Social Events
Diversity and Inclusion in Online Conferences Birds of a Feather Session
Session chairs: Sarra Habchi and Akond Rahman
The ICSME’20 Birds-of-a-feather sessions offer an opportunity for people to get together informally to discuss specific topics. This year we have a session planned to discuss “Diversity and inclusion in Online Conferences”. With the changes in conference formats to both virtual and hybrid (i.e., both physical and virtual), there are new challenges around diversity and inclusion. For hybrid conferences, for example, questions such as how does one cater to a physical set of attendees in a single time zone, while making it inclusive for the virtual attendees in other times may arise. Anyone and everyone is welcome to attend.
LGBTIQ+ Birds of a Feather Session
Session chair: Alexander Serebrenik
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersexual, and Questioning (LGBTIQ) researchers and practitioners primarily come to software engineering conferences to discuss technical aspects of their work with the research community. But we are people, too, whose rights and safety are sometimes affected by the political climate. At this year’s Birds of a Feather session, LBGTIQ+ researchers, practitioners, and friends are invited to lunch together to build community. We will also discuss how we fit in with our academic, industry, and governmental institutions, the current political climate around the world, and what we can do to help make all software engineering conferences and workshops to be safe and welcoming spaces for LBGTIQ+ members of the Software Engineering research community.