Planning Your 2-day Workshop

The Schedule

The idea of a BIRS workshop is to allow the exchange of the latest and most important information in your field and to allow people the time to discuss and brainstorm together in an inspiring and stress-free setting. We leave the detailed structure of your meeting up to you. However, we wish to encourage the scheduling of some unstructured time and discourage the notion that every participant should be invited to speak.

It is very useful for BIRS and for the participants of your workshop if at least some of the scheduling for talks and other activities is determined in advance. This is particularly true of the first day.

Workshop schedules can be entered by setting up an account, and logging in here:

https://workshops.birs.ca/register

Use this interface to keep your workshop schedule up-to-date. When you are ready, click the “Publish this schedule” switch at the bottom of the schedule page. Your schedule will appear on your workshop’s web page, so that the workshop participants can see it.

Lectures that you schedule will be used by the automated video recording system to add titles to the recordings, and to automatically publish videos with correct attribution.

Video Recording

BIRS now has a fully automated lecture recording system, and would like to record as many talks as possible. Please see the Automated Video Production page for an overview of how to use the system and how it works, and the the announcement from the BIRS Scientific Director concerning the recording and live streaming of lectures.

Travel and Accommodation

Participants are expected to arrive in the afternoon or evening on Friday and to depart sometime in the afternoon on Sunday. Accommodation is provided for the organizers and participants for the duration of the workshop. Check-in time is 4:00pm on Friday and check-out is 12:00 noon on Sunday.

Unless specifically negotiated, all meals are the responsibility of the organizers and participants. Note: The Banff Centre has a dining facility that operates a buffet style service (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). This is available on a pay-as-you-go basis. The main town site of Banff (10-minute walk) has many restaurants. Should the organizer wish to have the group dine in the main dining room, please contact The Banff Centre three weeks prior to the workshop.

The nearest international airport is in Calgary and there are regular shuttle services connecting it to Banff. The shuttle bus will take you right to the Banff Centre. Directions by car and transit are listed in more detail under Getting to BIRS. Local information is available under Resources for Participants.

Some of your group may be interested in extending their visit to Banff, and possibly involving their families. BIRS facility has no provision for accompanying family members or for extension of participants' stays. However, The Banff Centre itself (in which BIRS is located) has considerable facilities for accommodation, both for singles and families. Also the town of Banff, which is readily accessible by foot (about 10 minutes, downhill) from the Banff Centre, offers a variety of accommodations. You can find a useful map showing the location of the Banff Centre and some of the main hotels, restaurants, and attractions of Banff at: Discover Banff Tours