Summary
In this session, the co-curator welcomed attendees to Day Two of Design Ops Summit 2024, curated by Francis Ilana. The event spans three days, focusing on resilience, impact, and innovation, curated respectively by the host, Francis Ilana, and John Kuda. The host detailed practical guidance on accessing the program on Rosenfeld Media's website, explained the time zone settings, and introduced high-quality, no-sales-pitch sponsor sessions offered by companies like Fable, Great Question, and Vox Pop Me. Attendees were encouraged to engage actively in the Slack channels, particularly to post questions within specific talk threads to avoid them getting missed. The session also emphasized the role of David Nicholson, the house scribe, noting his unique background and contributions. The host strongly urged all participants to adhere to the conference's code of conduct, ensuring a respectful and inclusive community experience and highlighted available support channels for technical issues and concerns.
Key Insights
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Design Ops Summit 2024 is a multi-day virtual event focusing on resilience, impact, and innovation.
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Sponsor sessions are high-quality, optional, free, and offer alternate access to the conference content without sales pitches.
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Active participation in topic-specific Slack threads is essential for effective interaction and to ensure questions are addressed.
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David Nicholson serves as the house scribe, bringing a combined background of UX design and business analysis to the conference.
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The conference program and sponsor sessions avoid schedule overlap, enabling attendees to attend all sessions if desired.
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The conference prioritizes creating an inclusive, respectful virtual community and enforces a strict code of conduct.
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Technical support and sponsor contacts are easily accessible through designated Slack channels.
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Virtual swag bags provide attendees with digital offers and resources as an alternative to physical gifts.
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Session recordings, notes, and resources will be available shortly after talks to help attendees stay in the moment during sessions.
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The daily themes among co-curators help structure discussions and content: resilience by the host, impact by Francis Ilana, and innovation by John Kuda.
Notable Quotes
"We are going to have a very cherry day. You get it? Because I’m wearing cherry earrings."
"Sponsor sessions are optional but incredibly high quality content, not sales pitches."
"Please put your questions inside of the thread associated with the talk."
"David Nicholson is our house scribe, a senior UX designer with a passion for enterprise-scale products."
"Even though we are virtual, we are still a community and we are obligated to treat each other with dignity and respect."
"Sometimes resources are available as soon as an hour or 30 minutes after the talk, like the team is working miracles."
"If you ever need help, you can reach us at help-customer-service for technical issues and customer support."
"Our sponsors make this conference and programming possible, so thank you all so, so much."
"You should absolutely participate in Slack—if you're missing that, you're missing a key part of our conference."
"We want you to feel included and be able to take advantage of the awesome content and speaker efforts."
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