Overview

 

Problem

There are two ongoing challenges in the EPIC community.
One, the EPIC membership was tied to the annual conference attendance. All in-person attendance requires an annual EPIC membership fee of USD 150. This was how the organisation funded itself. This means that operations are highly contingent and limited to funds raised from conference attendees.
Second, outside of this one event, there were minimal community-building activities that came with other perks of the membership such as the resource library, recordings, and paid events. The Learning and Networking Event after the COVID-19 disruption was EPIC’s first opportunity to launch the new board members’ plan to keep connections and build relationships throughout the year. How do we build value for members outside of the conference?
  • What type of activities and sessions do members want?
  • How can this become a gateway event throughout the year?
  • How could they improve the next Learning and Network Event?

Event Summary

What started out as a simple open session event blossomed into a rather full schedule of week-long sessions. There were lighthearted sessions that focused on the personal and the rest are targeted to cater to the job-hunting and skill-updating needs of the community. It is in the latter that I chose to contribute. I co-organised two special interest groups: Theory as Method (integrating theory in your practice) and Social Science and Management Consulting as well as facilitated two reading groups: Dawn Nafus’ Ethnography in a Data Saturated World and Sam Ladner’s Mixed Methods. I also supported the Town Hall and other group discussions for a total of 7 events.

What We Learned

  • There are roughly two types of EPIC members with different needs:
    • Long-time EPIC members - who want to maintain personal connections with their old friends
    • New members who have targeted needs - job hunting, career networking, running a freelance business
  • Zoom sessions should mix senior members with new members and rotate them out
  • There were fewer attendees on the EU side; there is more demand from the Indian and Asia Pacific time zones. EU timezone events would benefit from crossing over with other time zones to achieve greater attendees.
  • Those with targeted needs prefer to focus less on personal connection at the outset and would rather begin with pragmatic needs. The personal connection grows from consistent meetings.

Timeline

  • April-September 2023. Five months at 3 hours a week or less
  • Erin B. Taylor and I were able to quickly get things done two months prior to the start of the conference

Role and Responsibilities

💡
This was a partnership between Erin B. Taylor and myself as a result of our previous collaboration on Ethnoborrel, a Dutch-based meetup group for ethnographers in industry.
Though I supported most of the sessions, I was primarily responsible for four sessions.
  • Contacted all session speakers and planned the session format
  • Facilitated all the remote sessions including post-session analysis

Deliverables and Project Artefacts

💡
We created a longer-term online resource for participants in the Theory as Method Group because they explicitly expressed their need to continue as a group
For participants
  • Together with my session co-chair, Rebecca Tillery, we concluded that the participants needed support and help in building their personal research practice using discussion and Zoom chats:
    • Updating their personal knowledge management to keep up with science: note-taking, literature review, and the use of AI tools and prompts
    • Community-level regular engagement
Internal
  • I wanted to do a post-event analysis but after the EPIC October 22, 2023, in-person conference with the principal organisers.
 
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