Gather Town Information

Login and navigation

When you arrive at the virtual poster session, you will see an avatar and will be prompted to enter your name. Please change the color of of your avatar shirt to one of the colors listed below:  
  • Poster Judges: Please also change your avatar shirt color to red.
  • Students: Please also change your avatar shirt color to blue. 
  • Faculty and Staff: Please also change your avatar shirt color to green.
You can move around using the arrow keys and “WASD” keys (left-handed).  As you move around the space some objects become highlighted.  Press “X” to interact with the highlighted objects (i.e. signs, posters, Zoom meetings, etc.).    

Once you arrive in the main hall, make your way to the registration tables located on the east side of the room. Check-in at the registration tables before making your way to the talks.  

Symposium Rooms in Gather Town

  • Main Hall 
  • Keynote Room – East
  • Keynote Room – West
  • Poster Room
  • Judge’s Lounge
  • Speakeasy
  • Beach

Interacting with others 

The conference center website uses your video camera and microphone for video chat.  As you move near others, their video chat screen will fade into view.  When standing close to others, you can talk to them just as you would in a zoom call.

Looking for someone?  On the right-hand side of your screen, you will find a searchable list of participants.  By clicking on a participant’s name from this list and choosing “locate”, a line will be drawn between you and the person you are searching for.  You can then navigate to them by moving your avatar using the arrow keys.  

Under participants, you will find the chat window.  You can use this to message people at the meeting.

Minimap and settings

The gray bar at the bottom of your screen shows your avatar.  Click there to personalize your avatars appearance.  Clicking on the tri-fold white map icon will bring up a minimap that shows the entire conference center or room you are standing in.  The other options include screen sharing in your video chat, raising your hand, and other settings you can explore.  

Student Talks

Concurrent student talk sessions will be held in the East and West Keynote Rooms. 
As you enter the room, press "x" to connect to the Zoom meeting. You will then be prompted to click a link to join the Zoom meeting. Speakers will have the ability to share their screen to present. When you leave the Zoom meeting, go back to Gather Town tab and click the "Re-enter" button. 

Poster Sessions

Participants will join us in a 2D world with 8-bit graphics, walking around the conference center by moving their avatar with their keyboard’s arrow keys. The poster session will take place in a dedicated room, where posters will already be pre-loaded and organized in a grid similar to an in-person conference. 

To interact with a poster, conference attendees will walk up to the poster and press the “x” key to enter a full screen viewing. While viewing the poster, they will also be able to interact with the presenter. Presenters: when the poster session starts, please navigate to your poster and stand in the gray space immediately in front of it.

When your avatar is in the private space near a poster, all other conference attendees in that space will be able to see and hear you through your webcam and microphone. You will only be interacting with people in this space, and not the neighboring spaces. This promotes conversation with the presenter without interrupting conversation going on at other posters.

Helpful Tip:
If you have trouble reading the text on a poster, click on the magnifying glass located on the right hand side towards the middle of the page.

Poster Judges

A lounge is available on the west side of the poster room for judges to enter their scores and interact with other judges. Please refer to the email sent out from Keri Knowles with your poster assignments and other information. 

Need Help?

You can look for Keri Knowles and/or Franci Brink in Gather.Town if you need assistance the day of the event.  You can also contact us by email if Gather.Town is not working for you.

Keri Knowles knowles.35@osu.edu
Franci Brink osbp@osu.edu