Frequently Asked Questions

• Will there be wifi and places to charge my laptop at the venue?

• Yes, we have set up guest accounts with the University and there are a multitude of floor outlets and power strips.

• Will there be a pre-conference social?

• Yes, we are looking into reserving a few tables at the Jolly Pumpkin across from the Hyatt in Hyde Park (where some of you may be staying). This will not be a formal event, but an opportunity to informally get to know each other.

• How will coronavirus affect this event?

• We expect to still be able to run this smaller-scale event, but we will ask you to take precautions, such as washing your hands often (before eating, after touching someone else's computer) and potentially greeting each other with a wave/fistbump instead of a handshake. We will also purchase hand sanitizer and have it readily available at the event. Please contact us at [email protected] or talk to an organizer if you are concerned.

• I've never been to an R Collab before, what will this be like?

• Take a look at last year's twitter writeup of the Chicago R Unconference to get a sense of what to expect at this event. You'll be surrounded by a ton of great people, who love #rstats. Could it get any better?

• Do I have to work on the same project the whole time?

• Nope! You can jump around, work on multiple things, and decide halfway through the day you're done and just want to talk to folks the rest of the day. And if you do want to work on a project all the way through, that's great too! Do what feels right for you.

• This is my first R event ever and I'm a little nervous. What can I do to prepare for this event?

• Take some time to read over folks' bios in the #collab-chi20-community channel in Slack and do some research on who's attending. We encourage you to say hello to our mentors and ask thoughtful questions of fellow attendees - you can brainstorm things to say ahead of time if that helps you out. Also feel free to read over some of the issues in our event repo, and think about how you want to participate or engage at this event. You might set a goal of contributing one thing, or talking to three new people, and see if you can achieve that. I find that going in with a plan is always helpful.

• How can someone who is new-ish to R participate and add value?

• By asking lots of questions and not being afraid to dive in! Those of us who have been using R a while, often forget the things that people trip up on at the start, and opening our eyes to that is a huge part of the value you bring to this event.

• You also are the best person in the room to say “hey, this documentation doesn’t really work for me - is there a way to make it better” - and that’s what we want at an event like this!

• Finally, don’t be afraid to share your learnings in a blog post or recap of the event - that’s often a great way to share your perspective and help other folks who also consider themselves new to R out! A great example of this is at this link: https://www.thinkingondata.com/my-experience-at-r-unconference-chicago-2019/

• I'm an introvert, will I feel overwhelmed at this event?

• This might just be me, but I've found that being in a group of people who share similar interests, working on projects together, often helps me overcome any shyness I feel initially. I recommend this blog post written by Ted Laderas about surviving a conference as an introvert, which has some good pointers and thoughts. Also, keep in mind that this is an collaborative event, so you'll be working together with others on developing something, which is very different from a regular conference. And lots of us attending are introverts :)

• I feel like I'll be one of the less experienced people at this event.

• That's wonderful! You get to have the joy of learning or experiencing something for the first time. You also bring a valuable perspective to the event as someone who can ask questions and give others a chance to practice their teaching or mentorship skills. If we all were at the same level, that would make for a boring event.

• I want to bring an R Collab to my community!

• Fantastic! That's one of our goals with this event. Consider talking to one of the organizers during the event, and please stay in touch after the event - we'd love to help you plan an R Collab in your community.