Welcome to Spark@AGU 2026! 🌟
Ready to spark conversation? Spark@AGU talks are a dynamic five minutes of exactly 20 auto-advancing slides! This isn't your typical research presentation. Speakers craft engaging visuals and accessible language on any topic they choose. It's quick, bold, and creative – leave the jargon behind!
Spark@AGU is an innovative presentation format hosted by the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) in conjunction with the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting. Each speaker has exactly 5 minutes to present their ideas using 20 slides that automatically advance every 15 seconds.
Event Details:
- 📅 When: Wednesday, December 9, 2026, 6:00–8:30 PM local time
- 📍 Where: East Brother Beer Co. Rec Room, 135 4th St, San Francisco, CA 94103
- ⏱️ Format: 5-minute presentations with 20 auto-advancing slides
- 🎯 Goal: Make science accessible, engaging, and conversation-starting
Note: The speaker lineup and detailed run-of-show times in
schedule.yamlare still TBD.
What Makes Spark Special:
- Fast-paced: 20 slides × 15 seconds = exactly 5 minutes
- Accessible: No jargon - designed for broad audiences
- Creative: Visual storytelling over technical details
- Diverse Topics: Any subject that sparks curiosity and conversation
Learn more about Spark: https://www.esipfed.org/spark-agu/
If you're an organizer or speaker, add yourself to the website:
- Copy the template file:
cp team/template.yaml team/FirstName-LastName.yaml - Edit your new file with your information (bio, expertise, social links, etc.)
- Commit your changes and create a pull request
- Copy the template file:
cp speakers/template.yaml speakers/FirstName-LastName.yaml - Fill in the speaker's details and add a headshot to
{{ cookiecutter.repo_directory }}/assets/images/ - Commit your changes and create a pull request
The site has two phases, controlled by event_phase in cookiecutter.yaml
(cfp while soliciting speakers, lineup for the normal event page). See
MAINTAINING.md for what each phase shows and the five-step
flip back to lineup.
Key files to modify for event content:
cookiecutter.yaml- Main event details (dates, location, description, banner image,event_phase)schedule.yaml- Event schedule and speaker lineupteam/*.yaml- Individual organizer profilesspeakers/*.yaml- Individual speaker profiles
The build process consolidates the individual team/ and speakers/ files into
team/team.yaml and speakers/speakers.yaml automatically — don't hand-edit those aggregates.
This website uses:
- Cookiecutter for templating
- YAML configuration files for easy content management
- Jinja2 templating with Markdown support
- Bootstrap for responsive design
- GitHub Pages for hosting
conda env create -f environment.yml
conda activate splashpage
./scripts/build_resources.sh
cd _build/html && python3 -m http.server 8000- General Questions: Contact the ESIP team
- Technical Issues: Open an issue in this repository
- Spark Information: Visit https://www.esipfed.org/spark-agu/
- Event Website: https://esipfed.github.io/spark-2026/
- ESIP: https://www.esipfed.org/
- Spark@AGU Info: https://www.esipfed.org/spark-agu/
- AGU Fall Meeting: https://www.agu.org/fall-meeting
This site is based on the eScience splashpage template and was adapted from ESIPFed/spark-2025.