StanConnect 2021: Call for Session Proposals

Back in February it was decided that this year’s StanCon would be a series of virtual mini-symposia with different organizers instead of a single all-day event. Today the Stan Governing Body (SGB) announced that submissions are now open for anyone to propose organizing a session. Here’s the announcement from the SGB on the Stan forums: 

Following up on our previous announcement, the SGB is excited to announce a formal call for proposals for StanConnect 2021.

StanConnect is a virtual miniseries that will consist of several 3-hour meetings/mini-symposia. You can think of each meeting as a kind of organized conference “session.”

  • Anyone can feel free to organize a StanConnect meeting as a “Session Chair”. Simply download the proposal form as a docx, fill it out, and submit to SGB via email ([email protected]) by April 26, 2021 (New York) . The meeting must be scheduled for sometime this year after June 1.
  • The talks must involve Stan and be focused around a subject/topic theme. E.g. “Spatial models in Ecology via Stan”.
  • You will see that though we provide a few “templates” for how to structure a StanConnect meeting, we are trying to avoid being overly prescriptive. Rather, we are giving Session Chairs freedom to invite speakers related to their theme and structure the 3-hr meeting as they see fit.
  • If you have any questions, please feel free to post here.

I wasn’t involved in the decision to change the format but I really like the idea of a virtual miniseries. I thought the full day StanCon 2020 was great, but one nearly 24-hour global virtual conference feels like enough. And hopefully having a bunch of separately organized events will give more people a chance to get involved with Stan, either as an organizer, speaker, or attendee. 

3 thoughts on “StanConnect 2021: Call for Session Proposals

  1. So is there work using Stan on the Chemistry / Chemical Engineering side of things?

    I would love it if someone hosted a session in that neck of the woods.

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