Workshop FAQ

Yes, we can provide an official letter after the workshop. Many attendees request these letters as evidence of the time they've invested towards their professional development and education. For the in-person workshop, we will check you in at the registration booth to confirm your attendance and send you the letter. For the virtual workshop, the attendance logs are used to send you a letter confirming that you participated.

Professional certification is also available for STPA and CAST. The certificate requires completing a small project and undergoing a formal evaluation based on established criteria. The workshop alone does not provide the in-depth training or evaluation needed to fulfill all of these criteria.

No. The workshop is free and open to everyone. You just need to register and have an interest. Short tutorials introduce all the core concepts you need to follow the rest of the workshop.

Yes. Attendees are a mix of newcomers and experienced practitioners, and the workshop opens with introductions to STAMP, STPA, and CAST. At the in-person workshop, the first day is spent in a classroom, where you get a basic introduction to the methods, try them yourself, and ask an instructor questions.

For the virtual workshop, the introductory tutorials were recorded at the first virtual workshop and are online. If you're new to STAMP, watch them before the workshop starts. They explain the steps, introduce the terms and acronyms, and show examples of each step, so you can follow the presentations.

For in-depth training, professional classes are offered separately. They are designed to give you enough to start using the methods on your own applications. There is also a professional certification option for the STPA Practitioner Certificate. The getting started page lists other resources, starting with the ones that take the least effort.

Why two events? The 2023 workshop was hybrid, in person and virtual at the same time, and it was hard to run, because problems on the virtual side delayed the room and vice versa. The two audiences also want different things. In-person participants have no trouble with 30 to 40 hours of content in a week and asked for longer, more in-depth sessions. Few people can engage online for 40 hours, whether in one week or spread over several, and the virtual audience asked for shorter, more direct sessions. In 2023 we chose session lengths in between, and they suited neither group. Several in-person presenters also asked not to be recorded or streamed so they could discuss sensitive safety problems openly, and some would have cut significant content for a virtual audience. These lessons led us to run separate in-person and virtual events from 2024 on.

None of the in-person workshop is broadcast, because presenters often can't get approval to share details with thousands of unknown viewers in a recording kept forever. The in-person event also has many more chances to meet people with similar roles and problems.

The virtual workshop has about two hours of short talks a day over three or four days. A few thousand people sign up each year, more than familiar meeting platforms can handle, so individual cameras, audio, and breakout rooms aren't possible. We do use chat, Q&A, and raised hands. Each day ends with an open Q&A session, which participants often name as one of the most useful parts.

If you have ideas about next year's format, add a comment when you register.

Business casual. A few presenters choose business formal, but it isn't required, and nearly all attendees dress business casual.

Yes. See in-person logistics.

No. The in-person event is not recorded. The answer above on the differences between the two workshops explains why.

Yes. Your registration confirmation email has a link to the attendee portal, where you can request an invitation letter.

Zoom Webinar, a version of Zoom built for large audiences. A few weeks before the virtual workshop, everyone registered receives an email with instructions for joining.

Some groups can't use Zoom because of firewalls or other restrictions. Options we know of:

• Some people can join from a home computer or with their VPN turned off, as long as they won't share any work-related, secret, or proprietary information.
• Some can use Zoom in a web browser, which needs different permissions, even when the Zoom app is blocked. Both options will be available.
• Zoomgov.com is hosted in the U.S. with stricter security requirements and lets U.S. government, military, and defense employees join Zoom meetings. Find the webinar ID near the bottom of the email with your personal Zoom link, go to Zoomgov.com, and enter it. We tested this with several military and defense attendees whose firewalls block regular Zoom. Your situation may differ.
• We also run an alternative stream outside Zoom. Registered participants receive instructions a few weeks before the workshop.

When you register, you'll get instructions for the alternative stream.

The alternative stream offers a rebroadcast 24 hours later. You'll get instructions when you register.

Because of the audience size, cameras and microphones are turned off for everyone except presenters. You won't see buttons to unmute or start your video.

You won't see chat messages from before you rejoined, but you will see the earlier Q&A.

Not easily, because of privacy and legal concerns. Many participants say the chat discussions and written answers from presenters were a highlight of the virtual workshop. We may someday post an edited version, but there is no funding for that work, so it's hard to find the time.

Some will be recorded and some won't. There are two issues.

Permission. We need each speaker's permission to post a recording. Many agree to a live stream but not to a posted video. Many talks present safety-critical and security-critical findings from real projects, often showing how a new approach caught major flaws that had been missed before, and we're fortunate they agree to present at all. Approval to speak is often easier to get than approval for a permanent recording. Approvals are also unpredictable. Some expected approvals don't come, some arrive after the talk, some refusals turn into last-minute approvals, and sometimes permission is withdrawn after the workshop once the speaker's organization reviews what was said. So we often can't say in advance whether a video will be posted.

Legal requirements. MIT was sued over free videos that didn't meet certain requirements, so posting videos now involves a process. That process costs money, and because the workshop is free there is no funding for it. It depends on volunteers working in their spare time, which slows editing and posting considerably.

We intend to post videos of the virtual workshop's broadcast sessions once that process is complete. Videos won't be posted for in-person-only sessions. We expect slides for most talks to be posted, with the authors' approval.