Using the spaces in 314 Main St.

We will be using a conference space on the 4th floor that is shared by all of the tenants in the building. The rooms of the conference space are reserved for the Summit, but the lovely outdoor terrace is for all building tenants (including us).

We will also spend some time on the 1st and 2nd floors of the MIT Museum. The Museum is not yet open to the public. This means: 

• No photos in the Museum
• Elevators require card access (but everyone can use the core elevators to move between the 1st and 4th floors)
• The galleries are closed: Please do not wander behind any stanchions
• Guests are accompanied by a staff member at all times. Just stay with us: We've worked it all out for you!

You are welcome to leave personal items on the 4th floor as we move about during the day, but the spaces may be unsupervised at times and we cannot be responsible for any valuables.

There is no dedicated space for storing luggage, but if you must bring your bags we will find a place to set them down.

What to bring

Please wear whatever makes you feel comfortable when meeting other people. Notice that there are two outdoor walking tours in the schedule, and the Summit's events are all in walking distance. Please dress accordingly.

There won't be a professional photographer, but we are likely to use photos from the Summit in future promotional materials. Please tell one of the staff listed below if you do not want your photo used.

Wifi is available in most of our meeting spaces, but a laptop isn't needed to participate in the Summit.

There will not be printed programs available. Either print the schedule below ahead of time, or use a device to follow along.

You don't need to bring EventBrite tickets for any events.

COVID precautions

The Summit is following MIT's guidance for mitigating COVID (https://now.mit.edu/policies/). As of this writing, masks are optional, and we are all asked to be respectful about each others’ choices on masking

Please test before arriving onsite on Monday and Tuesday morning. We aren’t able to require this step, so it is on the honor system. We are distributing rapid tests to guests staying at the Kendall Hotel and Marriott. A limited number of rapid tests will also be available at Sunday's opening reception and in the 4th floor meeting space at 314 Main St.

If you test positive for COVID during or shortly after the Summit, please isolate and contact Summit staff (see below) so that we can take any necessary additional steps.

Proof of vaccination is not required in most places in Boston and Cambridge, including public transportation.

What to do if you don't know what to do

In case of emergency, call 911.

If you encounter an issue during the meeting, please look for any of the following people:

• Joanna MacIver
• Ben Wiehe
• Amanda Figueroa
• Greg DeFrances
• Isabel Campbell

If you encounter an issue outside of the meeting and need help, contact either:

• Joanna MacIver
• Ben Wiehe

Sunday

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5:30 - 6:30 PM | Kendall Hotel Lobby and Patio | Reception

6:30-7:45 PM | 314 Main Street | Sidewalk | Re/connecting with place: Field trips start at and return to sidewalk along Main Street

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Monday

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9:00-9:30 AM | 314 Main St | 4th Floor | Doors open

9:30-11:15 AM | 314 Main Street | 4th Floor | Session: Re/connecting with each other

11:15-12:00 PM | 314 Main Street | MIT Museum | 2nd Floor Exchange | Reflecting on what we heard

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12:00-1:00 PM | 314 Main Street | MIT Museum | 1st Floor Commons | Lunch

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1:15-1:45 PM | 314 Main Street | MIT Museum | 2nd Floor Exchange | Re/connecting with our work together, part one

1:45-3:45 PM | 314 Main Street | 4th Floor | Re/connecting with our work together, part two

4:00-5:15 PM | 314 Main Street | Sidewalk | Re/connecting with place: Field trips start at and return to sidewalk along Main Street

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6:30-9:30 PM | 907 Main Street | Blue Owl (aka The Dial) | Dinner

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Tuesday

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9:00-9:30 AM | 314 Main St | 4th Floor | Doors open

9:30-11:00 AM | 314 Main St | 4th Floor | Hypatia Room | Re/connecting with first principles

11:15 - 12:15 PM | 314 Main St | 4th Floor | Re/connecting with first principles roundtables

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12:15-1:15 PM | 314 Main Street | MIT Museum | 1st Floor Commons | Lunch

1:30-2:30 PM | 314 Main Street | 4th Floor | Concurrent sessions

2:45-3:45 PM 9| 314 Main Street | 4th Floor | Hypatia Room | Re/connecting with inspiration

3:45-3:55 PM | 314 Main Street | 4th Floor | Hypatia Room | Closing

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6:15-6:30 PM Boarding | 6:30-9:30 PM Cruising | MIT Sailing Pavilion | 134 Memorial Drive | Summit on the Sea | Additional registration required

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Opening Reception

5:30-6:30 PM | 350 Main Street | Kendall Hotel Lobby and Patio

Nothing special: just an actual real live IN-PERSON opening reception! Beverages are available, but no speeches or agenda. This is also the best way to check in to the Summit and get your field trip assignment. This event is weather dependent.

Re/connecting with place

6:30-7:45 PM | 314 Main Street | Sidewalk | Field trips start at and return to sidewalk along Main Street

In-person events have special power. One source of this power is the context of place. The same speech has different meaning if it is delivered in a lecture hall, at a bar, on the street corner, or in front of a capitol. Good event organizers know this in their bones. But after all of the disruption to in-person events it's time to re/connect with what makes a place meaningful. It's time for some field trips!

What to do: Please join this walking Summit session as a local guide shares what the place means to them. Guides will assemble at 6:30 on the sidewalk along 314 Main Street (don't be late!). You will be assigned to a single guide (check Summit communications for your assignment). This event is weather dependent.

Field trip leaders include:

Keith Griffin, family and community engagement
Scott Kirsner, from industrial roots to global innovation hub
Elizabeth James Perry, indigenous history
Yuqi Wang, real estate and community space

Good morning!

9:00-9:30 AM | 314 Main St | 4th Floor

What to do: Please take a rapid test in the morning. Then check in at the main entrance to 314 Main St. We'll be there to great you with your nametag, which is needed to get through security. Take the elevators to the 4th floor. Hot coffee, cold juice, and good people will be waiting for you. If you are late you will have to contact Summit staff (see the information section above).

Re/connecting with each other

9:30-11:15 AM | 314 Main Street | 4th Floor

Over the years, newcomers have always asked for a set of resources to help them get started. We have obliged in various ways, but the greatest resource we can provide by far is the people you will meet at this Summit. Connect with someone new in this session, and reconnect with your own story.

What to do: Instructions to be provided.

Reflecting on what we heard

11:15-12:00 PM | 314 Main Street | MIT Museum | 2nd Floor Exchange

What to do: Take the elevators to the 2nd floor to find a seat in the MIT Museum's Exchange space by 11:30. We'll pause there to reflect as a group on what we've heard so far.

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Lunch!

12:00-1:00 PM | 314 Main Street | MIT Museum | 1st Floor Commons

What to do: Take the stairs to the 1st floor Commons of the MIT Museum for a lovely buffet. Feel free to enjoy lunch outside if you like, but please return to the Museum (with your nametag) no later than 1:00pm.

Re/connecting with our work together, part one

1:15-1:45 PM | 314 Main Street | MIT Museum | 2nd Floor Exchange

What to do: Take the stairs to the 2nd floor, and find a seat in the MIT Museum's Exchange space by 1:15. We'll pause there to learn about collaborations currently underway that you may want to join.

Re/connecting with our work together, part two

1:45-3:45 PM | 314 Main Street | 4th Floor

What to do: Take the elevators to the 4th floor, and join in conversations about current collaborations in each assigned room. Move at your own pace, but do try to make it to each room.

Re/connecting with how we represent events online (Hypatia Room)

Re/connecting with situated engagement (Gauss Room)

Re/connecting with the evolving landscape of public science events (Archimedes Room)

Science Festival Alliance Archive: Bits and pieces from the past (Newton Room)

Share collaborations you are involved in or would like to see at the 4th floor lounge table.

Re/connecting with place: Another perspective

4:00-5:15 PM | 314 Main Street | Sidewalk | Field trips start at and return to sidewalk along Main Street

On Sunday you learned what the place means to one local guide. But a single place has different meanings for different people. A place that makes one person feel right at home might be loaded with conflicted emotions for another. Great event organizers must understand the different implications that working in a place can have. That understanding can only come from listening. So it's time for more field trips! Leave from and return to the same place as Sunday, but see it all from a different perspective.

What to do: Guides will assemble at 4:00 on the sidewalk along 314 Main Street (don't be late!). Check your Summit nametag for your assigned guide. In the event of rain, this event may be moved to the 4th floor of 314 Main Street.

Field trip leaders include:

Keith Griffin, family and community engagement
Dell Hamilton, creative practice and secondhand economy
Elizabeth James Perry, indigenous history
Robin Scheffler, history of biotechnology in Kendall Square
Yuqi Wang, real estate and community space

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Dinner!

6:30-9:30 PM | 907 Main Street | Blue Owl (aka The Dial)

What to do: Make your way to 907 Main Street, Cambridge. Just around the corner is a brick alley leading to the patio for The Dial. Take the elevators from there to the Blue Owl, and cozy up in the bar or kick back on the rooftop terrace. Dinner provided for all Summit attendees.

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Welcome back!

9:00-9:30 AM | 314 Main St | 4th Floor

What to do: Please take a rapid test in the morning. Grab your nametag and check in at the main entrance to 314 Main St. Take the elevators to the 4th floor. Hot coffee, cold juice, and dear old friends will be waiting for you. If you are late and do not have a nametag you will have to contact Summit staff (see the information section above).

Re/connecting with first principles

9:30-11:00 AM | 314 Main St | 4th Floor | Hypatia Room

In January of 2020 the Science Festival Accelerator launched 12 startup festival initiatives. It was an exciting time, but no one was prepared for the end of in person events as we knew them. Two-and-a-half years later, organizers didn't just pivot, they went back to first principles. They took an interrogative eye to their plans and assumptions and came up with new answers for what a science festival initiative can be. We invite you to listen to a conversation between four organizers as they discuss how they transformed their initiatives to meet the challenge of the moment with new processes, questions and practices for making that new vision real.

Daniel Aguirre, Pueblo; Jared Bixby, Kansas Science Festival; Sam Connors, Everyday Futures Fest; Francis Jeffers, BLAST Canada; Stephanie Dowdy-Nava & Saul Nava, Sun City Science Festival

Re/connecting with first principles: Roundtables

11:15 - 12:15 PM | 314 Main St | 4th Floor

Re/connecting with first principles through your existing event (Hypatia Room)

Daniel Aguirre, Pueblo

Re/connecting with first principles by going past your event (Archimedes Room)

Meisa Salaita, Science ATL

Re/connecting with first principles by flipping your event initiative (Newton Room)

Rick Crouse, Science Haven

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Lunch!

12:15-1:15 PM | 314 Main Street | MIT Museum | 1st Floor Commons

Take the elevators to the 2nd floor, and then the stairs to the "Commons" on the 1st floor of the MIT Museum for a lovely buffet. Feel free to enjoy lunch outside if you like, but please return to the Museum (with your nametag) no later than 1:15pm.  

Concurrent Sessions

1:30-2:30 PM | 314 Main Street | 4th Floor

Previous Summits had many blocks of concurrent sessions. Increasingly, these kinds of sessions can also be done effectively on-line. If you agree, let's get together for more sessions online throughout the year. For now, dig in in-person to the topic of your choice:

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Science Events 101: Fundraising (Archimedes Room)

It’s always amazing what a motivated team can accomplish on a shoe string budget. But as passionate as you may be, if you feel like you have run into a dead end with fundraising it will  hold back your event. Whether you feel as if you don’t know any potential donors, you are facing headwinds from within your institution, or you just need to face up to a fear of fundraising, this session will get you started on unlocking that potential.

Howard Rutherford, St. Petersburg Science Festival; Parmvir Bahia, Sensational SciFest

Science Events 201: Engaging Your Community Online (Hypatia Room)

When so many people are learning about in-person events online, are our principles of community engagement still showing through on websites and social media? How can we be sure that diverse audiences are still being reached? This session will help you craft an online presence for your festival that is as friendly, dynamic, and welcoming as your event – without requiring extra resources.

Amanda Figueroa, Science Festival Alliance; Erik MacIntosh, North Carolina Science Festival

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Science Events 301: Evaluation (Gauss Room)

We all want to know whether our events work, so over the years we have developed evaluation resources that help to measure whether attendees are having good experiences, learning things, and making new connections. But as useful as these outcome-driven evaluation tools are, they miss the impacts that they are not set up to measure. Learn how anthropological fieldwork can open up new ways of understanding events and festivals.

Helen Regis, New Orleans Jazz Festival

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Re/connecting with inspiration

2:45-3:45 PM 9| 314 Main Street | 4th Floor | Hypatia Room

Event organizing is always an emotional roller-coaster ride. But after years of pandemic uncertainty, it's OK to feel both fired up and burnt out at the same time. Where is your inspiration coming from now, and where is this all headed for you? We'll think that over with some help from professionals that knocked it out of the park with their science festivals, and after time moved on.

Ivvet Modinou, formerly British Science Festival; Mary Anne Moser, formerly Beakerhead; Chris McCreery, formerly NI Science Festival; Ellen Trappey, formerly Philadelphia Science Festival

Closing

3:45-3:55 PM | 314 Main Street | 4th Floor | Hypatia Room

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Summit on the Sea!

6:15-6:30 PM Boarding | 6:30-9:30 PM Cruising | MIT Sailing Pavilion | 134 Memorial Drive | Additional registration required

Sometimes the best ideas, connections, and memories pop-up after "the thing" is all over. So let go of your work energy and step aboard for a 3-hour sunset tour of the Charles River and Boston Harbor. Dinner is included, but additional registration required for this optional event.

The boat leaves from the MIT Sailing Pavilion at 134 Memorial Dr, which is an easy walk from 314 Main St. The pavilion has great views of Boston (and restrooms) for anyone arriving earlier than 6:15. The boat boards at 6:15 and departs at 6:30 sharp.