Break people out into groups (anywhere from 5 - 8 usually works well) to get to know one another & the topic. Suggested structure can include:
Have introductions of people
What’s your name / Twitter
What have you come here to do?
What type of data are you interested in
e.g. genomic data, MRI data, word frequency
I know a bit about...
What would you like to see happen today
Introductions to the topic
Here just allow folks to discuss what's on their mind.
Encourage new folks to speak up and ask the silly question.
For these sessions, use a Google doc (or similar) to take notes on introductions & questions collaboratively. Later, these can be reviewed by everyone to get a deeper idea of who's attending in the room and online. Think about providing in-room references for people to indicate where they are (e.g. number the tables).
That is, beyond the name tags covered in #13.
Here's what we currently have in https://github.com/UVA-DSI/2017-doathon/blob/master/guide/on-the-day-instructions.md#getting-to-know-each-other--the-topic :