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0, Date: 19/04/2019
Ref. Ares(2015)4428279-20/10/2015
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Deliverable D7.7
Public Event in Cyprus
________________________________________
Status-Version: 2
EC Distribution: Public
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Aim of the Event
Program of the event
Information of the Event
Presentations and Speakers
List of Participants
Impact
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Executive Summary
This report addresses task 7.7 which corresponds to the organization of the NOTRE public
event in Cyprus, where the Social Computing Research Centre (SCRC) of the Cyprus
University of Technology (CUT) is located. On November 28th, SCRC held a public event in
which the NOTRE project was presented to the members of the industrial community, ICT
entrepreneurs and startups of Cyprus as well as the wider public. The event hosted a
keynote talk Saswati Saha Mitra on "UX at Uber: Building Products for the World: With
Scale and Sensibility". This report presents a description of the event, its aim, the
presentations held and the overall impact.
Response to the request from the “reviewer for Further explanation of relation T7.7 to
provided description shall be required.”:
The public event that took place at the end of the project was implemented with the following
activities at its heart: SCRC and NOTRE presentations, SCRC and NOTRE-related material
dissemination, a keynote talk and lively one-to-one discussion on SCRC and NOTRE work.
The inclusion of a keynote talk from a popular company allowed us to build collaboration
potentials with a worldwide known company and ultimately, attract a wider audience
including administrators, start-ups and scientists thus enabling for the event to reach as wide
dissemination as possible. NOTRE project and SCRC were strongly promoted through the
event not only through the introductory talks, but also through the material and video that
was showcased (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFywiIVJPSM) at the beginning and the
lively discussions that took place on a one-to-one basis at the end of the event between the
SCRC members and the participants of the event. Finally, the User Experience methods
presented by the keynote talk provided a fertile ground for discussing the methods, tools and
materials employed by SCRC members both in funded research projects and general
research activities.
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Invitation
The invitation to the event appears below
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1) Email to participants to previous events (through eventbrite). The list includes more
than 1000 email addresses from different sectors (academic, industrial, educational,
entrepreneurs, startups, mass media)
2) Email to the academic and student list of the Cyprus University of Technology
3) Facebook group
(https://www.facebook.com/events/562096217597789/?active_tab=discussion)
4) Project website
(https://notre.socialcomputing.eu/2018/12/19/ux-at-uber-building-products-for-the-wor
ld-with-scale-and-sensibility/)
Attendees
The event attracted more than 300 attendees (see the complete list of attendees in the
Appendix). The attendees were registered and provided their free ticket through Eventbrite
(https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ux-at-uber-building-products-for-the-world-with-scale-and-sen
sibility-tickets-51040057185?aff=efbevent&fbclid=IwAR39dMzLya81soyTFpBe2whr5Jf-2D6X
Zm0lN2YOTeX_kWxDNf9bEHuYIyE).
The attendees were required to register to the event and provide their ticket for check-in at
the entrance. Check-in to the event was handled through Eventbrite Organizer, through
which we could monitor ticket sales, check-in attendees, track attendance live (see Figure
2).
Figure 2. Registration at the event. In total 350 people registered for the event (55 people
were on the waiting list) and the actual attendance was approximately 300 people.
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Panayiotis Zaphiris, NOTRE coordinator Saswati Saha Mitra, UX leader at Uber, Keynote
speaker
Figure 3. Photos from the presenters
Presentations
At the beginning of the event, the social networks of the event were distributed and
attendees were encouraged to tweet their questions at the NOTRE twitter account using the
hashtag #notresocial and @notre_social. Moreover, material and video related to the work of
NOTRE and SCRC was also disseminated to the attendees.
Initially, the Acting Director of the Social Computing Research Centre, Sotirios Chatzis,
officially opened the event and briefly presented the work of the Social Computing Research
Center (SCRC) (http://socialcomputing.eu/). His talk included an overview of the people
involved in the Centre and its active projects. The speaker also invited the audience to join
forces with the research-active community of the SCRC in order to strengthen the capability
of social computing in Cyprus and the wide-Mediterranean region. Dr. Chatzis presentation
included also an open invitation to scientists, start ups and administrators to reach SCRC in
order to work closely in projects of common interests.
Next, Professor Panayiotis Zaphiris, Coordinator of the NOTRE project, presented the work
that took place during the project. Prof. Zaphiris provided an overview of NOTRE, its
objectives and its achievements. Prof. Zaphiris stressed the importance of this network for
Cyprus in general and for Social Computing Research Centre in specific. Prof. Zaphiris
presentation included also an open invitation to all attendees to reach SCRC in order to work
closely in projects of common interests.
After Prof. Zaphiris, the keynote speaker Saswati Saha Mitra gave
her talk on "UX at Uber: Building Products for the World: With Scale
and Sensibility". Saswati Saha Mitra talked about User Experience
methods and techniques as well as the value of UX specialists within
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the wider team. Uber combines knowledge and techniques from many disciplines such as
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), digital marketing, communication, psychology and
design to deliver truly impressive results in the quality of its products. Saswati Saha Mitra
leads Uber's Global UX Research team. Spread across 5 continents, her team keeps Uber
accountable to its global user base. In her day to day life, she delivers high-quality strategic
insights to Uber's Product and Business Leaders, along with building scalable processes that
allow anyone in the company to become a user expert. Some of the work her team is proud
to own include booking trips for friends and family, adding cash payments and hailing an
Uber on the go. Saswati's passion for international product development results from
conducting research in 25+ countries for some of the world's most innovative companies -
Google, Vodafone, Intel, Nokia, Whirlpool and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In her
talk, Saswati provided an overview of how product design at Uber is driven from the
principles of usability and user experience. Uber is a ridesharing app for fast, reliable rides in
minutes. Uber combines knowledge and techniques from many disciplines such as
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), communication, psychology and design to deliver truly
impressive results in the quality of its products.
At this stage, cards and pens were distributed to the audience, giving them the opportunity to
write down questions to the keynote speaker (see Figure 5). They were also encouraged to
tweet their questions at the NOTRE twitter account using the hashtag #notresocial.
Figure 4. Keynote presentation from Uber during the Public Event.
In the third part, there was an open discussion with the participation of the public coordinated
by Antigoni Parmaxi, Research Associate at SCRC.
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Questions
● How does Uber rebranding affect its growth?
● How do you share knowledge in such large groups/teams?
● What tools do you use to build, spread, and store your knowledge base?
● Is a global UX really a thing? How well does the used and the designer can
differentiate from global brand stereotypes?
● Do you have any idea whether uber tried investing in Cyprus and start being
available here? And if yes, what was the feedback you got?
● How does uber ensure profitability?
● What was the argument that won during the product design meeting and you decided
that “users will bring the content”?
● How uber runs UX design processes? Do you have design sprints or any other
unique process?
● How well does research data get factored into the ux design process?
● Thoughts on small cities vis-a-vis transportation? Changing the way we move in the
city changes our habits/culture?
● Have you studied the Cypriot market? What are the potentials?
● You have focused your talk on drivers, what about the other side of the coin? Is uber
considering analysing differences in users (cultural etc…) to offer more personalised
services?
● Do you use classical culture methods to measure culture like Hoefsteds, Tromenaar’s
model?
At the end, the attendees and speakers enjoyed drinks and snacks together while talking
and networking.
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6. Impact
The User Experience methods and techniques that Saswati Saha Mitra presented raised
questions and a live discussion with the audience which included the industrial and the
academic community. This event gave the opportunity to different stakeholders to receive
information on the role and work of the Social Computing Research Centre and open new
directions for research and academic proposals in the near future. More specifically, our
discussion with UiBS United Business Solutions Ltd (Microsoft partner located in Limassol,
Cyprus) brought to the surface new opportunities for collaboration in the area of an intelligent
social transportation system to be developed and used in Cyprus. Moreover, virtual reality
applications were also discussed with Uber that could facilitate the impact of SCRC to the
wider audience and its effort to attract funding at a local and European level. Finally, the
User Experience methods presented by the keynote talk provided a fertile ground for
discussing the methods, tools and materials employed by SCRC members both in funded
research projects and general research activities.
Through this event, two aims of NOTRE were achieved such as addressing networking gaps
and deficiencies between SCRC and internationally leading companies (in this case Uber)
in Europe to promote a culture of excellence and innovation in Cyprus. Additionally, this
event had a role in addressing an objective of NOTRE as a project which is to strengthen
work in the domain of Social Computing in Cyprus, through potential synergies between
SCRC/CUT with local industry and academia.
Figure 6. The attendees of the event were approximately 300 coming from the
industry, academia and political sphere of Cyprus.
In Social Media:
During the event, the event was distributed in social media channels including twitter,
facebook and linkedin using #notresocial and @notresocial. The audience engaged in
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Live streaming
The event was attended by multiple stakeholders from different areas (including industrial
companies in Cyprus). Amongst these is #DisruptCyprus.com, a tech vlog about Startups,
Innovation, Disruption and Technology in Cyprus. The vlog has more than 9,000+ social
media followers on Facebook and more than 3000+ followers in other social media
platforms. #DisruptCyprus.com offered a live streaming of the event to its followers which is
available in the following link:
https://www.facebook.com/disruptcyprus/videos/346494575931075/?fref=mentions&__xts__[
0]=68.ARC-mvVwv7SLg6OX4CR8V3_idqkFs9CdHatEfFlhLREUwAMOdU3lOw1bIVZVjXow
7kQ0n8jRdp1tyb1-fcWDWOSESwu77wg1RhO7FoB9opWIZ0C0ffUUC20moncMjofkekt3vK3
7CCcfv9LeTCJx363HSDqbwcBLoPJnOatwEZS6amu36qnc0OUUzQurEruY1-o6DIN0gl40Gt
Y&__tn__=K-R
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Announcements:
The event was advertised in Palo.com.cy (online), Notre Website.
In the News:
The event was covered in the news in eight Cypriot local newspapers:
Sigma Live (online).
4. List of Participants.
Attached as Appendix I
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