Minutes 27-Apr-17

[Geoff Sizer]

Attendees AB TK JB GS

1. Event planning for face-to-face meeting

EA are reluctant to approach Alan Finkel, as they wish to reserve him for bigger EA events.

It was agreed that Alex Zelinsky would be a suitable presenter – we will approach him through GS.  We need to secure him before setting the event date (was 16 May but this is likely to change).

ACTION: GS to action this coming weekend.

2. Review Webinar Program

Meeting scheduled for 9-May Renewable Energy Case study.  Arkady to host; AB is available as backup; GS can be wingman.

Following meeting 23-May.  Nothing locked in so we may need to take proactive action to secure a speaker.

GS will review the forward program and aim to make suggestions on possible speakers.

Possibility of Tzukuri to present a case study for an IoT Startup.  It would be best to hold off on this as 9-May will be a case study.   Maybe a face-to-face panel session with several startups presenting then engaging in a panel discussion.  Perhaps presenters in several cities?

Numbers attending webinars indicate that the audience are after technically oriented “how to” topics and core engineering case studies. 

A presentation on security threats – viruses, worms etc – may be of interest.  Maybe someone from an antivirus supplier, to present on emerging threats.  Dr Jan Newmarch – Adjunct Professor Uni of Canberra

ACTION: AB to follow up for ASAP

For a date a couple on moths in the future – undergraduates event leveraging EA’s database.

ACTION: re  Claude Dulik piip.org.au – Arkady to put him in touch with Tim

3. Outstanding action items from previous meetings

Facebook Live event hosted through EA channels – Christopher Davis – EA Social Media manager will host.  We need to put together a speaker or a panel.  Boyd Murray, Simon Blythe, Andrew Foster-Knight, Catherine Caruna-McMannus, Frank Zeichner.  Maybe GS to host.  TK to schedule & organize the event and we will work around it.

Community membership consistency creeping up at around 10 members/month.  This is a healthy trend, and is likely a result of EA’s marketing reach.  Webinars are an easy way of accruing CPD.

Uncaptioned from last meeting:

ACTION: GS to dredged up names of heads of Govt depts, ministers etc involved – also who’s who in IoTAA

ACTION:  GS to proactively engage with prospective volunteers to participate as core members, with a view to getting the community to a point where it becomes self-sustaining

TK will be able to spend less time on the community in the future, so greater responsibility will divest to community members.  In particular securing speakers on a regular basis, in advance to allow proper scheduling; and new event types, particularly face-to-face.

4. Other business

“Edit Status” and “Editor” columns added to Webinar program spreadsheet.  TK is working to get Webinar transcriptions on the Web site and building the Wiki.  TK is uncertain as to whether this process is sustainable, due to the work required to do the editing and deconstructing into the Wiki.  Volunteers can contribute to editing for technical accuracy, but it is too big a burden doing the conversion from spoken to third party.  TK to forward a first-pass edited webinar to GS to assess feasibility of volunteer input for technical editing.

Continuity of resources within EA remains a challenge. 

EA moving to an enterprise platform for Webinars, and also a social media platform for community. 

ITEE IoT event hosted in Melb EA facility in evening of  Mon 8-May - AB unsure as to the cause of lack of communications with our community.  AB to approach to see if we can present the event as a webinar through the community.