Conferences, Coffee and Complexity: Supporting Cognition and Communication at Conventions

This article takes information visualization to the field of academic conferences and conventions, to explore how cognition and communication of participants could be supported in such ephemeral, knowledge-intensive environments. With focus on a non-invasive method of data collection, we consider the levels of topical, social, temporal and spatial orientation as primary working areas for any support system. Across these areas, overviews and personalized detail-views have to be intertwined, to allow for the localization and navigation of individual participants. To demonstrate a lean approach to these challenges, we introduce a visual conference exploration system, that allows participants to visually explore conferences before, during and after their attendance and support their personal knowledge management by making use of recommendations, which help to establish new contacts, or find the most interesting panels and talks.