Summer RosettaCon 2024 Report

August 30, 2024

During the week of August 4 to August 8, 2024, The Rosetta Community, 302 in-person and 96 virtual attendees met, marking a transformative year for the conference. We are beyond grateful for you showing up every morning until late at night and making it what it was. Whether it was the hurdles of navigating through the new picturesque Suncadia Resort as a new venue after 20 whole years or understanding the struggles of using and streaming on the event app, you made it happen. In fact, 74% of participants preferred to stay at Suncadia rather than return to the old venue. We’re excited to embark on this new chapter of Summer RosettaCon with you! Here’s how the event was perceived in-depth: 

Attendance and Registration

The event had 398 participants, 302 attending in person and 96 virtually. The in-person attendees were predominantly from academia, with 83.4% representing this sector, 14.9% being industry professionals, and a small percentage (1.7%) being categorized as “Other.” The distribution among the virtual attendees was similar, with 79.2% from academia and 18.8% from industry. Here are the exact numbers to put it into perspective: 

  • Graduate Students: 139
  • Staff: 90
  • Postdoc: 59
  • PIs: 53
  • Undergraduate: 34
  • Other: 17
  • Postbacc: 6

Key Feedback and Suggestions

Venue and Accommodations: If you’ve been to a RosettaCon before, you know how big of a change this year was. The new venue, Suncadia, did receive mixed reviews, and rightfully so. Nobody likes change, but as the results were in, it seemed like a much-needed change. Attendees appreciated the beautiful surroundings and the overall quality of the facilities, with one participant stating, “The venue is amazing, please don’t change it!” However, the spread-out nature of the accommodations was a common point of criticism. Some attendees had to walk over 45 minutes between locations, which hindered spontaneous interactions and made it difficult to navigate between sessions. There were also concerns about the unequal quality of accommodations –  and as you suggested, we will have more standardized accommodations to ensure fairness​.

Food: Significant improvements were recommended in food quality and availability—duly and highly noted. Per the survey we conducted post-event, suggestions included increasing the volume of food, providing more vegetarian options, and improving the overall organization of meal service. We recognize that many participants felt the food quality and insufficient quantity needed more consistency. We will also place a particular focus on catering to different dietary restrictions. 

Scientific Program: The scientific program was widely praised, particularly for its inclusion of diverse topics and high-quality keynote speakers. The balance between experimental research and AI/ML topics was appreciated, as was the opportunity for young scientists to present their work. However, some attendees suggested making parallel sessions more distinct to ensure the essential talks were taken advantage of. There were also calls for more structured and thematic group discussions to enhance engagement and productivity during small group sessions​.

Logistics and AV: Logistical issues mainly revolved around the accommodations and the shuttle services. While most attendees found the shuttle well-organized, we did see some errors, which we tried to resolve promptly. The Audio/Visual (AV) experience was another area with room for improvement. The first few days saw several technical glitches, particularly with Nunify. Streaming issues, such as poor video quality and frequent interruptions, were particularly frustrating for virtual attendees. Although our team worked promptly trying to resolve these issues as they came up, we also took them as a lesson to learn from and only improve our service. 

Code of Conduct violation: We received one Code of Conduct incident report regarding inappropriate behaviors from an individual. The individual was removed from the conference, and the responding team followed up to support the reporters and ensure the future safety of all attendees. We remind everyone that respectful professional behavior is expected at all Rosetta Commons events. If you have any concerns or questions, please reach out to any member of the reporting committee. 

Posted in Events