 Hello everyone and thank you so much for joining us today for this special webinar as we get ready for Moodle Mood Global 2023. My name is Sandra Matz. I am the Educational Events Coordinator in the Moodle Community Team and today myself and other members from Moodle HQ will be joining you to run through some useful information about attending and presenting at the event. On the agenda today, I'll be giving a quick welcome and overview of the event, some information about the conference venue. Then I'll hand over to Jess, who will talk about purchasing for the conference, key rates and submitting abstracts. Mary will then take over to speak about presenting at the event. And then Mary and Sarah will give us a little bit more about the Jam Day, which is our pre-conference and which will have a pre-conference activities. I'll then share some details on the Moodle Mood party, quickly highlight some of the amazing things to see and do while you're in Barcelona. And we'll wrap up by answering your questions. Okay, to get us started, let me be the first to welcome you all to this information session about Moodle Mood Global 2023. Moodle Mood Global is our annual in-person conference where Moodle enthusiasts from all over the world get together to learn, collaborate and promote lifelong learning. This year we're returning to Barcelona, Spain for a conference on the 19th to 21st of September and our optional pre-conference activities, which will be held on Monday the 18th, the day before the conference start. Last year we had over 800 attendees from 66 different countries and we are looking forward to welcoming our global Moodle community to come join us again in Barcelona for another exciting event that will include keynote presentations, sessions featuring talks and workshops from the community, Moodle HQ and Moodle partners and sponsors, networking sessions and a Moodle party. We're also planning a music night in a cool club venue with some instruments available, drums, guitars, keyboards, microphone, so that Moodleers can join in and jump. Stay tuned for more details about this. As we did last year, we will be hosting Moodle Mood Global 2023 at Hotel Barcelona Sants in the centre of Barcelona. It is a cutting-edge hotel with a modern design and as we saw last year, it's ideal for an event like Moodle Mood Global. Conference attendees can book their own accommodation directly with the Hotel Barcelona Sants and benefit from a discount code available on the venue and accommodation page on the conference website. As you can see on the screen, all the accommodation options are available in the area and these are linked from the same page. This hotel is very well-connected and it is just 500 metres away from the restaurants, bars and cafes at Plaza Espanya and the scenic Montjuic district. It is located above the Barcelona Sants train and metro station with direct access to the high-speed avenue and Barcelona's metro and local train banks. Barcelona-El Prat Airport is only 12 kilometres away. There is a direct connection by a train from the airport, terminal 2 and a bus. Or a taxi from the airport will cost around 30 to 35 euros. Depending on where you're planning to stay during the days of the conference, the metro line L9 South can also connect you with the two airport terminals with the city of Barcelona. Every seven minutes which may come in handy for some. Sants Station has great public transport connections with other parts of the city so that it will be really helpful if you're planning to explore the city during the days of the conference. Over to you Jess. Thank you so much Sandra. Hi, my name is Jessica Grant and I'm the community manager here at Moodle. I'm happy to announce that registration is currently open on our website MoodleMood.org and you'll find the link in the chat. You can follow the links on the website to register for the conference and there's a really large orange register button in the menu or you can click on the blue register button on the homepage. You'll need to create an account on the website first and that will enable you to manage your event registration. The ticket to attend the event includes access to all the event spaces, sessions and talks, lunches and refreshments, access to the event mobile app. We also include morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and social drinks. Workshops and networking, the pre-conference jam day, however, you'll need to book this in advance and there are limited spaces. So we recommend that you register soon if you want to attend the pre-conference and that's on the Monday before the conference starts. And you'll also get access to the MoodleMood party on Wednesday night and some other surprises. Early bird registration ends on July the 15th. We also have some other key dates which are available on our website and I'll speak to you about abstracts in a moment. But I'll just highlight here that you will have until the 4th of September to register for the MoodleMood global event. And then the event itself starts with the pre-conference on the Monday before the conference and that's on the 18th of September with the dev jam occurring all day. And we'll hear soon from Sarah who will tell us more about that. And the other jams will be running in the afternoon. Then the conference itself runs from Tuesday the 19th of September until Thursday the 21st of September. And this year's conference theme is lifelong learning. We invite MoodleMoods from any educational training learning fields to come together to learn from each other. Share their findings brainstorm to problems and explore best practices. And we'd love to hear from you and have you submit an abstract and be a presenter at the event. This year we have five different presentation methods ranging from five minute lightning talks up to one to two hour workshops. And Mary will go over these in a little more detail in a moment. Abstract submissions are now open and they close on the 2nd of June, which is less than three weeks away. So if you don't have your conference abstract ideas ready yet, we've provided you with a list of questions to help you brainstorm and they're available on the website. We'll let you know if your presentation was accepted into the program by the 16th of June. And if anyone's interested in sitting on the program committee, we'd love to hear from you. So please get in touch. You can contact us through the contact us link, which is in the footer of the moodlemoot.org website. And we'll get back to you. To submit an abstract, you have to create an account on moodlemoot.org. So that's the same account that you'd need to create to register. And then you follow the link to become a speaker. Requirements for abstract submission are all available on the website. And all selected speakers and poster presenters will be notified by email about the outcome by the 16th of June. And we'll then provide you with detailed information about your approved presentation method and what you can do to prepare for the event. We do encourage people to share their presentation slide in advance of the event. And this is going to help the audience to engage with your presentation. We're going to be accepting PowerPoint PPTX files. So if you're using Keynote or some other presentation software, you should export your files as PPTX. And then that way we're able to use our auto translation and auto captioning system for your presentation during the event. This will help make the event more accessible for everybody. You will be able to submit your PPTX files on the moodlemoot.org website closer to the date of the event. This year we're seeking presentations on the following topics. So we're covering augmented and virtual reality in education and training. How artificial intelligence is changing education and the workplace. Building core competencies with Moodle. Addressing inclusivity and equity within Moodle courses. Soft skills revolution, strengthening learners' critical thinking into personal and creative skills. Using Moodle to support science, technology, engineering maps on STEM delivery. And sharing Moodle experience with recent tales from the community. And as I mentioned, we've shared that document on the website to help you think about these topics in more detail. So check out the Become a Speaker page for further information. And here are some tips on how to write a quality abstract submission. Make sure you add a concise and clear abstract title. And then review those topic questions to help you generate ideas. In the keywords field, it's actually called the metadata field now. I have to update this slide, sorry. When you submit, you should add a stream. And that's either school and higher education or workplace training and learning. And then you need to add your audience and think about what would interest them. So you might be pitching your presentation to school, higher or further education providers, vocational educators and workplace trainers, Moodle developers or Moodle administrators, or a mix of those. We also want to find out from you what level you're going to pitch at. So is it for beginner Moodle users, intermediate or advanced? And then add any other keywords that describe your presentation. And just to mention again, that's in the metadata field, but there are instructions on the page when you submit. Keep your abstract relevant to a global audience. We expect attendees from over 60 countries. Last year we had 66 countries represented at the conference. So make sure you keep your language really simple. So those with English as a second language can really understand your meaning. Make sure you cover watch, why, how, and then summarize your key takeaway points as well in your abstracts so we can get a feeling for what it is you're trying to share with the community. And remember, you can always log back into the website and update your abstract submission up until the due date on the second of June. And now I'm going to hand over to Mary Cooch, who many of you will recognize to talk about presenting. Hello everyone, I'm Mary Cooch, Education Manager at Moodle. And we actually have five different presentation methods that you can choose to speak at the Moodle Moodle. Lightning talk, which is five minutes, you might have heard it called by a different name in previous years. But basically, if you do a five minute lightning talk, you'll be grouped with other people doing those talks. And then at the end of that session, there will be 15 minutes shared with the others for questions and answers. Or we have a 15 minute short presentation that you can do. That's basically 10 minutes of you presenting, leaving five minutes for questions. Or we have a 30 minutes, so that's a longer presentation. And for that, we recommend you talk for 20 minutes, giving you 10 minutes questions and answers. Now, if you're less comfortable about presenting or speaking, you're very welcome to give us a poster, design us a poster. And we'll put those on the walls at the conference venue. And then we will organize a time where all the poster presenters can be present next to their poster on the wall to talk about it. Or you are very welcome to volunteer to do a workshop, which lasts between an hour, an hour and a half, 60 to 120 minutes. This is interactive. So it will enable participants to get hands-on experience around whatever topic it is that you are running your workshop on. And closer to the event will make available to you a presenters guide if you've been selected as a presenter, as a speaker. And this will cover specific details such as how to prepare, submit your slides and the technical requirements. It will also give information on timing and the program, the venue and so on. And about the recording, audio visual recording, you may well find yourself famous on film. And also any information about your poster and how we will handle that if you've given a poster. If you are selected as a presenter and you are there on the day presenting just a few tips from me, the most important one to remember that obviously sometimes it's a bit nerve-wracking, but we are all on your side. It is a very friendly and welcoming, supportive atmosphere. So we are wishing you well and always bear in mind that you have something interesting that you want to share with us. And so we are very willing to listen to you. If you're going to talk about something from your own experience, a case study, for example, then please make screenshots with security, everything blurred out data. But don't do live demos. The reason we don't want live demos is because it wastes time, people connecting to their site. If we can't get the internet connection and so on. So if you want to share something from your site, then please make screenshots. Now, also bear in mind that you might be speaking in a very large room with people right at the back who are too vain to wear their spectacles. So don't use too many words. Don't have so many bullet points with small text. Just use a minimum number of words, large. And also if you're using screenshots, make sure to just magnify and zoom in on the specific area rather than just one screenshot of your front page of your website where everything is so small we can't see. Finally, most importantly, especially if you're in a session with me where I'm sharing, keep to time. We will have a timer as well as a chair for each session. And so they will be reminding you when your time is coming up. But it's not only very important, it's also very polite. Now, the pre-conference on the 18th of September, we are going to have what we call jams. And I'm going to talk about two of them. Then I'm going to pass over to Sarah, who is going to talk about the third, which is the dev jam. So there are three different activities that you can take part in. And they're actually included in the event price. So you are very welcome to register, but places are limited, as Jessica said. So you need to register quickly so that you're not disappointed and you miss out on the jam that you want to attend. So let's look at each of the activities. Now, learning designer jam, this is the first time we've ever done this. This is something run by the Moodle US team where learning designers will work in collaborative teams to create some courseware to share the best in modern learning design. And the theme is lifelong learning. So that might include micro learning, personalization, social learning, lifelong learning portfolios and analytics. And the goal in this jam is to build community, obviously, and to gather some best practices to share with learning designers around the world. And the examples will be shared and a winning team will be chosen with prizes. I don't know what they will be, but I'm sure there'll be exciting prizes for their work. And we're also having a UX Jam. This is going to be a very useful opportunity for you to meet with Moodle's UX team who will be running this jam. And this is going to be an interactive workshop to uncover some of the challenging workflows in Moodle and some of the user problems. It's also going to give you an insight into our internal discovery and design process, as we call them, and how you can get involved. And also the team will be recapping some recent projects which they have co-designed with members of the Moodle community. So I'm now going to pass over to Sara who's going to talk about the Dev Jam. Okay, based on the feedback that we got from the last year we organized a Dev Jam. This year we are organizing a whole day developer jam, so it's not just the afternoon, we are having a whole day and we are going to do a live coding day. So it's not about presenting, it's like bring your laptops and we will be coding the whole day. The idea is to bring your own ideas to projects. We will open in a forum so you can share these ideas and people will change your ideas or if you prefer to work by yourself, it's also okay. And we will also prepare a few issues from the tracker, bugs, improvements, so everybody can find the best way they can code during the whole day. It's like bringing their projects, ideas, or working on some of the issue trackers. We are also preparing a webinar to let you to help you to prepare your local environment so keep it stay time because you will hear about that in Moodle Academy soon. And the idea of this developer session is that you can come and program with us and raise your questions and proposals and share them with the community and with Moodle HQ. So yeah, you are more than welcome to come with us and code. Yeah. Over to you Sandra. Possibly the highlight of any Moodle mode is the legendary Moodle party. Last year we took over the oldest dance hall in Europe for an epic time travel theme, night of music, dancing, food and wild costumes that we will never forget. And of course this year we will be hosting yet another memorable dive. The Moodle party is included in the conference rights and it will include access to the party, a cocktail dinner and drinks. The Moodle party will be on Wednesday, the 20th of September, starting at 8 p.m. The location is the Otto Soetz Club. Otto Soetz is near the center of Barcelona and is easily accessible by public transport with direct connections from the Hotel Barthelosat. The space has three distinct areas to cater for all of the high energy, all of the chill out vibe and anything in between that you will be bringing on the night. And the theme for this year's party is the 1980s. So that's all your best outfit, costume or anything that reminds you of this amazing decade, such as the music, the outfits, the TV shows or whatever you can think of and come join us for a memorable night. As usual there will be a competition for the best costume at the party and the best one will be awarded a prize. So we can wait to see you all there. And of course, it wouldn't be a Moodle mood without taking a bit of time to get out and about and explore this amazing city. There are plenty of famous landmarks to explore and if you're planning to visit any of this, such as Sagrada Familia, San Pa Hospital or any of the amazing buildings from without E, we recommend you to book your tickets in advance, always from an official website to avoid disappointment and to avoid long queues and secure your entrance. But why not track down and chat with some of our Barcelona-based Moodle HQ staff while you're at the conference to get some local suggestions of things to see, restaurants and places to go and other interesting things you can do while you're in Barcelona. Come find me or any of my Moodle HQ colleagues from Barcelona during the conference and we will give you the best tips. And just before we wrap things up and turn to questions, there are plenty of ways to keep in contact and stay up to date with everything that is going on. You can follow us on Twitter at Mood Global. Keep an eye out for updates on the news section of our Moodle Mood.org website. You can also join the discussion on our Moodle Mood Global group chat on Element. You can also join our Moodle Mood Global course on Moodle Academy and keep an eye on your email inbox as we'll be sending updates from time to time for those who have registered for the event. And now it's time to answer any questions you have. You can type your questions in the chat or raise your hand and we'll send over to you so that you can ask your questions. And just to mention as well that a list of frequently asked questions can be found on the event website at MoodleMood.org slash thank yous. We have one now from Paulius. Does the speaker need to buy a ticket to the conference? Yes. Speakers do need to buy and register for their ticket. Guido has asked, I want to share a very good experience to use the train from Germany to Barcelona. This can save some CO2 emissions. Good point. A number of people are arriving by train and that's the great thing about the venue this year. It's not just from the airport, it's a direct train but also from other train stations in Barcelona. And we have a question from Mary as well. How long is it by train to the conference venue? Do you mean from the airport? Last time I came by taxi but I'd rather go by train if possible. So, it's direct. How long is it if it's from the airport? I'd rather go by train if possible. So, it's direct. How long is it if it's not very far? I would say it's around 40 minutes just to play, say something like that. Around that. It depends because there might be a direct one with no many stops but there might be another one with stops. So, it depends. But I would say 40 to 45 minutes. Max. Thank you. Oralee is saying it was quick. It's a direct train and she's also coming by train from the UK. So, there's another one saving some emissions on behalf of the rest of us coming all the way from Australia. And Paul has said, remember, don't take the I can't even pronounce that Sandra, maybe you can take over here. Sorry, let me have a quick look. It's more of an in-joke because I am taking the little yellow train over and I was recommended not to. Oh, okay. Whoops. Okay. Not relevant to everyone else. Never mind. Thanks, pal. Hello. And I don't know if other people saw it, but when Mary was presenting, one thing that I thought we could probably mention is when you're actually presenting at the mooch, sometimes people say, no, no, no, I don't need a microphone. My voice is loud enough. I can speak to the back of the room, but it's good to remember that we're recording the session. So, using your microphone is really important for the video recording but also it enables everyone in the room to hear. So, we may have people there who require to loop in to hearing loops. So, having you use the microphone and repeating any questions into the microphone and getting the audience to ask questions into the microphone is a really big accessibility consideration as well as being good for the video recording and everybody else to hear properly as well. So, if somebody asks a question and it's not into a mic, just remember as a presenter to repeat it, but we'll remind you of these things again in the speaker guidelines. So, did anyone else have any questions at all? Then you will announce hello, it's a polis again. Then you will announce the final program of the conference the abstracts, then they will be evaluated. That's a good point. We should actually add that to our key dates. So, it will be roughly one week after the acceptance of abstract proposals. So, let me just quickly check. Middle of June, something like that. Exactly, yeah. Something like that. Okay, thanks. Yeah, so the abstract proposals are coming in on the 16th of June or Friday and so you can expect the program to be out around then as well. So, yeah, and we'll add people to the program as they register. So, you'll see it slowly evolve from that date onwards. You're not mentioned in this presentation, but the Monday one is jam, flowers is a partner day, yes? Yes, that's right. Yeah, so it's also the global partners day on the same day as the jam. So, partners will be attending the global partners day on that Monday as well as other attendees at the jam day. And you register for the global partners day separately from the conference through the partner portal if there are partners here. But the invitation is not announced at the moment, I think. Probably not. No, we're not involved directly with that. But keep an eye on the portal and if you have any questions about that you can ask in the partner portal about when that might be announced. All right. If you do have other questions, you can get in contact with us through the Contact Us link on the website. But first of all, check out the Moodle Moodle FAQs. There's lots and lots of information on that page based on questions that were asked last year. So, your questions probably already been answered. And yeah, we're really looking forward to seeing you at the Moodle this year in Barcelona again. Yeah. And if you have any questions that you think might be helpful for other attendees as well, just feel free to contact us. And we might be updating the FAQ section with additional information as we get closer to the other day. Sorry to interrupt. I was just going to say we hoped that you will all consider submitting an abstract as well. We're really, really looking forward to seeing the great presentations, submissions that are coming through this year. We had such a hard time last year to squeeze them all in to the program. So, yeah, we look forward to seeing those. One more question if I can. Sure. If I have some questions, it's the first time we're planning to place our abstract to the Moodle Global Moodle. And if we have some additional questions, how we can reach you? Because in the slides, I don't find any mail or something like that where I can write. Or it is possible in general. Yes, yes. So on the website, if you go to MoodleMoodle.org and in the footer at the very bottom, there is a contact us link. And if you click on that link, it takes you to our form which comes into our ticketing system. So someone will answer you through there. Contact us. Okay, great. Excellent. Thank you. It's good to raise that again. We look forward to seeing your presentation submission come through. And I'll head back to Sandra now. Thank you. Thank you to everyone for joining us today and for this session. Don't forget to register for MoodleMoodle Global 2023 before the 15th of July to secure your early bar discount. And remember that if you would like to sign up here at the event, abstract submission closes the 2nd of June. So that's less than three weeks away. So we look forward to receiving your abstract submissions soon. And that's all. Goodbye for now. And we look forward to seeing you all in Barcelona in September.