1 Derby Small Business Conference 2021 Participant guide This document provides guidelines for joining the conference and navigating between different sessions T he conference is scheduled to start at 13:00 ( British Summer Time ) however we recommend you begin to arrive from 12:50 BST to ensure you are all set up and ready to go on time. If you are joining from outside the England, u se the following link for Time Zone Converter to find your local time of the conference. https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=Derby+Small+Business +Conference&iso=20210628T13&p1=1325&ah=4 We would be grateful if you could take a few minutes to note the following tips and rules of engagement for the day. Guide to join the Conference: The conference will be hosted using a Virtual Notice Board and a separate Virtual Meeting Room for each session. First, you will go to Virtual Notice Board of the conference by clicking on following link : Derby Small Business Conference 2021 - Virtual Notice Board Virtual No tice Board provides a timeline of sessions and links to help you quickly and seamlessly enter into virtual meeting rooms, where session s are taking place. Please watch a short video which provides an overview of using the Virtual Notice Board by clicking the following link https://derby.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=d9fc03f9 - d311 - 47c3 - 87fc - ad4f00e2f40a When you are on the Virtual Notice Board: • Joining Session: Go onto individual session that you intend to join and follow the instructions that states ‘Click Here’. It will then take you to the virtual meeting room for the session. 2 • Session Feedback : After attending each session, you can return to the Virtual Notice Board and provide live feedback using rating stars from 1 - 5 available below each session like following picture. • Coffee Breaks and A ctivities: There will also be two quick tasks that you can perform during coffee breaks. • Session Posters : You can click on any attached poster to each session to find details abou t the session’s topic and speakers’ information. Guide to join Sessions : Please first watch this short video which provides an overview of joining a Virtual Meeting Room (also called Blackboard Collaborate) session. https://youtu.be/1W4sGpVmJaY When you click on any session to join it : 1. You will be asked to enter your name when you first join the session, please include your first name and second name, then a comma and the name of your institution. For example: Bill Gates, Microsoft. 3 2. It will ask to test your audio and video setup. You must complete audio and video set up at least once before you can use them. 3. Once you have joined the session, you can click on red arro ws in the lower - right corner to open chat. From there, click on the chat icon and after that click on everyone to enter chat space. You can send messages to interact with speakers and other attendees here. 4. Once you have joined the session, the following audio and video controls appear at the bottom of the Collaborate window. You will need to interact with this throughout the day. Please take a moment to become familiar with it. o My Status and Settings : This is the first icon. Please use this function to mark agreement or disagreement with questions asked to the group (for example when asked ‘Can you all hear me?’). This helps to ensure the Chat function remains clear for specific activities. You can also use this to mark if you pop away f rom your computer. 4 o Microphone Mute/Unmute : The second icon represents your microphone. Please keep this muted when not speaking. This helps make the audio clearer and reduces background noise for you and other participants. o Video Mute/Unmute : To improve th e experience for all, please also keep you video feed muted unless you are speaking to the group or are instructed to do otherwise. o Raise your hand : Where participants are invited to ask open questions, please use the Raise Your Hand tool. The Chair will t hen advise when you can then unmute your microphone and video to ask a question. Please do not speak without first Raising Your Hand and being prompted to continue. 5. You can leave the session any time after joining it by clicking the three lines in upper - l eft corner. It will open ‘session menu’ and to leave you can click at the end ‘Leave Session’. Then you can go to Virtual Notice Board and join any other session. Here are some additional tips for getting set up and ready for the day • Close other programs: Close all programs and streaming services on your computer except for the browser you are using for your Collaborate session. • Your online experience: You can check the strength of your connection using the indicator next to your name in the Attendee panel – full means you have a good connection, red and empty means you do not. Connectivity issues are likely to be local to you. I t may be helpful to leave and rejoin if you do not have good connectivity. • Use a hard - wired (Ethernet) connection: If available. If not available, use • a Wifi connection. If using Wifi, try to be as close to the router as possible. If not, try tethering to a mobile phone connection or using your mobile phone to join. • Use a supported browser: Collaborate only supports the most recent two stable channel releases of browsers: 5 Browser Desktop Mobile ChromeTM Windows®, macOS, Ubuntu AndroidTM Firefox® Windows, macOS Not supported Safari® macOS 10.13+ iOS® 12+, iPadOS Microsoft Edge® Windows, macOS Android, iOS For general familiarization with Blackboard Collaborate Ultra, we recommend you spend a few minutes, in advance of the day, viewing the following support resources: https://help.blackboard.com/Collaborate/Ultra/Participant/Participate_in_Sessions If you want to read about speakers’ profiles and conference, you can use the following link: https://www.derby.ac.uk/events/latest - events/derby - small - business - conference - 2021/ As always, please do not hesitate to contact Dr Salman Ahmad at S.ahmad2@derby.ac.uk or Jacqui George at j.george@derby.ac.uk for any help or further information you may need. Thank you for your time. We hope that you enjoy this virtual conference.