which must be monitored over time)
• The latest release of Access Grid Toolkit
  software
• All hardware and software consistent with the AG
  equipment specification
• Technical staff with sufficient time available to
  keep their skills current and the node
  well-maintained

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Make It So

• You must ensure that your technical staff have
  access to all the resources they need to make
  this happen

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A Key Assumption

• In the slides that follow, I will assume that
  your node is well-functioning and your technical
  staff have intermediate or advanced AG skills
• If this is not the case, your event- planning
  strategy must bring it about
• Big events are often good proving grounds
• Get feedback on plans from seasoned staff

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Time Zones are Important

• Always explicitly include time zones in all event
  announcements, agendas, etc
• When planning an event which is open to the whole
  community, consider international time zone
  issues
• You may wish to repeat a lecture or workshop to
  attract participants in additional time zones

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If Your Event Is Informal. . .

• Just reserve a room and show up ?
• Node operators may want to arrive 5-10 minutes
  early
• Work with your node operator on technical issues
  as you go along
• Presentation files
• Audio adjustments
• Camera adjustments

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Planning Informal Events

• Ensure that node operators are available
• You may wish to learn to operate your node
  yourself
• Ensure that AG nodes are available
• Recognize that its normal for technical
  adjustments to occur from time to time

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Self-serve AG Events

• Sometimes your node operator might start up the
  node, get the event started, give you their cell
  phone number, and let you manage the rest of the
  event yourself

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ExampleAG Packaging Initiative Team

• Before each meeting, Lisa Childers reserves a
  (virtual) room, and sends out an announcement of
  the time and place
• She always includes the time zone very
  important!
• Everybody just shows up

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If Your Event Is Formal. . .

• Amount of necessary preparation varies widely
• Some is prep you need to do anyway
• Developing and finalizing agendas
• Coordinating with presenters
• For your first event, err on the side of caution

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Preparing for a Formal Event

• Get the lay of the land
• Organize event information
• Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse
• Test cruises
• Content rehearsals
• Arrive early on event day

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Get the Lay of the Land

• Determine how much lead time you have
• Determine approximate number of presenters,
  participants, and participating sites
• Develop a draft agenda
• Meet immediately with your technical team leader
  to discuss all of the above

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Organize Event Information

• Develop a detailed agenda, in close collaboration
  with your technical team leader
• Order of speakers
• Physical location of speakers
• List of all participating sites
• Links to all presentation files
• All other relevant technical information

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Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse

• The bigger and more formal the event, the more
  rehearsals you need
• Two types of rehearsal
• Test cruise technical staff test and
  troubleshoot all relevant technologies
• Content rehearsal presenters and/or masters of
  ceremony rehearse their presentations, or have a
  dry run

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Test Cruises

• In close collaboration with your technical team
  leader
• Objective ensure that all sites have
  well-debugged nodes and network
• To determine how many to hold, ask yourself
• How many participating sites do you have?
• How many of those sites have brand-new nodes?
• How many new or unusual technologies will be in
  use?

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What to Test in the Cruises

• All technologies which may be used in the actual
  event
• Standard AG audio, video, and MOO
• Distributed PowerPoint? (use actual slides, when
  possible)
• Telephone backup channel?
• Distributed VR?

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Content Rehearsals

• To determine how many to hold, and whose
  attendance to require or request, ask yourself
• Have these presenters spoken over the AG before?
• Will they facilitate complicated interactions?

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Arrive Early on Event Day

• Technical staff should arrive at the appropriate
  virtual venue 30-60 minutes before the event
  begins
• If participants will be arriving in the nodes
  physical space early, you and your staff may need
  to arrive even earlier
• Ideally, presenters should participate in final
  audio tests

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Example SC Global

• A component of Supercomputing 2001 (Denver,
  11/01)
• Volunteer planning committee, representing many
  organizations

Dancing Beyond Boundaries, Presented by U. of
Florida As Viewed from University of
Manchester, United Kingdom
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An Unprecedented Event

• Very formal, high-visibility, and
  technically-risky
• 40 participating sites, some contributing
  content, some just lurking
• 100 participants at many locations
• Four days of content, often in four or more
  concurrent tracks

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Unprecedented Preparations

• Application process winter/spring 2001
• Test cruises twice a week, July November 2001
• Production Institute, September 2001
• Production-oriented training for staff at all
  sites contributing content
• Mega-cruise, October 8
• Dry runs of (most) all content

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Recommended Reading Another Example

• Report on March 28 29, 2001, MPI Workshop over
  the Access Grid, Leslie Southern, Ohio
  Supercomputer Center, April 2001
• Ill list the URL at the end of these slides
• Excellent overview of preparation for and
  evaluation of the event

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Questions?
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Staffing Recommendations

• Roles and Responsibilities

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Again, General Guidelines

• Well discuss one way to divide up the labor
  again, your mileage may vary
• When you design your own staffing plans, keep in
  mind
• The strengths and weaknesses of the people on
  your team
• The needs of your particular event

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Each Site Has Its Own Staff

• Each site participating in a given event is
  responsible for developing their own staffing
  plan, and filling the roles appropriately
• You may wish to work with representatives of each
  site on their staffing plans

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Each Venue Is Different

• The size of your physical venue plays a large
  part in determining the size of your staff

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Staff for an Informal Event

• At the main site
• Meeting leader (ie, meeting chair)
• Node operator
• At all other sites
• Node operator

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Staff for a Formal EventMain Site

• Producer of overall event
• Usually also acts as local Producer too
• Technical Director
• Usually also operates node in some capacity
• Floor Manager
• Additional node operators/assistants

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Staff for a Formal EventRemote Sites

• Producer
• Technical Director
• Floor Manager
• Additional node operators/assistants

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Producers Responsibilities Main Site

• Manage entire team
• Locally and for the overall event
• In collaboration with the Technical Director,
  develop technical web page for event discussed
  earlier in this seminar
• Also known as Production Plan or Technical Agenda
• Determine how/when it is appropriate to deviate
  from the agenda

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Producers Responsibilities Remote Sites

• Manage and support local team
• Ensure that video and audio streams from local
  site meet main sites needs
• In many events, Producer and Technical Director
  merge into one role at remote sites

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Technical Directors Responsibilities Main Site

• Provide technical leadership and guidance to the
  entire team
• Locally and for the whole event
• Collaborate closely with the Producer
• Test cruise and content rehearsal strategy and
  implementation
• Technical web page

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More Technical Director Responsibilities Main
Site

• Collect and place online all required
  presentation files
• Ensuring arrangements are made for any necessary
  technical contingency plans
• Back-up public channel telephone line

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Technical Director Responsibilities Remote Sites

• Provide technical leadership and guidance to
  local team
• In many events, Producer and Technical Director
  merge into one role at remote sites
• And as often as not, remote sites with small
  audiences can operate with a one-person team

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Master of Ceremonies Responsibilities

• Introduce presenters and, with Floor Managers
  help, keep them on schedule
• Manage audience in case of any disruptions to
  event
• May give brief explanation of any pauses
• May use opportunity to share anecdotes
• Manages flow of questions
• Passing the Floor

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Floor Managers Responsibilities

• Ensure all presenters arrive at the podium on
  time
• Keep track of time, and let MC know if presenters
  need to be nudged along
• May communicate with presenters using cue cards
• 5 Minutes Left, Times Up

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Other Operators/Assistants Responsibilities

• Additional Operators/Assistants are often needed
  in large venues or high-pressure situations
• Sometimes all of these things need to be done at
  the same time

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Manage Audio

• Ensure that local audience can hear all necessary
  audio
• Ensure quality of outgoing audio
• Audio needs special attention during interactive
  portions of events
• Question and answer sessions
• Discussion

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Manage Main Display Wall

• Ensure that participants can see all
  participating sites
• Enlarge video windows as appropriate, such as
  video of main speaker
• Ensure that all other necessary components are
  displayed
• PPT, VNC, etc

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Manage Outgoing Video

• Monitor using vic on display machine or
  additional computer
• SC Global used producer stations
• Make camera adjustments, usually with remote
  control
• Video also needs special attention during
  interactive portions of events

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Manage Microphones

• Ensure all speakers have appropriate access to
  microphones
• Presenters
• Masters of Ceremony
• Participants asking questions
• Ensure that microphones are used correctly
  throughout event

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Manage Presenter Tools

• Ensure presentation tools on the laptop podium
  run successfully
• Distributed PowerPoint master?
• VNC?
• WinTV?
• Scan converter?

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Event Communications forAll Staff

• Use the MOO, the official Access Grid
  back-channel
• Communicate among staff at all participating
  sites
• Communicate among staff at local site
• Use optional telephone back-channel
• Use optional headset radios within the room

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Questions?
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A Final Example Planning This Seminar Series

• A somewhat experimental model for events of this
  size Im hoping it has been successful

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No Test Cruises or Rehearsals

• Instead, all sites were required to arrive 60
  minutes early
• Participants were responsible for ensuring their
  node was available and well-functioning
• If I had been concerned about any participating
  nodes, I could have contacted them to arrange a
  test cruise

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Factors I Considered

• Mary, Ariella, and I are experienced AG
  presenters and operators
• We did not plan to use any new or unusual
  technologies
• BU and ANL nodes are well-functioning, and
  frequently used
• I believed we could tolerate brief pauses if
  necessary

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Further Reading . . .

• Access Grid-in-a-Box web-based tutorial How to
  Produce an Access Grid Eventhttp//webct.ncsa.ui
  uc.edu8900/public/AGIB/
• More thorough treatment of nearly every topic
  covered in this seminar
• Highly recommended for anybody planning AG events
  on a regular basis, or anybody planning a large,
  high-visibility event

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Further Reading. . .

• Report on PACS Training MPI Workshop
• http//alliance.osc.edu/mpi/report.pdf
• Access Grid Documentation Projecthttp//www.acces
  sgrid.org/agdp/
• A project by and for the Access Grid Community
• As you gain expertise and confidence, please
  consider writing documents to submit to the AGDP

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Questions?
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We Need Your Feedback

• http//scv.bu.edu/accessgrid/seminars/eval.html
• Let us know if youre interested in leading other
  seminars too!

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Thank You Everyone ?