A virtual Convention on Students’ Quality Circles

1.0 Introduction

Kingston University has been approved as the host of the 17^th International Convention on Students’ Quality Circles in June 2014. The 2014 convention forms part of an annual series of events taking place around the world. The conventions aid and promote the Students’ Quality Circle concept on a global scale, bringing together champions in the field, and inspiring attendees to go forward and implement the concept at their home education establishment.

2.1 Keynote Track

Keynote presentations are offered to large groups of around 200 people. These offer a great solution to conveying a lot of information to a large mass of people extremely effectively. This track is very much one-way communication: mostly the speaker conveying their message to the audience. There is little opportunity for question and answer sessions with groups of this size. Hence the technology chosen to immediate this track is unlikely to require the virtual attendees to interact extensively with the speaker. The ability of both virtual and physical attendees to comment and discuss the topics in real-time whilst the speaker is talking should not be ignored. This concept is explained in figure 1.

2.2 Workshop Track

Workshops include a range of further smaller discussions and practical exercises for attendees, making up the second track. Each session should contain no more than 70 people, finding the balance between physical and virtual attendees is a key area for further research. These sessions held in smaller rooms offer a chance for discussion and debate around specific subject areas. The virtual participants will very much be a part of these sessions and need to be included in the discussion and even present to the other virtual and physical attendees. See figure 2 for a detailed communication map.

2.3 Real-time updates

Provide a stream of real-time news and updates from the event, allowing attendees who cannot be a virtual participant to watch in real-time updates and offer their opinions on the subjects being discussed. For instance if people do not have adequate bandwidth to stream the live event, or are in situations such as work or travel which do not allow for their constant attention, but still want to know what is happening, will have the ability to do so.

2.4 Online Resource

We should offer a long lasting source of high quality resources and records. Not simply what keynote speakers have said but of the discussions which have taken place and leanings taken away and shared globally. Resources should be organised logically to allow easy access for use as reference in the future.

3.1 Keynote Track

This track involves a speaker or panel talking to a large group of attendees. The majority of communication is one way from the speakers to the audience with little amounts to correspondence between the two groups of people. Therefore the technology to be applied to this track will require the virtual attendees to watch what the speakers are saying, however participation in the sessions will not be required. This however does not mean the virtual and physical attendees should not be able to communicate and comment amongst each other during the keynotes.

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  Content streaming from Kingston Business School
  
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  Physical and virtual attendees able to discuss and comment.
  

The communication requirements are outlined in the diagram below:

Note: speakers may give physical attendees the opportunity to ask questions, however this is not represented in the diagram as it is not a major part of the track.