Form letters

From CSGSA Wiki

Important note: Any time basic parameters of the talks change, these need to be revised.

Less-important note: Obviously, these can/should be personalized as circumstances warrant.

[edit] Speaker reminder letter

Send this letter to speakers one week before their date, as a reminder and to solicit key info. The title and abstract they submit need to be accessible to general grads, and the abstract should be short -- not more than 4-5 sentences. Work with the speaker and/or edit what they submit to achieve this.

Hi $SPEAKER,

This is a reminder that you're scheduled to give a talk for the CSGSA Grad Colloquium next Wednesday, $DATE, in room 5-212. The talk will start at 11:15, but we'd like you to arrive a few minutes early so we have time to get set up. The time slot is 1 hour total.

I suggest you plan 20-30 minutes of speaking, and you should be prepared for lots of questions -- often, the question and answer time exceeds the length of the speaker's talk. The talk should be directed to a general computer science audience; most folks won't be familiar with your field.

Things I need from you:

1. A title and informal abstract to use in the talk advertisement. It's especially important that these be accessible to folks not in your field, as this is how people decide whether or not to attend.

2. A brief bio, including your group affiliation and advisor, to use in introducing you at the talk.

3. Whether or not you'd like us to provide a laptop.

4. Whether you'd like any particular parameters. For example, some speakers prefer to simulate the rules for talks at some conference.

Also, please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks! I'm looking forward to your talk.

Reid

[edit] Announcement letter

Send this letter to grads the day before the talk.

Subject: $NUM CSGSA Grad Colloquium (Free Food): $SPEAKER, $DATE 11:15am CS/EE 5-212

Dear grads,

I invite you to attend this week's CSGSA Grad Colloquium. $SPEAKER will be speaking this week; the talk will be tomorrow (Wednesday) at 11:15 am in CS/EE 5-212.

We will be providing sandwiches from Milio's. There will be vegetarian and carnivorous options.

$SPEAKER will tell us about:

"$TITLE

"$ABSTRACT"

This talk will be accessible to a general computer science audience and does not require any specialized knowledge in the domain.

We would love for you to attend. Bring your friends!

Reid