Gather.Town Guidelines

Gather.town offers a virtual space for conference attendees to interact with other attendees and sponsors. In the virtual space of SIGSPATIAL 2020, you can search a specific person and chat with text or video. You can have a video chat with a person who is close enough with you or with people in the same private space as you. You can also interact with objects in the space. You can use arrow keys for moving around in the space. A shortcut “x” will enable/disable all interactions with objects.

The gather.town space for SIGSPATIAL 2020 consists of 11 rooms. Three of them are big rooms: a main foyer as a hub, a bar for social purpose, and a beach with additional social space. Seven smaller rooms for the sponsors plus one smaller room for the keynote speakers. All the rooms are connected by portals as is shown below.



Sign in

Please sign in to https://gather.town/app/brWjWDAiauCYyPuc/sigspatial2020, with the passcode received from the conference. Then type your name, and click “Join the Gathering”. If your browser asks for you permission to use microphone and camera, please answer “Allow”.

Enable/disable your audio and video

After signing in, you have the option to enable/disable your audio/video at the right bottom corner.

Change character

Click the first button on the bottom menu to adjust your character.

Change name

Click the last button on the bottom menu to change your name.

Search a person for chatting

You can search a specific person with his/her name in the “PARTICIPANTS” menu on the right. Once you identify the person, you can use “Locate” to find a path to reach the person. Or you can click on “chat” for messaging.



Video chat

You can have video chat with a person who is close enough to you.

The interaction distance can be adjusted using the button with concentric circles at the bottom menu. The interaction distances for different configurations are shown below.

Private space

When you step in a private space, a note will be shown at the bottom with content “You have entered a private space”. Then you can chat with only people who are in the same private space.

Private spaces with tables/chairs

Each table and the chairs around the table make up a private space, and only people sitting on the chairs around the same table can talk to each other.

Private areas on the beach

There are four big private areas at the beach, and you walk into any private area to talk with people in that area, even far apart.

Interact with objects

When you approach an interactable object, it will be highlighted. You can then press “x” button to interact with it. An object could be an image, a web page, or an external zoom call.