[Stoves] [ethos] ETHOS conference

[psanders at ilstu.edu]

Laurie and all with ETHOS interests,

Those of us who have attended several years know that a printed program is
usually provided at the start of the conference.  ETHOS works on a volunteer
basis and we all owe much to Mark and his helpers for putting it 
together. They are very busy people, especially this year.

But with the call for papers extended to 10 Jan and with the conference 
starting
about 2 weeks later, do not expect much feedback about acceptance of your
abstract.

In general, those who feel they have something to say do get a chance 
to say it.
So you can prepare your powerpoint presentation.  But preparing a "poster
presentation" will also get you some display space in the corridor with the
other displays.

As I implied in my previous comments, unfortunately the PREPARATIONS of the
presentations tend to be extensive and the presenters could use additional
time.  Instead, let the big presentation go to the CD that gets produced, and
have a "highlights only" presentation to deliver.

Unfortunately, many who will be presenting actually either do not read these
suggestions for briefness or, as you wrote, they believe the audience is more
interested in their topic than in others presentations.  So they will request
20 or 30 minutes, and run over, and we end up with a schedule that is an hour
or more behind schedule.

Mark does a great job directing the event, but he and some of the session
moderators have not been ruthless enough in control of the clock!!!!  It is an
unpopular task to shut down some well-meaning presenter (especially the
recognized important ones) who goes beyond the time allocation.  And once one
person has been allowed extra time, it is even harder to deny others those few
extra minutes that become 5 or 10.  And what gets lost eventually is the time
for good discussions.

So it is at many conferences.  So, Laurie, prepare as best you can.  We are so
glad that you will be there!!!

Paul


Quoting Laurie Childers <childers at peak.org>:

> These are some good suggestions, Paul.   I have not been able to 
> attend ETHOS in recent years, but, like with most conferences, I was 
> less interested in some of the relatively time-consuming whole-group 
> talks and more interested in some of the shorter presentations by 
> less visible people.  It is difficult if not impossible to allocate 
> time according to how interested people will be, because humans do 
> not come equipped with that much foresight, nor that little emotional 
> investment in our own story.
>
> The idea of posters is excellent, especially if we are allocated time 
> to peruse them, and can give a very short presentation to the whole 
> group.   I would be willing to prepare a poster of (some of) the 
> images I want to share of what Max Kinyanjui is doing in Kenya these 
> days - but I will need lots of notice - such as, very very soon, 
> please.   As it is, I have not heard if my proposal for a slide show 
> was accepted.  The conference is 2 1/2 weeks away.
>
> What is the expected timeline for notification and release of the 
> conference schedule?   Also, could we have confirmation that all 
> events happen at the hotel, or is travel to another site necessary?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Laurie
>
> Laurie Childers
> 2675 SW Fairmont Dr.
> Corvallis, OR, 97333
> 541-757-9025
> childers at peak.org
> www.lauriechilders.com
>
>
> On Jan 8, 2007, at 7:47 AM, Paul S. Anderson wrote:
>
>> Mark and all,
>>
>> About the ETHOS meeting, some questions and comments about posters,
>> presentations, discussion time, and the lighting of the stoves:  Yes, the
>> message is a bit long, but for those considering attending ETHOS 2007, the
>> topics are important for having an even better conference.
>>
>> 1.  About "poster" presentations.  We always have our "display" of stoves on
>> tables in the corridor, and there have been some displays with poster-type
>> materials.  Is that what you refer to as "poster"?  Or, will there 
>> actually be
>> a time when those with posters can actually address the plenary 
>> group to give a
>> short (very short) introduction.  If we are going to conserve some of the
>> preciously needed time for the presentations of "papers" by having 
>> some items
>> moved into "poster" format, we need to give adequate chance for the poster
>> messages to reach the audience.
>> ----- Examples:
>> A.  I (Paul Anderson) will have an item about the steel ("tincan") 
>> version of an
>> alcohol burner and stove structure.  I have only requested 5 minutes 
>> (to be at
>> the end of the Project GAIA presentation on alcohol stove 
>> activities).  I would
>> be quite happy with being called a "poster" (with display in the 
>> exhibit area)
>> IF I can get my couple of minutes of "oral introduction of poster" at the
>> appropriate time in the plenary session.
>> B.  I also know that Dale Andreatta has a printed paper to distribute and to
>> "introduce" to the plenary session.  Dale typically only speaks 
>> about 5 minutes
>> and presents a report with lots of data worthy of detailed reading 
>> by everyone
>> interested in his topic of that year.  This year it is about QUANTITATIVE
>> experiments with a natural draft TLUD.  I do not know if this would 
>> be "like a
>> poster", but (if Dale agrees) it might be introduced by Dale in conjunction
>> with my presentation updating about all the TLUD gasifier activities 
>> around the
>> world.
>> -----------So, to Mark and all, even on such short notice as for 
>> THIS year, I
>> hope that others will be encouraged to SHORTEN their prepared remarks and to
>> LENGTHEN their exposure time with a poster-style presentation, to 
>> include (if
>> Mark says yes) a 2 to 5 minute time in the plenary sessions to make
>> introductory comments.     (If you need someone to help accomplish this, I
>> volunteer as both an example and as a coordinator before and during the
>> conference.)
>>
>> 2.  The presentations about what is being done in various countries 
>> are quite
>> interesting, but seem to gobble up so much of the time.  There is TOO much
>> content about the country-applications to be able to ever get it 
>> into 15 or 20
>> minutes.  They could use 45 minutes and could keep on talking as long an one
>> person is interested.
>> ------My suggestion is that those descriptive presentations be 
>> SHORTENED to the
>> highlights (in 10 minutes MAXIMUM, with no questions) so that several can be
>> presented quickly, and then there could be a time block of 
>> CONCURRENT sessions
>> where the more lengthy presentations could be made.  Sorry that people would
>> need to choose which one to attend, but each presenter would get to 
>> address the
>> whole audience for a few minutes and we would save some time for the 
>> much needed
>> discussions of additional topics (see below).  ALSO, many of those
>> "country-stove-profile-activities" reports exist (or should exist) 
>> in written
>> form and/or on the Internet with great color pictures, which can be loudly
>> announced in the few oral moments.
>>
>> 3.  The ETHOS meeting needs some "organized discussion time(s)."  A 
>> discussion
>> time could have a single topic (the BIG topics for everyone like setting
>> standards of testing), or could have several concurrent topics of SMALLER
>> topics that have relatively fewer participants in each group, like retained
>> heat cooking, or institutional stoves, or some fuel types, etc.  I 
>> and others
>> might be interested in several of those concurrent discussions, but at least
>> there would be some time for such discussions.  In past years there 
>> has been no
>> time allocated for topical discussions.  (But one year an excellent extra
>> session was squeezed in on Sunday morning (was it 7:30 to 8:30 AM?) about
>> retained heat cooking.)
>> ----------Suggestion:  Have the Sunday plenary sessions this year start 30
>> minutes later, but have "topical discussions" start a full hour before the
>> plenary session.  We will define on Saturday what topics have enough 
>> people who
>> will show up early for each proposed topical discussion.
>>
>> 4.  Please have the "lighting of the stoves" on Saturday afternoon.  
>> You know we
>> always start too late on Sunday afternoon, and we never have any 
>> time to discuss
>> afterwards the ignited stoves we have seen tried (with successes and
>> non-successes).  FUNCTIONAL STOVES IS OR SHOULD BE WHAT ETHOS IS ALL 
>> ABOUT!!!! See them function.
>> --------For example, I am shipping to Seattle one "Chip Energy 
>> Biomass Grill"
>> that uses the latest "micro-gasifier" updraft technology and is continouusly
>> feed fuel (not batch-operation like the TLUDs).  With my partner 
>> Paul Wever, I
>> cook on this stove.  We made grilled chicken and boiled potatoes for 
>> Tami Bond
>> and Chris R. last week in 40 degree F windy weather.  Also, Don O'Neal saw a
>> less-sophisticated version at the SIFAT conference where Paul W. 
>> also did some
>> cooking.  It works, and I would like sufficient time to show it.  
>> So, lighting
>> at 3 PM (sure, set for 3 PM, but really starting at almost 4 PM  :-) ), this
>> will give a great fire well into the dinner hour and can still be 
>> going when we
>> start the Saturday evening session at about 7 PM.  (Maybe I will 
>> cook some food,
>> but I do not want to compete with the cafeteria nor do I want to try 
>> to feed an
>> institutional-size 100 participants on a stove designed for 
>> single-family use.)
>> Furthermore, because it is a real stove with a plancha top and does 
>> get hot, it
>> needs to cool down before I can pack it away, and there is extremely 
>> little time
>> on the Sunday late afternoon to do that task.  So, PLEASE have the 
>> lighting of
>> the stoves on Saturday late-afternoon.
>> -----------------By the way, to save my shipping fee to get the 
>> Biomass Grill
>> back to Illinois, I will be selling this gasifier if someone wants to buy it
>> for $250.  Yes, this is an item appropriate for a North American market, but
>> options to manufacture an "appropriate" unit with this technology in 
>> developing
>> countries for much less cost will be part of my presentation.   If 
>> you are going
>> to reply to me about THIS topic, please write directly to me at 
>> psanders at ilstu.edu      and do NOT use the listservs of ETHOS or 
>> STOVES.
>>
>> CONCLUSION:   If you read this far and either support or object to 
>> any of the 4
>> suggestions, please make your opinions known.
>>
>> Paul
>> -- 
>> Paul S. Anderson, Ph.D., Geography professor - Emeritus
>> Telephone:  USA-309-452-7072 (residence and office)
>> Internet site:  www.ilstu.edu/~psanders
>> For my gasifier stoves info, go to:
>> http://bioenergylists.org/contributors#Paul_Anderson
>>
>>
>> Quoting Mark Bryden <kmbryden at iastate.edu>:
>>
>>> Hi everyone,
>>>
>>> Last call to get your papers, lecturers, workshops, poster, or any  
>>> other type of presentation - on the agenda for the ETHOS 
>>> conference.  I need your proposal/abstract no later than January 
>>> 10. If you have  any questions please call (515-294-3891) or email 
>>> me.
>>>
>>> Once again the conference will be held in Seatlle, WA, USA on 
>>> January  26-28. The fun and sharing will start on Friday evening at 
>>> 5 pm with  food and friends and end Sunday afternoon at 4 pm.
>>>
>>> For more information go to the web page
>>> http://www.vrac.iastate.edu/ethos/conference.php
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> Mark
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
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