Odias in AI/ML is an annual conference of people directly/indirectly related to Odisha and Odia people. This is an entirely volunteer-driven conference. It has been happening since 2020. As a core team member of this community, here is my experience and perspective of the conference.

Resources

Conference Website: Odias in Artificial Intelligence (odishaai.org)

Live streaming links of the conference:

Salient Features

1. This was the 4th edition of the conference. The theme of the conference was

2. This edition was the longest of all the previous three editions. It was 11 hours long conference.

3. This was a complete virtual conference. The previous edition was a hybrid conference with physical meetups.

4. A wide variety of speakers who were working related to AI have been invited.

5. A global conference with attendees from all across the continents.

Challenges

1. Zoom business account we got earlier, there were instances when someone shared a nuisance to all the participants.

2. Speakers were going beyond their allocated time all the time.

3. A few speakers were not screened before and were speaking in mediocre presentations.

4. Schedule preparation for an eleven-hour long single-track conference a challenge. If one Talk gets delayed, rest all delay as well.

5. As it is a global conference, managing an overlapping timezone was difficult.

Feedback

In this edition, we collected feedback from the Speakers, Moderators, and Attendees for the first time. Here are a few key points:

What went well

1. The breadth of topics related to AI was good.

2. Knowing about Success stories and challenges was interesting.

3. Consistency of the conference for the last four editions.

4. Relevant Speakers have been invited per the latest trends

5. 11-hour marathon conference, staying awake and managing. Kudos to the organizers.

6. Building an Odia community around AI is incredible.

7. The theme was selected, and the speakers were excellent. I also liked the format. These must be continued.

What can be improved

1. Speakers were not condensing their Talk into allotted time and wasted time on trivial stuff.

2. A few deserving speakers should have been provided with more time to speak.

3. There was no time for Q&A. There was a limited option for networking in the virtual conference.

4. The duration of the conference was too long. Committing for such a prolonged duration in a single go was challenging. Additionally, focusing for a long time becomes difficult, resulting in missing out on fantastic talks/discussions. I suggest we spread the conference over to 2 days or restrict the talks (thereby the duration).

5. Timing of the conference.

6. There were many dropouts from speakers at the last moment. Looks like they do not value this conference.

Acknowledgment

I would like to thank Dr. Damodar Sahu for staying continuously for 11 hours at the conference and managing the sections of the conference.

Thanks to conference convener Abhijeet Parida for managing Zoom and being the session chair for the conference section.

Thanks to Kuku Das for providing logistics for the conference and moderating a session.

Thanks to the other Core members of the community, Col Prof Aditya Parida, Kumarika Mohanty, Neelima Mishra, Subhadarshi Panda, Shyamanuja Das, and Pradeepta Mishra for their help in organizing the conference.

Thanks to all the global chapter leaders for their support in the conference.

Thanks to Anjan Kumar Panda for all the help and leadership in the conference.

Conclusion

I could not contribute much to this edition of the conference due to my involvement in the PyCon India 2023 conference.

The feedback will help in making a better conference in the next edition.

In this post, we discussed the salient points of the 2023 conference, the shortcomings, and lessons learned from the conference.