Conference Management Best Practices Experience sharing from Indicon2011, India s Flagship IEEE Conference Conference Organizers Workshop (COW), Hyderabad, 25 th April, 2015 M.G.P.L.Narayana
About Indicon2011 Jointly organized by India Council & IEEE Hyderabad Section. INDICON 2011 is 2011 Annual IEEE India Conference. 3-day program; (1 day tutorial and two day conference) 16-18 th Dec, 2011 at BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus Theme, Engineering Sustainable Solutions Accepted and Presented papers up in IEEE Xplore digital lib. Targeted at Academicians, Researchers, Practitioners across India Advisory committee of International repute. Branded Conference. 2
Outcome & Impact Attended by 600+ Participants Received 1040 manuscripts for review. Accepted 367 Papers Only, after the review. Final Publication 318 Papers Only, to IEEE Xplore. Conference attended by dignitaries like IEEE President-Elects, R10, Senior Staff of IEEE, India Council. 8 Tutorials, 2 Workshops, One Special Session by IEEE Standards, 200 Oral Presentations over 4 Tracks, 120 Papers over two Dialogue Sessions, 8 Invited Lectures, 2 Plenary Lectures, 1 Panel discussion by E4C (Engineers for Change) and the inaugural by the Governor of AP. Valedictory Keynote by the current IEEE President. Humor & Culture programs are add-ons. Stalls by IEEE, Industry; Sponsorships from Industry, Public Sector, IEEE. Leveraged Social Networking Media for Author/Participant engagement, Provision for no-show (but registered) presentations at conference venue. Video Contest & Best Paper Awardees in each Track. Acknowledged as a successful program by visiting dignitaries and participants. 3
Setting the Conference Theme Should be motivating, relevant future trends. Address contemporary situations/problems. Most scalable, price-performance-enhancing solutions need advanced and emerging technologies that are creatively blended with the existing and rapidly evolving infrastructure Dr. CK Prahalad Engineering Sustainable Solutions 4
Selecting the Conference Venue Place of Hospitality Place of Networking of minds Place of learning & sharing Cost Effective & Close to Places of stay Should have ample rooms to conduct parallel sessions of different kinds.(inaugural, Plenary, Invited, Keynotes, Presentations (Oral, Dialogue), space for setting up stalls) BITS Pilani, Hyderabad has been ideal place of choice. 5
Setting up of Conference Committees Advisory Committee (AC) Program Committee (PC) Organizing Committee Recruit Volunteers Regular Telecons with AC/PCs Updates on Major Milestones to AC/PCs Taking feedback and varied perspectives to design the program Received Valuable advisory inputs Regular Planning meetings 6
Identifying Conference Management System (Electronic) A portal for all authors to submit papers A portal for all reviewers to review and record the feedback A portal for Camera Ready Papers A portal for Copyright uploads A portal for uploading Presentation files CMT of Microsoft was chosen portal and found to be extremely useful. 7
Budgeting & Sponsorships MOU between India Council and Hyderabad Section. Income & Expenditure Budgets Advise from ACs L50 Schedule VIII Format to capture Revisions of Budget Proposals. Determine Registration Fee : Should be affordable for most of the participants Set Targets for Sponsorships (Size of Stalls, Passes etc.,) 3 Levels (Platinum, GOLD, Silver) IEEE, Industry & Public Sector are sponsors 8
Call for Papers & Tutorials Theme Agreed on and announced. 9 Tracks and Chairs are Identified Tutorial Chairs Identified Schedules worked out (Last date of submission, camera ready, registration,..) Wide circulation through Section, Council newsletters, notices, websites, Student Braches, Posters and Brochures released 9 months in advance for papers. Paper submission commenced from July. No extension beyond stipulated time for Paper submission. 1040 manuscripts received for review.
Setting up the Review Process Track Chairs already identified. Identify reviewers, introduce CMT System. Choice to select papers to review. Assign Papers for review. Monitor the review progress regularly Reassign papers still pending Assessment: Strong Accept, Accept, Neutral, Reject, Strong Reject Allow a minimum of two reviewers and a Meta Reviewer. Track Chair (also a meta reviewer) to decide in case of a conflict. 10
Branding & Marketing Website Design Conference Logo Design Badges & Banners Conference Kits Branded Merchandise (sold out!) Souvenir & CD Cover Design Messages from Dignitaries Spread the message through Social NWs Present in IEEE Section Congress, SFO, USA and such forums Theme Song Welcome Message (video shot in website) Design of Presentation templates Wide Coverage in Press, TV during the conference Daily newsletters on conference proceedings. 11
Setting up Secretarial Services Identify tasks (handling non technical) that can be routinely done by third parties like website development, creation of collateral, souvenir, CDs, banners, setting up stalls, registrations and reception, Verify the vendors prior experience and assess their willingness and flexibility. Assess the commitment of their staff to make the program a success. Overall cost-effectiveness. Violet Event Marketing (India) Pvt. Ltd was chosen. 12
Announcing the Accepted Papers Check for plagiarism. Check for the review ratings and comments. Resolve the tie in case of conflicting reviews with track chair intervention. Announcing a paper for Oral or Dialogue depending on the Track Chair feedback. Announced in three (I,II, III) phases. Recalled some Phase I announced papers when checked for plagiarism by a tool. Handling Author s reaction to dialogue sessions. Handling 13 Author s reaction to plagiarized
Leveraging Social Networking Media To address emotional aspect of participants and to set the expectations. To spread the message on the conference and solicit early involvement. A Conference need not be limited to only those site days to four walls. Enter the FB era. Capture people aspirations, needs Allow people to network Measure reaction of your action on social media: a feedback mechanism. Gauge the pulse. Allows us to connect the invited to the participants. Even allowed us to showcase no-show (but registered) authors papers by themselves in FB. Maintain the contact even after the conference Twitter, Face Book and Linked-In are the SN/Ws used. 14
Program Planning & Session Management List the dignitaries to be invited. Identify the invited speakers and solicit their short bio & abstract. Identify Chief Guest, Guest of Honour and also who from the hosting institution to be invited. Understand the protocol when inviting dignitaries and suitably receive them. Prepare the Program draft and circulate for advisory comments/feedback. Workout on number of sessions under each Track and in advance identify Session chairs to conduct the sessions.(not on the day of the conference) Circulate Presentation Guidelines well in advance. Collect the presentations of each session and preload them into the respective machines in corresponding rooms. Collect Feedbacks from participants. No Sessions exceeded time limit. Excellent attendance for all sessions. Excellent feedback from Chief Guest and Dignitaries on the timing of each program, event, sessions. 15
Networking Dinner, Culture, Humor Networking Dinner (Gala Dinner) if budget permits. Culture Programs tailored for the theme. Second Day was chosen, as maximum number of participants will be present for the networking dinner. Scientoons (Humor) between Sessions. Panchabhutas (Dance) & Amritavarshini (Music) on first two evenings. 16
Error and Exception Handling Delay in Arrival of Food, Day one Rescheduled Tutorial Programs, Contingency Plans Certificate Printing Errors in Pre-Printed. Used onsite calligrapher to rectify. Errors in Souvenirs Reprinted after the conference A well documented CDs sent to all Participants 17 by post/courier.
Awards & Recognition Video Contest Conducted Prior to the conference Certificates to winners during valedictory Best Papers in each Track Certificates to winners during valedictory Certificates of participation Last day of conference (to ensure the presence) Certificates of presentation Right after each session ( as they have 18 fulfilled their obligation)
Post Conference Activities Cutting CDs for distribution to all participants. Only Presented papers for publication (Xplore) Ensure necessary documentation for sending Papers for IEEE Xplore. Eg. Copyright files for each paper sent. 19
What participants blogged on Indicon2011 It was great to present a poster here. :D P.S.: This was my first presentation. Awesome feeling :) its a remarkable experience @ INDICON. Felt very happy being a part of the program...wonderful experience.. INDICON 2011, A wonderful experience to remember :) Thanks to INDICON 2011, for such a wonderful experience. Was my first ever formal presentation. Bidding good bye now. Congratulatory Message: It was an honor and pleasure to attend Indicon at BITS Pilani. In performing the organizational and custodial duties of conference chair to perfection, you facilitated a very 20 successful event. - by a visiting dignitary from IEEE.
From IEEE President s Blog (dated 10 th Jan, 2012) Just after the celebration at IISc (see below), I had the opportunity to participate in INDICON 2011, the annual conference of the IEEE India Council, organized this year by the IEEE Hyderabad Section. I was joined by IEEE President-Elect Peter Staecker, IEEE Computer Society President John Walz, Tara Wisniewski, Jennie Steinhagen and Harish Mysore of the IEEE Professional Staff, and Noha El Ghobashy, the President of Engineering for Change, a joint humanitarian venture of IEEE, ASME, and Engineers Without Borders-USA. A number of Indian dignitaries helped open the conference, including His Excellency, E.S.L Narasimhan, the Governor or the state of Andhra Pradesh, who spoke and unveiled the logo and conference souvenirs. The conference took the theme Engineering Sustainable Solutions and consisted primarily of about 300 contributed papers, selected from a total of about 2000 submitted. It was held on the Hyderabad campus of BITS Pilani, a private university for science and technology. The program focused primarily on power and energy, communications, and computers, and it was rewarding to hear many, mostly young, Indian engineers vigorously pursuing some of the great quality-oflife issues that engineers have the tools to solve. My congratulations to M.P.G.L Narayana, the conference chair, and his team for an excellent conference. More information, including many pictures and press clippings, can be found on the Indicon Facebook page. 21
Team Work @ Indicon2011 T H A N K Y O U 22
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THANK YOU 24