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Clients · Community
The IrisBG community & our Coffee Chats
Informal video meetings with your peers (and us!). The Coffee Chats are a virtual coffee break for the IrisBG community, where you get the opportunity to share experiences and give each other input.
What happens
A coffee break with the people who do your job
Perhaps you are wondering how to tackle a certain issue, or you have found a smart way to use IrisBG that may benefit others. IrisBG staff are present, so questions to us are also welcome.
Sign up to our newsletter if you would like to receive invitations to our Coffee Chats. We send out a meeting invitation before each one.
Do you have something you want to discuss with your peers at a meeting? Great: send us an email at hello@irisbg.com.
To read articles and watch recordings of previous Coffee Chats, see the IrisBG Coffee Chats section of our knowledge base.
Why "Coffee Chat"?
The inspiration comes from the English coffeehouse culture during the Enlightenment.
Just as the coffeehouses once offered an alternate sphere to meet and discuss “matters of mutual concern”, we would like to create a similar arena for you, our community, to meet and discuss smart ways to use IrisBG and to find clever solutions to the problems that arise in the daily work with your collection.
Together we might become a bit wiser. And unlike the good old coffeehouses, we don't discriminate.
Practical details
How the meetings run
Everything you need to know before joining your first chat.
- Length
- Meetings are scheduled for 60 minutes unless something else is communicated.
- When
- We start out with every second Tuesday in the month at 3 pm UTC, but feel free to suggest a time and date that suits you better.
- Time zones
- Our community spans many different time zones, so we may add meetings to accommodate that.
- Format
- A chat may have a theme, but in general the format is open and we welcome questions and discussion.
- Topics
- We encourage you to submit topic suggestions. If a question needs more preparation, we address it in a later chat, in an article, or directly by email.
- Recordings
- All meetings are recorded, but breakout sessions are not. To inspire participation, we do not share recordings of the discussions in plenum unless otherwise stated.
We also encourage everyone to keep their video on, as it makes these chats friendly and engaging.
For all members of the IrisBG community
Everyone who is a member of the IrisBG community is welcome. If you work or volunteer for a garden or institution with an active subscription, you are automatically a member, with no separate registration needed. We can make exceptions too, so just get in touch if you are interested.
Stay connected
Where else the community meets
The Coffee Chats are the meeting point, but the conversation carries on in a few other places too.
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Newsletter
Coffee Chat invitations and news from IrisBG, delivered before each meeting.
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Our users
The botanical gardens, arboreta, universities and estates you will meet at a Coffee Chat.
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Testimonials
Curators and directors on what changed for them after moving their records to IrisBG.
Come to the next Coffee Chat
Subscribe to the newsletter and we'll send you the invitation, or start a free 60-day trial and bring your own questions along.