Meet the Team: Thirza Ember

 Thirza Ember organizes group tours around opensim with the group HG Safari. The tours began back in 2014 and over the years, the group has visited all kinds of grids - commercial and free, large and small. Thirza is part of the planning committee for the Hypergrid International Expo.

What do you think is the most difficult aspect of organizing the Expo?
 Certainly has to be the people who have volunteered to give the talks! I admire them - it involves a lot of thought and courage to stand up and speak. We have 8 talks planned, plus five artistic performances, so it's going to be a fascinating event.

The event will be on Craft grid - why is that a good choice in your view?
There are many choices for holding an event in opensim - so many stable and reliable grids these days, we are spoiled for choice! Craft grid is a great fit for this event because we already have the infrastructure set up - the Language groups where people will be able to read the 'subtitles' and understand the talks, and Licu Rau has been generous with space for the auditorium build that Mal Burns and Arielle Delamerlibre build some years back. It's a popular grid, and many of our presenters already have avatars here, so that also makes life easier, in case anyone crashes while speaking.... it's good to think ahead!

HIE is a complex event, but what's the most important part of the event, in your view?

The community spirit is the most important bit. Everyone doing something to make the event interesting - from the speakers to the performers, to the team behind the streaming and filming, the translators, and the people making the publicity booths and of course the international public - it's all part of a single willing spirit to make the most of opensim.