Highlights from AU NZ Carpentry Connect 2024

Last week, Carpentry Connect 2024 was jointly hosted in the Trans-Tasman region by NeSI and the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC). This hybrid event was co-located with ARDC's Skill Summit in Melbourne.

Carpentry Connect is a local event designed to bring together trainers, helpers, maintainers, and anyone interested in The Carpentries, a global community teaching researchers foundational coding and data science skills. With over 60 community members registered, there were more than 20 attendees from New Zealand.

This year’s agenda was crafted by a team of local Carpentries champions in Australia in consultation with community members in New Zealand to ensure an exciting and engaging event. We warmly welcomed seasoned members of the Carpentries community in Aotearoa, including many instructors, coordinators, and helpers, along with new Carpentries enthusiasts.

The programme included talks on current challenges within the community, an overview of the Carpentries Board of Directors, interactive sessions on networking, informal discussions, and much more. Here is the final programme for anyone who might have missed it:PDF icon AU NZ Carpentry Connect 2024 - Final Programme for NZ (1).pdf

Some highlights from this year’s gathering include:

  • In-person sessions in Melbourne facilitated by ARDC. Liz Stokes championed sessions that focused on engagement pathway facilitation, community consultation on revitalising git, among other engaging topics.
  • Dr. Mark Crowe and Dr. Nisha Ghatak provided an overview of the Carpentries Board of Directors followed by a feedback session where attendees noted questions and comments to communicate back to the core team and other board members.
  • Lightning talks from the Centre for eResearch at the University of Auckland, RTIS at the University of Otago, and NeSI, including talks from colleagues at Pawsey Supercomputing and ARDC. These lightning talks highlighted how both communities encounter overlapping challenges and networking events like these enable researchers from both countries to engage and brainstorm ideas with one another.
  • Three local hubs were operational throughout Aotearoa. Matt Plummer facilitated a hub at Victoria University of Wellington, Murray Cadzow supported a hub at the University of Otago, and Nisha Ghatak supported a hub in Auckland. These hub attendees came together online for hybrid sessions and met in person for lunch.

The wrap-up session for New Zealand sparked powerful discussions on supporting new learning pathways in the GLAM and Library Carpentries space. Attendees emphasized the importance of clear takeaways from networking events, gaining more support in training through workshops and skill up sessions. There was also a brief discussion on planning for Carpentry Connect 2025 in New Zealand, highlighting the value of a hybrid event to support researchers who may not have access to travel funding. 

As a next step, community members in Aotearoa are invited to fill out a quick Google form to help identify workshop demand within the community. The deadline to complete the form is 15 June. 

If you are new to the Carpentries community in Aotearoa or are interested to learn more, we have multiple communication channels for keeping you posted:

Ending with a huge thank you to community members who come together to make these networking events a wonderful opportunity to connect! Ngā mihi nui! 

Here are some photos from the three local hubs in New Zealand:

Attribution: 

Attribution: 

Attribution: 
Pic 1,2,3: VUW Wellington (Attendees were from VUW, Te Papa, ESR, Manaaki Whenua, and University of Auckland)
Pic 4: Old Government House Auckland, (Attendees from Centre for eResearch UoA, Genomics Aotearoa and NeSI)
Pic 5: Staff Common Room Dunedin (Attendees from University of Otago RTIS and NeSI)

 

Topic: 
Community