Hi Elizabeth,

Yes, the content will be available to the public 6 months after the conference. 

Best,

FSMA

The program for this online conference is now available here: fsm6.org/master-program/
It uses a variety of formats with some sessions being pre-recorded and some live.

It starts on 31 May. Looks interesting, with a focus on FSM in Indonesia.

Personally, I am surprised that the fees are not lower for people from low-income countries. Costs are shown here: fsm6.org/registration/ . It's Eur 385, and 10% discount for FSMA members.

Question to the organisers: Will the conference materials later be made available online, like for the FSM 1 to 5? (for example, see here the conference materials from FSM 5: fsm5.susana.org/en/downloads/conference-materials)

Regards,
Elisabeth

FSMA is proud to host and support the World Emptying Challenge. Past FSM Conferences have acted as a gathering place for the Emptiers and their associations to interact and share knowledge and their stories. For FSM6, the World Emptying Challenge has gone virtual!  Emptying professionals from around the world showcase their daily work on the ground in a series of short, “homemade” films - (made by emptiers themselves). Teams of emptiers have submitted their videos that show the various steps of their emptying process:  PPE Emptying of the pit/septic tank Cleaning up Disposal/Reuse Teamwork These videos are being shared online, with the hope for greater sector engagement with emptiers. We want to highlight the emptying professionals implementing CWIS on the ground and provide greater visibility to this often overlooked profession within the sector. This challenge also aims to bridge the gap between emptier professionals and the rest of the sector.  We encourage you to watch all videos and  get voting !  Votes will be recorded in the form of ‘likes’ from viewers. Here you will find the videos created by our emptier community from around the world. Simply hit the like button on the videos you like best. The winners will receive cash prizes! Please spread the word, share the links, and show the world! Watch and share here!  Voting will close on 3rd June 2021, 10:00 PM UTC/ 19:00 PM Jakarta Time  The winners will be announced on Friday 4th June, at the FSM6 Closing Ceremony, dropped at 04:00 AM UTC/11:00 AM Jakarta Time.  To find out more about the World Emptying Challenge Visit our page  here .  WATCH! VOTE! SHARE! 

Hello SuSanA members,

The Faecal Sludge Management Alliance (FSMA) is hosting the virtual FSM6 Conference from May 31st to June 4th in 2021. To create a synthesized report encapsulating the conversations during the conference, FSMA is looking for a team of young professionals (ages 18-35) to fill 14-21 rapporteur positions to summarize 2-3 sessions (one per day max) over the week. This team will have all-conference registration costs waived. Read more

Apply HERE

To apply, candidates for Rapporteur must provide the following:

• The submission must be a short motivation letter (<250 words), where the applicant can mention what track or other session topics s/he is more interested in covering.
• The applicant must provide a short CV (2 pages max) and one writing sample (article, paper, blog post, report, etc.) to demonstrate proficiency in English.

Submissions must be shared before April 20th, 2021, at 12:00 AM EST. Applicants will receive decision emails by the week of May 3rd.

Once selected, the candidates for Rapporteurs will be given a short deadline to send confirmation to FSMA of their ability to attend the conference. After the confirmation is received, selected rapporteurs will receive a welcome packet including notetaking methodology and templates. An online meeting and training session will be organised to receive training on conference reporting, get to know the team, receive schedules, and ask questions.

Dear all, 

Happy to inform you about an interesting challenge on feacal sludge management.

FSM6 is organizing a "World Emptying Challenge" in which people are encouraged to send videos on their Pit emptying skills. The winners will receive cash prizes. See the attachment below for more information. 



Update: Here is the site's link:  WORLD EMPTYING CHALLENGE - FSM6 Virtual - 2021

Best of luck for the contestants!

Kind regards, 
Salua

That's good that you moved the conference to a virtual format. (Already back in June last year I felt you were being overly ambitious for planning a face to face conference, as you can see in my earlier post)

I had to dig a bit deeper on your website to see how high the fees are for this conference: So they range from Eur 325 to Eur 385 (discounts are for FSMA members and for early birds).

I am just wondering if you'll have different fees for people from different countries? WEDC is doing that for their online conference (see forum post here ). They might have a different funding model or more sponsors, I don't know. I just thought I would ask.

I saw it mentioned in a tweet by Lars:
Invalid consumer key/secret in configuration

"UPDATE: Authors of accepted abstracts and presentations who are resident in low- or lower- middle-income countries as listed in the UN World Economic Situation and Prospects, 2020 will gain free access to the conference." Well done,
@WEDCUK. Maybe a model for @fsm_alliance, too?

I think we could also have a separate thread where we can discuss fees for online conferences more broadly. It's a new thing for most of us...

Regards,
Elisabeth

Dear all, Happy New Year! It is officially 2021 and we’d like to share with you two important announcements regarding the  6th International Faecal Sludge Management (FSM6) Conference.   Registration is officially open and we’re going virtual!   Due to the current global situation surrounding Covid-19, we have decided to move FSM6 to a fully virtual conference.  Please see a warm welcome from our conference chair, Dr. Konstantina Velkushanova. Dr. Konstantina Velkushanova- Chair, FSM6 REGISTER HERE We are committed to bringing you a dynamic, fresh, quality conference, which will be hosted on a custom-built online platform. We will share a series of ‘how-to’ videos which will teach you how to navigate the online platform in the upcoming months. We are now finalising our conference program, and have accepted the submitted abstracts. Have a look at our tracks  here.  FSMA members receive a discount on FSM6 registration. This includes a 10% discount on your FSM6 conference registration! An additional 5% discount is available for members who register before 15 March 2021.  Along with an FSM6 discount, we also provide networking and capacity building opportunities, as well as a list of other great benefits that you get to shape.  More FSM6 updates will be released in the lead up to the conference.  We look forward to seeing you at the end of May!  Take care,  FSMA

EXHIBITION FSM6 is offering a number of virtual exhibition packages which will enable organisations to best profile themselves on the online conference platform. view details SPONSORSHIP FSM6 is offering an exciting opportunity for various organisations to gain special recognition via conference sponsorship.    view details MEMBERSHIP Members receive a 10% discount on FSM6 registration! And if members register before 15 March 2021, you get an additional 5% discount. Sign up to be a member below. view details

The NEW deadline to submit an abstract for FSM6 is extended until 31 August 11:59 PM Pacific Time. Information about submitting an abstract can be found at  lnkd.in/gvcakbX.  Questions about the abstract process can be emailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

FSMA is continuing to monitor the global situation regarding coronavirus and how this might impact FSM6. We are looking at a variety of contingency options that we will continue to assess alternatives that prioritise everyone's safety.

Hi Shobana,

Thanks for your interesting post. I wonder how you derived at this statement: "Also, the demand for online participation is not very high. "? Is that based on some market analysis, like surveys or on recent experiences with other events? I find it hard to believe that given that flying will become more and more expensive, COVID-19 will hang around for a while, internet connectivity is getting better around the globe, people are getting more used to webinars, and the success of MOOCs (massive open online courses). 

Nothing speaks against charging a fee for online participation either. A fee might even be useful for people to take the online participation (more) seriously. What will be the fee for the face-to-face participation? I couldn't see it on your website yet ( fsm-alliance.org/fsm6/ ). The fee for online participation could be set at one tenth or one twentieth of the full fee, for example.

I firmly believe that pure face to face conference will soon seem outdated, and that's one good legacy that Covid might leave behind... I believe the future lies in more blended conferences, with a face to face component but also an online participation component. 

Regards,
Elisabeth

Dear Elisabeth, 

As you might know already, the FSM Conferences have been taken over by the Faecal Sludge Management Alliance and would be the sole propreitor of the conference. 
Due to COVID -19 situation, the conference has been postponed to May next year already rather than taking place in February. 
While a virtual conference is not completely out because of the situatuion, the conference committee is still  working towards having a face to face conference. 

There might be possibilities for live streaming and online participation partially for a fee. It is certain that the whole conference will not be live streamed due to the costs involved by the production team. Also, the demand for online participation is not very high. 
Most workshops and sessions will be interactive and hence this limits  engagement for online participants. 

FSMA and SuSanA are coming up with a strategy to work together to promote harmonisation in the sector. Once a more formal cooperation is finalised, we should be able to explore options like parallel online discussions. FSMA  is a paid, member based alliance whereas SuSanA is open (for now) . Hence a joint strategy would be necessary to come up with joint activities in the future. 

Hope this helps.

Best
Shobana 

Hi Shobana and Eva!

Good luck for your conference, I hope you get lots of submissions and participants! I am just wondering if you and the planning committee have thought about blending this face-to-face meeting with options for online participation? In the face of Covid but also in the interest of reducing CO2 emissions from flying, I think every conference should have some options for online participation. Different methods can be trialled and perfected over time.

Here are some examples that I can think of:

• live video streaming (which also uses up some electricity though)
• streaming of audio only
• participation via twitter (in conjunction with audio streaming)
• audio streaming from the conference plus chat room options (like with Adobe Connect or Microsoft Teams or Zoom) where online participants can chat and ask questions
• parallel discussions before during and after on the SuSanA discussion forum 

Does anyone have further suggestions, perhaps from other virtual events they have attended?

Regards,
Elisabeth

Dear Shobana, 

This is wonderful news! FSM5 Cape Town 2019 was wonderfully executed and attended and left many in anticipation of the next conference. It is indeed awesome that it has already been 10 years since the first conference. Indeed we celebrate what these 10years have facilitated for the sector as we continue to work for the greater good of the most vulnerable populations in the area of Sanitation and FSM.

Regards,
Chaiwe