Urban Age conferences¶

Getting the LSE Cities website ready for the annual Urban Age conference is a process that normally spans several months, from the publishing of a simple landing page up to the launch of the full conference website’s content just before the event.

The following sections list the key stages of the run-up to a new conference; links to more detailed documentation for content editors/developers are provided where applicable.

Conference landing page¶

We normally publish a simple page with key information about the upcoming conference as soon as we are ready to announce the event’s themes, host city and dates. For an example of such a landing page, see the screenshot below:

The initial page is normally placed on the main LSE Cities website, under Urban Age -> Conferences. Later on, as more content is made available, the conference’s materials may be moved to a dedicated microsite (see Conference microsites below for more details).

When¶

In the past few years, we have usually published the conference landing page in late spring/early summer. As soon as the conference’s dates and themes are confirmed we can start setting up the landing page, to be published whenver agreed.

Who¶

The landing page is prepared and published by the communications team, with input from the conference manager.

Content needed¶

conference location (city only - we don’t normally publicise the event’s location as access is by invitation only)
conference title (e.g. Electric City, Governing Urban Futures, etc.), if applicable
conference dates
brief conference blurb (100 to 300 words); at this early stage, this may include names of a few confirmed speakers, if appropriate, as we would normally publish a full list of speakers just before the conference
heading photo

‘Register your interest’ form¶

Besides introducing the upcoming conference’s themes, the landing page is also used to collect applications from visitors interested in the event: we use a web form for this, asking for some key information (name, email address and why they are interested in the conference) and, optionally, for more details (city, country, organisation, role, areas/topics of interest).

Users who submit their application online agree to receive email updates about the conference from LSE Cities, and they are given the option to sign up for all LSE Cities newsletters.

Data gathered through this form is used alongside other research done to screen potential speakers and invitees, although we want to make sure that the form is perceived just as a signup form for updates rather than a full application form to be invited to the conference.

To this effect, applicants receive a short email confirming that their submission has been received and that they will be kept updated about the conference.

When¶

Ideally as soon as the landing page is published or as soon as possible thereafter.

Who¶

The communications team sets up the form in WordPress and, where applicable, grants access to the list of submissions received to the conference manager and other colleagues who may need to screen submissions.

Content needed¶

A brief text (around 100 words max) for the automated confirmation email sent to visitors once they submit their contact details.

Conference microsites¶

Until 2009 (Urban Age Istanbul conference) the full conference content was hosted on the main centre’s website (at the time, urban-age.net).

In 2010 we developed a microsite for the Global Metro Summit conference in Chicago (http://globalmetrosummit.net/ - the microsite has since been taken offline and its contents have been moved to the main LSE Cities website); in 2012 we designed and developed a microsite for the Electric City conference in London, using the distinctive branding developed for this event; in 2013 we designed and developed a microsite for the City Transformations conference in Rio de Janeiro, with the intention to make this microsite’s layout a ‘standard’ template to be reused for future conferences when no major custom branding is needed.

Conference microsites require a quick initial setup and no additional editorial overhead, compared to a conference section on the main LSE Cities website, while allowing us to use a short, easy-to-share web address (e.g. http://ec2012.lsecities.net/ rather than http://lsecities.net/ua/conferences/2012-london/) and most importantly are small, self-contained websites hosting all the conference-related content in an easy to browse format.

Recent past conference microsites included a few key areas:

Front page (also used for live video and Twitter streams during the conference)

Programme

Speakers

Newspaper (the conference’s publication, in web format)

Data (where applicable, a selection of data charts/maps from the conference’s newspaper)

Press (press releases/logos/press materials)

Conference photos

Videos (hosting short interviews to conference speakers and attendees; videos of session conferences are added shortly after the conference to the Programme page)

Media (media coverage, storify summaries of the conference days, etc.)

When¶

If a microsite is used, this can be set up as early as initial conference information is published and could be used instead of a landing page hosted on the main LSE Cities website; in practice, in the past few years we have only launched a conference’s microsite from a few weeks to a few days before the conference itself.

Who¶

The initial setup of a conference microsite requires a little custom development and web server administration; content can be managed throughout the lifetime of the microsite by the communications team within the main WordPress dashboard used for all the rest of our online content.

Content needed¶

Before the initial setup of a microsite, the web address needs to be chosen; ideally this would be similar to those used in 2012 (ec2012.lsecities.net, for Electric City 2012) or 2013 (rio2013.lsecities.net). It is possible to use just the year (e.g. 2014.lsecities.net), if appropriate.

We should avoid registering new domain names unless necessary for specific reasons (as it was done in 2010 for the globalmetrosummit.net domain), as this would then bind us to renewing the domain name registration for a number of years to avoid breaking links used on external websites, whereas we can easily manage anything in the format xxyyzz.lsecities.net without any additional cost and effort.

If a conference microsite is launched early, the same content needed for the landing page is enough to populate a first version of the microsite.

If background photos are used (these can be used with the page template developed for the Rio 2013 conference), ideally we should have at least ten good quality photos, which are then displayed randomly every time a page is loaded. Each photo should be at least 1920 pixels wide and for each photo we need:

author details
any required attribution information (e.g. for photos from Flickr’s Creative Commons pool)
ideally also the location where the photo was shot (this is so that we can store data for future uses such as overlay photo captions, interactive map of the places depicted in the photos, etc.)

Conference video: live streaming and recording¶

As we would like to allow a wide public to follow the conference live, we have been livestreaming on the web all the recent conferences; additionally, all the conference video feeds are recorded so that we can publish them to the LSE Cities YouTube channel after the conference, where applicable: a few individual sessions from past conferences have not been published for various reasons, and we decided not to publish the Rio 2013 conference videos due to quality issues. A copy of the original recordings is also kept in the office, archived for future uses.

Video recording and livestreaming arrangements at past conferences varied according to the local video service providers contracted for the events.

In London (2012) a dedicated crew filmed the whole event with multiple cameras, and the same video feed streamed to the Internet was also displayed on three big screens at the conference venues so that every audience member could see speakers, slides, highlights even from seats with limited visibility to the main stage. Additionally, a video director was in charge of coordinating the camera crew and selecting in real time which camera feed was being shown in the live video stream (e.g. alternating focus between slides, speaker, audience members at debate time, etc.).

Besides the camera/direction/recording arrangements at the conference venue, to stream the conference live we need the video production company to set up the streaming infrastructure for us, including checking speed/bandwidth and reliability of the Internet connection at the venue, and to provide us with the HTML code to be inserted on the conference’s microsite.

Video layout for published videos¶

Full-screen speaker, slides on the side:

(source: http://youtu.be/3D1WeSCSkPQ)

Full-screen slides, speaker on the side (large frame):

../../_images/slides-by-video_onethird.png

(source: http://youtu.be/BxJ-27Nnakc)

Full-screen slides, speaker on the side (small frame):

../../_images/slides-by-video_onesixth.png

(source: http://youtu.be/0xx_dkv9DEY)

When¶

Arrangements for video recording and livestreaming should be in place well in advance of the conference; we would normally aim to run a full livestreaming test two weeks before the conference.

Who¶

Most of the video setup and work at the venue is normally done by local companies: we need to provide our requirements (see below) and to make sure that the service they provide matches our specifications.

Content/information needed¶

Video recording: we should aim for:

full HD video recording
at the very least two cameras (one for speakers/panelists and another for screen/slides/audience)
recorded video should be stored using Apple ProRes or Avid DNxHD codecs
if different angles/sources are selected live and the resulting video stream is recorded, we would still need to keep the ‘raw’ unedited footage from each of the cameras used
likewise, if session titles and speaker names are added to the live stream, we need raw footage without added titles so that we can further edit the original video when needed.

Livestreaming:

it is important to confirm well in advance the speed/bandwidth of the internet connection available at the venue for livestreaming of video;
this should be a dedicated connection (i.e. not shared with any other Internet usage such as staff or conference attendees Internet access);
the maximum quality of the stream available to watchers depends largely on the upload bandwidth of the dedicated Internet connection - for reference see YouTube’s help page on live video resolution;
whilst YouTube provides a free livestreaming service, it is advisable not to rely on it for the Urban Age conferences, as YouTube’s service is monitored by an automated copyright infringement system, which is known for occasionally mis-identifying content as infringing, terminating the affected livestreaming with little hope of having it reinstated within any useful timeframe.

In order to make the live video player available on the conference’s microsite, we will then just need the HTML embed code for the livestream from the company managing the actual streaming.

The size of the embedded video player depends on each visitor’s screen size, however this will not stretch beyond 960 pixels, using the current conference microsite layout.

Speaker profiles¶

Speaker profiles and conference programme pages are generated from a single set of data, which links conference sessions to speakers/chairs/respondents; we can, however, publish even a partial list of speakers as soon as they are confirmed, even before work on the programme has started.

When¶

As soon as a speaker’s profile is finalised we can add it to the website’s backend database: whether speakers are added one by one or as a single batch, ideally all the speaker profiles should be in the database no later than one month before the conference.

Who¶

Once speaker data is confirmed, it can be uploaded by the communications team.

Content needed¶

For each speaker, we need:

name
affiliation(s) and role(s)
blurb (50 words max)
photo (at least 500x500px for the web, close crop)

Conference programme¶

When¶

In 2012 and 2013 we started entering programme information on the website backend as early as a couple of weeks before the conference, although the final programme was then only made public just before the conference.

In order to be able to link speakers (and, later on, individual presentation videos and slides) to each session, we need to enter a large amount of metadata, which takes time to be uploaded: we should therefore aim to dedicate a full day to the preparation of the programme for the website.

Who¶

Once programme sessions are confirmed, they can be added to the website backend by the communications team.

Content needed¶

For each session, we need:

session title
start and end times
names of chair(s), speaker(s), respondent(s)

It’s probably best if all the sessions are added to the website at the same time: this can be done by copying all the required data from the version of the programme prepared for print, so in practice a PDF of the final programme is all we need to prepare the web version.

Press information¶

We make press releases, media packs/logos/photos available on the Press page of the conference microsites. Any materials that need to be published on this page should be sent to the communications team.

Twitter coverage¶

Starting with the 2012 Electric City conference, we have invited people to use a Twitter hashtag for any tweets related to the conference (#UAElectric for the 2012 conference, #UARio for the 2013 conference). While the conference is happening, we add a live twitter box to the microsite’s frontpage, showing all the live coverage of the conference as it happens on Twitter.

We also feature the hashtag prominently on the microsite (so far, we placed it on the site heading, to the right of the top navigation bar) and disseminate it widely before the conference via our pre-conference email campaigns.

Content needed¶

We just need to confirm which hashtag we wish to use; setting up the live coverage box and adding the hashtag to the site’s header takes a few moments only.