NOAA EDM 2020

Due to travel restrictions, the Environmental Data Management Workshop (EDMW) Planning Team, along with the EDMC chair, made the decision to suspend the in-person workshop planned for Asheville, NC, August 18-20, 2020. The EDMW will be a virtual workshop August 17-21, 2020.

The 2020 Environmental Data Management Workshop will include plenary, presentation, and poster sessions that focus on efforts to improve the collection, stewardship, interpretation, and delivery of NOAA data that enable the agency to effectively carry out its mission and programs. Attendees are primarily NOAA personnel, but we do have slots for non-NOAA personnel. Attendance is open to all NOAA employees, including NOAA CI and contract employees. Workshop planning activities are underway and expect to see further messages in the next few months.

There is no registration fee for this workshop. All NOAA employees and contractors are welcome, including data producers, data managers, metadata developers, archivists, researchers, grant issuers, policy developers, program managers, and others.

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FAQs
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Call for Session Proposals closed on March 17.
Call for Abstracts closed on June 5.

Q  Do I need to cancel my hotel reservations?
A  Hotel reservations that were made as part of the workshop room block at the Asheville Crowne Plaza have already been canceled. If you made a reservation outside of the room block, please contact the Asheville Crowne Plaza at 828-285-2603 during normal business hours, or the toll-free number 844-330-0296 anytime to cancel.

Q  Why did you change the 2020 workshop to a virtual format?

A  In the near term, we did not feel that we met the CDC guidance or could provide adequate social distancing in the conference venue. In addition, non-essential travel is not recommended and it is unpredictable when travel restrictions will be lifted across NOAA.


Q  Does this comply with CDC guidance?
A  This is the CDC guidance for gatherings: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/large-events/index.html It is impossible for us to know about at-risk populations within our community, but we should assume we have them and we should protect those folks. There would also be significant travel for this meeting and CDC guidance is to limit non-essential travel even when risk is minimal for disease transmission.


Q  Will this just be another webinar? Will it be a full day of webinars?
A  No! As we take this opportunity to move the workshop to a virtual conference, the workshop planning team has begun to dive into specifics of what that will look like. We will be providing more details in the coming weeks. It will definitely not be full day GoToMeetings and we are exploring ways to provide additional engagement, so I do not expect this to be a passive experience.

Q  Have you made the content from previous workshops available? 
A  The sessions and presentation for the 2019 and 2018 workshops are still available through the workshop websites.  Click here to learn more about the 2019 EDM-W and the 2018 EDM-W.