how a “tea” works: Prior to the event, everyone who plans to attend picks a paper authored by the visitor and reads it. The choice of the paper is entirely up to you. When we get together, the visitor will have 10-15 minutes to introduce themselves (with or without visual aids). Then each of us will very briefly introduce ourselves. After that, the conversation opens: we will start by asking questions of the visitor based on what we have read. Because everyone will have read something different, the person asking a question is responsible for synthesizing enough background for the rest of the people so that everyone has sufficient context to understand what the question is about. We’ve done it a number of times in the past, and it tends to be a blast. I hope you can come.