Summary
Attending a well-organized conference may leave an impression on participants. However, once you are in the organizer's position, you truly realize what needs to be considered. If an iGEM-inexperienced team decides to host its own meetup, it appears very challenging. Even though we were dealing with these risks and inexperience, we successfully hosted our JuniorJam sponsored by Promega in August 2022. From the preliminary stages of the organization, we gathered with the iGEM teams from Hamburg and Toulouse, both of which have already arranged the European and French meetups, to develop the How to Meetup Guide for future iGEMers. In line with iGEM's fundamental principles of networking and sharing experiences, we also met with the iGEM Team Patras and Bochum to provide mutual guidance.
iGEM Münster becomes familiar with the European iGEM Community
European Meetup
Six of us spent a whole weekend with other iGEMers at the European Meetup. We took the opportunity to learn new skills during workshops and talks and, most importantly, received feedback and input for our project MonChassis. During a poster session, we presented our project idea and connected with other participants learning about their projects. Additionally, we delivered our elevator pitch in front of the entire audience. The experiences we gathered helped us to rethink certain aspects of our project and implement them into our design process.
At the meetup, we got in touch with our partner, iGEM Team TU Dresden, and were able to consolidate our collaboration talks. In addition, we set the basis for our collaboration with the iGEM Team Toulouse INSA-UPS and the iGEM Team Uni-Hamburg and collected some ideas for our meetup, JuniorJam sponsored by Promega.
We took a lot of impressions with us and made valuable experiences at the European Meetup. Thank you iGEM Team Uni-Hamburg for having us!
Exchange with iGEM Patras and iGEM Bochum
Networking is key – especially as the first iGEM Team from Münster! That is why we had online meetings with iGEM Patras and iGEM Bochum in the early phase of our project. Both teams had experience in participating in the iGEM competition and thus, gave us good advice on several topics such as finances and team organization. We also talked about the issues you are faced with establishing a new iGEM team at a university. Thanks for the chat!
JuniorJam sponsored by Promega – The European iGEM Community visits Münster
iGEM Münster’s first time participating in the competition – So why not immediately arrange a meetup to start building up a network in the existing iGEM community? The concept of JuniorJam sponsored by Promega was inspired by the Grand Jamboree in Paris in 2022. Every team set up a team booth and presented their promotion video. In addition, some teams delivered their project presentation. An experienced jury evaluated the presentations and gave appropriate feedback to the teams. All in all, the teams had lots of fun and hopefully were able to take some important insights for the finals in Paris.
The Schedule
On Friday afternoon the 26th of August, we welcomed twelve iGEM teams from seven different European countries at the Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Biomedicine Münster for our JuniorJam presented by Promega. We started with a welcome, followed by the first scientific talk and the introduction of the promotion videos. This short program already led to anticipations for the upcoming weekend agenda. After the main part of the event, we organized a socializing part at the Aasee lake where we spent the evening together.
The tight Saturday program included two scientific talks, eight project presentations, team booth sessions, and two workshops on pitching and entrepreneurship. In the evening, we met in the old town in a bar called “Barzillus”.
On Sunday, the day started with a breakfast and a team booth session. After that, the teams listened to an interesting panel discussion on the question “Does it need synthetic biology for a sustainable bioeconomy?”. The interdisciplinary guests with expertise in the fields of social sciences, technology and environmental law, bioethics, biotechnology and biosecurity assessed and discussed the issue from their point of view and gave the audience new hints to reflect upon. The JuniorJam sponsored by Promega ended with the award ceremony.
Impressions from the JuniorJam sponsered by Promega
iGEM Team Sheffield
"Sorry for beeing a pain via Instagram." ~ Taylor
Socializing in the bar "Barzillus"
iGEM Team Lausanne
With our partner team from Dresden
Panel discussion
iGEM Team Aachen
Breakfast
Judges from the GASB
iGEM Team Münster
ready for our guests to arrive
Our Concept
Based on the motto “Prepare for Paris” we organized our own meetup in Münster: JuniorJam sponsored by Promega. There, we intended to give our participants the opportunity to practice for the Grand Jamboree in Paris. Inspired by this year’s judging criteria, our JuniorJam sponsored by Promega attendees designed a team booth, introduced their promotion videos, and some teams delivered their project presentation to the entire audience.
All promotion videos were shown at the beginning of the meetup. During team booth sessions, the teams presented their creative booth implementation, exchanged with other teams, and informed themselves about different projects. During the project presentations, an experienced jury, consisting of former iGEMers, listened attentively and peppered the teams with questions in the subsequent question and answer session.
On the last day, teams received constructive feedback from the judges regarding their presentations and promotion videos. Followed by an award ceremony, in which the judges announced the winners for the best project presentation and promotion video. We additionally presented the voting for the winner of the best team booth, in which every JuniorJam sponsored by Promega attendant was involved.
Thank you to all iGEM teams, the judges, and further attendees for participating. It was a great weekend!
Feedback from our Guests
How to host the perfect iGEM meetup?
Hosting a meetup is a big challenge with a lot of things to consider - from spotting a suitable venue to arranging tasks within the team during the event. The effort involved in organizing a meetup we experienced ourselves. Additionally, since most of our team members participated in the iGEM competition for the first time, we were very inexperienced in the implementation of a meetup during the iGEM competition. What program is appropriate? Do we need to organize catering? And can we take a participation fee? Advice, input, and reports from experienced iGEM teams may help during the organization and diminish your stress. That is why we came together with the iGEM Team Toulouse INSA-UPS and the iGEM Team Uni-Hamburg to create the first iGEM How to Meetup Guide ever.
This year, the iGEM Team Toulouse INSA-UPS hosted the French Meetup, whereas the iGEM Team Uni-Hamburg hosted the European Meetup, which some of our team visited as well. There, we set the basis for our collaboration and collected some ideas for our meetup JuniorJam sponsored by Promega. In subsequent online meetings, we exchanged our experiences and discussed how to structure the How to Meetup Guide. Since the meetups of the iGEM teams Toulouse INSA-UPS and Uni-Hamburg have taken place about a month before ours, we could together reflect on their meetups from the retrospective and thus, improved the organization of our JuniorJam sponsored by Promega. Additionally, we decided to compose a survey in which we gathered feedback from the guest teams of our JuniorJam sponsored by Promega. With this feedback, we improved and complemented the How to Meetup Guide even further and thus, went through a whole design-build-test-learn cycle together with our collaboration partners.
The How to Meetup Guide is for all iGEM teams who want to host a meetup or consider doing so. The guide provides you with the relevant information you need to plan, organize, and conduct an iGEM meetup and gives you an overview of the workload it may take. Structured chronologically, you get advice and input on the ten main aspects of hosting a meetup. There’s even a checklist, which helps you to avoid forgetting crucial things. Check out the guide if you consider hosting a meetup – It is fun!