The NASA Biodiversity and Ecological Forecasting Team Meeting is a by-invitation meeting of team members. Members include principal investigators and their designees funded by the NASA Biological Diversity Program Element or its Ecological Forecasting Program Element. NASA also invites students with relevant projects in the Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) Program, along with their academic advisors, to become part of the team, as well as those addressing relevant topics in the NASA New Investigator Program and other Earth Science programs. Friends of these two NASA programs working in NASA and other U.S. Government agencies are also included on the team.

The meeting will be held virtually October 19-21, 2021 with plans to meet in-person in the late Spring/early Summer of 2022.

On Friday, October 22, 2021, there will be a virtual Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) All Hands Meeting. 

Meetings will tentatively run from 10:30am – 6pm Eastern Time, although we’ll conclude the meeting on Thursday (10/21) at 6:15pm Eastern Time to allow for a short wrap up session in plenary.

The meeting will consist of online plenary and poster sessions, as well as online breakout, discussion, and Q&A sessions.

The virtual meeting will be hosted on the WebEx Meeting platform. Invitations will be emailed to those on the Biodiversity and Ecological Forecasting Team mailing list, along with any passwords to attend the virtual session.

Email meeting-support@espo.nasa.gov with any questions before the meeting.

NASA Managers for the Biological Diversity Program and Ecological Forecasting Program: 
– Woody Turner (NASA)
– Keith Gaddis (NASA)

NASA Biodiversity and Ecological Forecasting Team Meeting

Held Virtually on October 19-21, 2021

Agenda and pdfs on Biodiversity & Ecological Forecasting website

There is no registration fee for this meeting. Current principal investigators are expected to attend.

For our virtual meeting, there will be breakout rooms for e-poster presentations.

Attendees will be able to move between poster breakout rooms.  

For those presenting posters, please create use the template slide (below) about your poster and submit via the form below by Wednesday, October 13th.

Poster presenters will be contacted by the Meeting Committee with the day for your poster session.  You will have about an hour in your breakout room to talk about your poster and answer questions.

Each e-Poster Presenter will be in their own breakout room.  There will be 1 hour before the meeting starts on each day when you are requested to join to test audio and test sharing your screen. 

Instead of someone showing 1 “poster” with a lot of sections and possibly small graphs that might be difficult for people to see unless they zoom in, the Poster Presenter can break up what is typically a 4 foot by 6 foot poster into separate slides. 

Since you will have your own room, you can show multiple slides, video clips, demo tools/applications/websites, show animation or whatever you want to share in your “poster” session.

Poster Timeline: If you are presenting a poster, please do the following:

1. 1. 1. Use this template to create your 1-minute high-level intro slide about your poster. All completed poster templates/high-level slides for the day will be bundled into one presentation and shown in the plenary session before poster sessions start.
         
         1. Open Powerpoint, then open the downloaded .pps file and Save As with your last name at the beginning of the filename.
         2. Note the upper right of the slide is the logo which will fill in like a clock to show your 1-minute progression.  It will flash red when your time is done.
      2. By October 13th submit your 1-minute high-level intro slide via the upload form or email slide to meeting-support@espo.nasa.gov 
      3. Prepare your e-poster in whatever format you want to share in your own breakout room. The Meeting Committee will let you know in which of the three poster sessions you will be presenting.

Once you are in a breakout room, you will see the Share button at the bottom.  Or you can select Share from the Menu bar and select Share Content.  

You can share your Screen if you will be displaying Powerpoints, and Websites and Applications.  If just showing one thing, best to select the specific application like Powerpoint or Adobe. 

The format of your “poster” can be 1 slide or more.  It can be a pdf or PowerPoint.  It can be landscape or portrait.

Attendees can join any of the breakout rooms.  At any time they can leave and move to another breakout room if sessions are still in progress. If you are presenting a poster and there is no one in your room, you can leave the room and Join another poster session.  If you leave a room with no intention of returning, please chat the meeting host so the room can be deleted.  

Each breakout room will have their own audio and chat.  Attendees can mute/unmute themselves. The poster presenter can mute/unmute people in the breakout room or pass them the presenter role.  The breakout rooms also have the ability for people to raise their hands before they talk if there is too much talking over each other.

• Only material suitable for full and open distribution shall be submitted and submittals shall be considered approved by the providing organization to be suitable for full and open distribution. No proprietary, export controlled, classified, or sensitive material should be presented.  If you are with NASA, Form NF-1676 has been replaced by a website called STRIVES (Scientific, Technical and Research Information discoVEry System) for the submission and approval for NASA STI (Scientific and Technical Information) (https://strives.nasa.gov) 

Tips

1. Attend the setup session if you have not used Webex to share a presentation recently as there may be some settings to allow permissions.
2. Test audio beforehand and make sure headsets/ear buds are charged as well as your keyboard and trackpad if they are wireless.
3. Check your microphone is enabled.  For example, if using a Mac: Go to Systems Preferences + Security and Privacy + Microphone. Ensure “Cisco WebEx Meeting Center” is selected. 
4. Check that your computer isn’t muted for audio output if you are listening with just your computer   
5. Set notification to Do Not Disturb – so previews of your emails/texts do not appear on screen for all to see.  For example, on a Mac, press and hold down the Option key and click on the Notification Center on the top right of your screen to toggle.
6. Recommend using Slide Show/Presentation View.
   • With Powerpoint, select Slide Show then Play from Start.  If you have two displays, click Swap Displays or Use SlideShow in the upper left. 
   • With Adobe PDF, Select View Full Screen Mode.
   • Otherwise get more real estate for your slide by closing the thumbnail on the left, closing the notes at the bottom and hiding the editing ribbon at the top.  For example, on Mac: Option-Command R to hide/show the editing ribbon in Microsoft Products. 

Sign into WebEx

Please use your Full Name when joining so we know who you are.  This is particularly important if you are a poster presenter with a breakout room.

It is highly recommended to download Webex and connect with the application instead of the browser version.  The browser version of WebEx has some limited functionality.

To switch to Webex desktop app if you joined with browser:

1. 1. Click … at bottom of screen
   2. Click “Switch to desktop app”

Desktop app gives ability to:

Remove your background noise

1. 1. 1. Click arrow by Unmute button
      2. Click Settings…
      3. Check “Remove background noise”

In order to move to a breakout room/poster session, you will need to have your audio connected to your computer or phone.  Dial-in connections alone cannot move to a breakout room. Audio on Linux machines are not able to move to breakout rooms.

You will be muted when you join
How to connect Audio

We recommend using your computer for audio (VOIP). This is at no cost to you.  This will likely be the default when you sign in.  Check that your computer isn’t muted for audio output.

Alternatively:   Have Webex call your home or cell phone

Click the little arrow by the Mute button, then Change audio connection.   Enter your landline or cell phone number and WebEx will call you.  This is at no cost to you unless you are charged for incoming minutes. If you connected via your computer audio too, then disconnect your computer audio or mute your computer to eliminate feedback.

How to use the virtual meeting tool

During a presentation, please:

• Raise/Lower your hand:
  • Click on the happy face icon at the bottom, near the Share button, and click to toggle raising or lowering your hand.  With the desktop app, you also have the option to click the person icon in the lower right to display the Participants Panel and hover by your name to see the hand icon to raise/lower your hand.
  • When you Raise your Hand, the moderator will call on you if there is time available for questions. 

• Mute/Unmute: When you join, you will be muted.  The host will unmute you if you have been called on by the moderator if there is time.
• Chat: Use chat for Questions.  Please chat to Everyone.  If you private chat to just the Presenter, your chat may be missed by the Presenter and will not captured in the meeting files.

Bandwidth management

In the main room, to reduce audio lag, avoid turning on video unless you are presenting.  Feel free to share video in the breakout rooms.

You may also close extra applications to provide more memory to your computer.

You can close your VPN connection.

Our preference is for you to share your presentation in Webex so your cursor will display for pointing to slide details like graphs/maps.  There will be 30 minutes before each meeting when Presenters are requested to join for setup. You can test your audio and test sharing your screen.  Computer settings may need to be allowed.

Highly recommend using the Webex desktop app as it provides additional features like removing background noise. Download the Webex application to your desktop.  An option to download will appear once you join the meeting.  

Share your presentation by selecting Share from the Menu bar at the top of your screen.  Best to select the specific application like Powerpoint or Adobe.  Once you select the thumbnail, click Share to complete the process.

• Please send your presentation in 16:9 format/aspect ratio to meeting-support@espo.nasa.gov  at least one day prior to your presentation date. If you are experiencing computer or bandwidth problems during the meeting, we can display and advance your slides assuming you are able to dial in.  It is helpful to have slide numbers to be able to confirm we are in sync. 
• If you have any embedded video, please send the video file separately a couple of days in advance of the meeting for testing/converting.
• Only material suitable for full and open distribution shall be submitted and submittals shall be considered approved by the providing organization to be suitable for full and open distribution. No proprietary, export controlled, classified, or sensitive material should be presented.  If you are with NASA, Form NF-1676 has been replaced by a website called STRIVES (Scientific, Technical and Research Information discoVEry System) for the submission and approval for NASA STI (Scientific and Technical Information) (https://strives.nasa.gov)
• We plan on posting all presentations in pdf format after the meeting.  If there are changes you wish to make for a posted version, please send us a 2nd file in pdf format.  Otherwise we will convert your submitted powerpoint file to pdf.  

Tips

1. Test audio before meeting starts and make sure headsets/ear buds are charged as well as your keyboard and trackpad if they are wireless.
2. Check your microphone is enabled.  For example, if using a Mac: Go to Systems Preferences + Security and Privacy + Microphone. Ensure “Cisco WebEx Meeting Center” is selected. 
3. Check that your computer isn’t muted for audio output if you are listening with just your computer   
4. Make sure your Display is scaled for larger text
5. Set notification to Do Not Disturb – so previews of your emails/texts do not appear on screen for all to see.  For example, on a Mac, press and hold down the Option key and click on the Notification Center on the top right of your screen to toggle.
6. Recommend using Slide Show/Presentation View.
   • With Powerpoint, select Slide Show then Play from Start.  If you have two displays, click Swap Displays or Use SlideShow in the upper left. 
   • With Adobe PDF, Select View Full Screen Mode. 
   • Otherwise get more real estate for your slide by closing the thumbnail on the left, closing the notes at the bottom and hiding the editing ribbon at the top.  For example, on Mac: Option-Command R to hide/show the editing ribbon in Microsoft Products.
7. You may opt to turn on your video for your presentation.  If audio is garbled, the host may turn off your video.
8. Note: If you are using Mac Catalina, please do the following in order to share your screen:
   1. 1. System Preferences
      2. Security & Privacy
      3. Privacy tab
      4. Screen Recording
      5. Check for Cisco Webex Meeting
9. You do not have to be on VPN.

Help with Webex product

1. Don’t just dial in
   Connecting with just a phone line not associated with a computer will not be able to join a breakout room
2. Have Webex call you for audio
   Audio from Linux will not be able to join a breakout room.  We recommend having Webex call you.  Click on the pull down arrow near the mute button and select change audio connection.  Put your mobile or landline number in and Webex will phone you.
3. They can’t see my presentation
   1. If you are using Mac Catalina, please do the following in order to share your screen:
      1. 1. System Preferences
         2. Security & Privacy
         3. Privacy tab
         4. Screen Recording
         5. Check for Cisco Webex Meeting
4. I can’t hear or no one can hear me
   1. Click on the little arrow on the Mute button 
      Choose the appropriate device for speaker and for microphone 
5. Presentation isn’t showing full screen on my monitor

   1. Move the cursor to the upper right of  what is being shared, and the layout button will appear. 

      Toggle for full screen view. 

Contact Us

Meeting-Support@espo.nasa.gov