Program 2021 Bulletin #4 (corrected)
The contents of "WWC 2021 Itinerary.pdf" was cut off in the original email. This has been corrected.
Welcome to those who have joined the WWC Presenter mailing list. When Words Collide is a unique type of festival where everyone–organizers and presenters–volunteer their time and efforts to bring readers and writers together in a celebratory weekend. Without you, there would be no festival.
Pandemic Impact on Our 2021 Festival
The following announcement is in the process of being distributed.
IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT WWC 2021
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the August 13 to 15, 2021 festival will be held online. Our virtual festival (WWC Online 2021) will be offered free of charge, but will require registration through Eventbrite.com. All paid 2021 festival passes and banquet tickets have been rolled forward to 2022.
August is now 6 months away. With no clear end in sight for the pandemic, and vaccine rollout to the general public scheduled to begin in Alberta in the fall, the organizers feel the chances of an in-person festival in August have fallen to zero. In response, we have begun transitioning festival planning to a 100% online event. Like WWC Online 2020, the festival will be free of charge. However, for a number of reasons, we will be offering it as a free Eventbrite Online event. Attendees will be required to register for the festival through Eventbrite in order to access the live content.
While the organizers would prefer an in-person festival, and are optimistic that such will be the case in 2022, a virtual festival in 2021 is the next best thing. WWC Online 2021 will be our official 10th anniversary festival. It will be big, fabulous, and exciting. Our festival guests--Cathy Ace, Vicki Delany, Steena Holmes, Fonda Lee, Dave Reynolds, and Morgan Rhodes--have agreed to join us online. We will also be holding online Master Classes before and after the festival. Stay tuned for the first draft of our 2021 Program and Master Class information. Eventbrite registration will open in the near future.
For those who registered for the 2021 in-person festival, we have rolled your weekend passes and banquet tickets forward to 2022. These are confirmed for you. We realize, however, that the pandemic has also brought financial hardship to many. If you require a refund, please contact us via email citing your name, the type of pass purchased, and the approximate time frame of the purchase, and we will see what we can do. If you can forward us your PayPal receipt, that would be especially helpful.
This, of course, is hard news for our hotel. If we are able to hold a smaller in-person event at some point this year, we will work with them to see what can be done.
If you have booked a hotel room, you will need to cancel it. If you have booked air travel, check your cancellation policy with your airline.
Interested presenters who were not planning to come to Calgary and therefore opted out of the 2021 program, you are welcome to join our 2021 online festival. Just reply to this email with the information requested below.
On-Line Presentations
Last August, we tested the waters and held an online festival with a program about 1/2 the size of our regular in-person festival. We are now better prepared to proceed with a much larger virtual festival. Here is our plan so far.
1. WWC Online 2021 will be free to attend.
2. We will require one-time registration through Eventbrite to reduce the risk of ZOOM bombers.
3. The festival will purchase 10 ZOOM Business licenses to form the core of the festival, allowing audience sizes up to 300/session. Some presenters may wish to use their own licenses for some of their sessions.
4. Select sessions will be linked to the WWC YouTube channel and recorded for future viewing.
5. Sessions will run during our regular in-person festival hours Calgary time (MDT).
6. Presenters will join sessions coordinated by ZOOM hosts using free ZOOM clients (or equivalent for hosts using other software.)
7. Sessions will be held in webinar format (to reduce risk of interruptions) unless meeting format is a requirement.
2021 Festival Schedule Documents as of February 10, 2021
As we are no longer restricted by hotel meeting room constraints, we will be revising our previous draft schedule to better ensure variety each hour. To help with that, we are at this time seeking presenter preferences for panel discussions. We are asking all presenters to reply to this email with the following information:
I have been schedule for the 2021 program, but am unable to present online this August 2021.
or
1. I am willing and able to present online in August 2021 at these times of day (MTD):
Friday 1 pm - 11 pm.
Saturday 10 am - 11 pm.
Sunday 10 am - 5 pm.
* please revise the above to reflect your availability. i.e. if you are unavailable after 10 pm EDT, change 11 pm to 8 pm. For time zone help: https://www.thetimezoneconverter.com/
2. Please remove/change the following sessions I am currently scheduled for:
3. I require to be hosted on a WWC purchased ZOOM license. (default)
or
3. I will use my own ZOOM (or equivalent) license for my solo presentations.
4. Here are my top 5 preferences in order for sitting on panel discussions. (Please cut & paste titles from the Descriptions pdf.):
*This is a 1st pass at selecting and filling panels to be included in the schedule. We will require additional presenters later on for panels that are included but not filled.
5. Please add the following presentations, panel discussion topics, events (including Blue pencil, pitch sessions):
6. My following solo presentation(s)/event(s) should be meeting format instead of webinar:
Please review the PDFs below to confirm your scheduled content. Note that Itinerary entries in blue will be scheduled whereas those in black are still pending. After receiving your feedback, we will reformat and reschedule to align with your availability and discussion topic preferences. There is still room for presentations/workshops for new presenters. (If we have missed including information you have previously sent, please let us know. This has been a very confusing year and no doubt things were missed.)
On the week of February 22 we will compile your responses and create an initial online schedule from which to build upon.
Click here to view
WWC 2021 Itinerary.pdf (corrected)
Click here to view
WWC 2021 Program Descriptions.pdf
Please send us your status and preferences by responding to this email or emailing:
info@whenwordscollide.org
Housekeeping
If you no longer wish to receive these bulletins you may unsubscribe from the programming email list by clicking the link near the bottom of this email. (If you are already scheduled in the program, please let us know that you are no longer available.) You may also re-subscribe at any time or sign up with a different email address by clicking the following link and clicking on "Presenters: Find all Programming Bulletins here":
www.whenwordscollide.org/prescall.php
If you feel you are not receiving these emails (i.e. your provider blocks them as SPAM), you may access them any time via the above link.
Thank you for supporting When Words Collide by participating in our program.
Randy McCharles
2021 Festival Program Director
www.whenwordscollide.org
info@whenwordscollide.org
