What?

A Twitter conference is a virtual conference that takes place on Twitter.

How?

You may join either as a presenter or as a participant. A presenter gives a talk via a series of tweets.

When?

Conference will happen on 20th April 2017.
Abstract submission closes on 31st March 2017.

Help

See the rules and guidelines of #brainTC, and some helpful tips on presenting.

The first ever Brain Research Twitter Conference #brainTC took place on the 20th April, 2017, with the theme “Neuroscience making an impact”. Our keynote tweeters were @Neuro_Skeptic, the Human Brain Project @HumanBrainProj, Uta Frith @utafrith, and Riitta Hari @aivoAALTO. You can view the full program and read the abstracts here! All conference presentations can be found in this Storify

Theme: Neuroscience making an impact

The goal of research is to understand the world and to use that understanding for a positive impact on our lives. Neuroscience still struggles to bridge advances on the molecular and cellular level with system-level neuroscience in a way that would explain how the mind works. Yet, much of the neuroscience research has direct clinical relevance. We hope that #brainTC will be able to highlight novel research that makes, or has the potential to make, an impact both in terms of applications and the core understanding of the brain. We call for submission of abstracts of brain research where neuroscience is making an impact.

What is a Twitter conference?

A Twitter conference is a virtual conference that takes place on Twitter under the hashtag #brainTC. Just like a regular conference, #brainTC will feature both keynotes and research presentations, but the talks will be delivered via a series of tweets under the conference hashtag. The conference removes the hassle of travel by allowing scientists to meet and interact using Twitter.

What if I don’t have a Twitter account?

Don’t worry, it’s easy to make one and get started with Twitter. Here are some links with useful tips.

Getting started with Twitter

 Getting started with TweetDeck

How do I join?  

Brain Twitter Conference will be back….  

Important dates

1.3.2017 Registration and abstract submission open

31.3.2017 Abstract submission closes (00:00 CET)

3.4.2017 ABSTRACT SUBMISSION EXTENDED!

13.4.2017 Program with presenter-specific time slots is announced

20.4.2017 Registration closes (however, you can follow presentations even without registering)

20.4.2017 Twitter conference

Rules & guidelines

  • Organisers will allocate accepted proposals into a programme, and give each presentation a 15-minute time slot.
  • Each presentation consists of no more than 6 tweets. Each tweet should have the official hashtag #brainTC, and be numbered (see example presentation below).
  • Tweets can contain pictures and even links to sources or papers, but the presentation should be understandable by reading just the tweets.
  • The audience can comment and ask questions from the presenter using the official hashtag. The main discussion should happen before the next presentation begins. However, discussions may continue even after the conference.
  • After the conference, the presentations (just the six numbered tweets) will be collected into a proceedings (Storify), along with author and title information.

Example presentation

See the Help page for an example presentation.

Tips

  • Use TweetDeck etc. so that you can follow multiple streams simultaneously. As a presenter, you might want to make a column for notifications and another for the conference hashtag.
  • You should draft the six tweets of your presentation beforehand, so they are ready to be sent when your slot opens (they meet the Twitter character limit, images have uploaded etc.)
  • You can pace your six tweets of your presentation to be slightly apart, to give people time to read and understand them, rather than sending them all at once in the beginning.
  • The presenter “chairs” the discussion during their time slot, by choosing which comments and questions they answer.
  • Just like at regular conferences, be prepared for asking and answering questions. If your presentation is about a study that has been published elsewhere, it is a good idea to include a link to the publication in the presentation (a link in a tweet takes up only 23 characters).

Organizers@brainTC

Enrico Glerean, twitter: @eglerean

Tommi Himberg, twitter: @tijh

Annika Hultén, twitter: @AnnikaHulten

Juulia Suvilehto, twitter: @JSuvilehto

Koos Zevenhoven, twitter: @k7hoven

All organizers are affiliated with the Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering @AaltoUniversity, Finland. #brainTC is sponsored by Aalto Brain Center@abc_aalto. For further information or help, please contact us at info _at_ brain.tc .