ISCB-SC:pubs:10rules: Difference between revisions
Manuelcorpas (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
Manuelcorpas (talk | contribs) |
||
Line 27: | Line 27: | ||
* '''Select carefully your key helpers I: the steering committee and the local organising committee''' | * '''Select carefully your key helpers I: the steering committee and the local organising committee''' | ||
Many skills are required for a successful organisation of your meeting. You do not need to master all skills, but you will need an organising committee that is able to cover all of them. Some potential areas in which people from your organising committee could be separated as follows: 1) contents and design of website and promotion materials; 2) finances and fundraising; 3) reviews of submitted material; 4) on-site specifically related issues; 5) marketing and promotion; 6) programme and speakers. Your organising committee should be large enough to handle all the above aspects but not too large, avoiding free loaders on your committees. Your local organising committee will play a crucial role involving local institutions, speakers and companies. You may want to offer some time as industry talks or demos as a way to raise money. Local organisations can help you with administrative tasks, dealing with registration of attendees and finding accommodation around the venue. | Many skills are required for a successful organisation of your meeting. You do not need to master all skills, but you will need an organising committee that is able to cover all of them. Some potential areas in which people from your organising committee could be separated as follows: 1) contents and design of website and promotion materials; 2) finances and fundraising; 3) reviews of submitted material; 4) on-site specifically related issues; 5) marketing and promotion; 6) programme and speakers. Your organising committee should be large enough to handle all the above aspects but not too large, avoiding free loaders on your committees. Your local organising committee will play a crucial role involving local institutions, speakers and companies. You may want to offer some time as industry talks or demos as a way to raise money. Local organisations can help you with administrative tasks, dealing with registration of attendees and finding accommodation around the venue. | ||
* '''Allow plenty of planning time''' | * '''Allow plenty of planning time''' | ||
We recommend from nine months up to a year as the minimum time for the organisation of a conference. Bigger conferences even allow one and a half years. You need to take into consideration enough time for the submission and production deadlines. Allow yourself double your initial prection time for submission. Review of abstracts or articles is a time consuming process and you will need time to allow your reviewers do their job, notify authors and give them time to submit their corrections. You also have to think of leaving your attendants enough time to book their flights early, get their visas and let your societies and network spread the annpouncements of your conference as much as possible. Early booking may also affect the price of your venue. | |||
* '''Study all potential financial issues affecting the event''' | * '''Study all potential financial issues affecting the event''' | ||
Sponsors are the other great source of income together with the registration fees. You will need to present your sponsors with a clear proposal that states how they can benefit. For that reason, you will also need to do your thinking and approach those potential sponsors that best match your proposed area and topics for your conference. The closer the topic to the technologies related to your conference topic, the greater the chances of raise your sponsor's interest. If they say they are not interested this year, keep their contact for the future, as they might change their mind. In any case approach them early rather than later. The cost of your conference will be proportional to the capacity of the venue, therefore a good estimation of the number of attendants can tell you a good estimate of your final costs. You will need to include meals, coffee breaks, the actual cost of renting your venue. This will all ultimately affect the registration fee. Other potential costs might include fellowships, publication costs of proceedings in a journal and awards for outstanding contributors. | |||
== During the Conference == | == During the Conference == |
Revision as of 03:42, 3 December 2007
Home Contact Organization Activities Resources Regional Groups |
Don't forget to visit the Student Council Website |
ISCB-SC:pubs:10rules Our experience organizing successful scientific and educational events for students in the bioinformatics community (while operating on a low budget). PreambleMore and more scientific career articles [ref Nat Genetics Article] are converging on the need for students and researchers to be able to 'know how' to organise a scientific meeting. Scientific meetings are at the heart of the scientist's professional life, since they provide an invaluable opportunity for learning, networking and brainstorming new ideas. In addition, meetings should be enjoyable experiences that add exciting breaks to the usual routine in the lab. From our experience in organising the Student Council Symposium [ref Nature Article, ref BMC], a satellite meeting of an ISCB-related mainstream conference [ref PLoS], we ourselves have learnt a great deal of some scientific aspects not so well cared for in the usual academic curricula. We argue that the experience of organising events by students has immense value for the development of the future scientist. Many skills are exercised, organisational, managerial, team work effort, etc. All of these skills are important assets that may make the difference for a successful scientific career path. Before the Conference
When choosing a topic for a conference, it is important to have in mind the needs of your target audience. Make sure that you have a sufficiently wide range of areas, without being too general. Bear in mind that the greater the number of topics covered the more people are likely to come, but the less likely it is that it will allow to deepen into interesting questions. Emerging areas are more likely to attract greater interest.
If this is your first conference, in order to maximise its impact it needs to be as far apart as possible from similar topics established conferences. A potential strategy that may ensure a great number of participants is to organise your event around a main conference, such as satellite meetings or Special Interest Groups (SIGs). Teaming up with mainstream conferences may also save you a great deal of work in terms of choosing the right location and admin work. If you decide to go on your own, you should consider the accessibility of the place, how easy is to fly there, its public transport, etc. Turistic resorts may also offer the posibility of making of it a holiday, so more people may be attracted to come to your event. Cheaper accommodation and cheaper airfares to your destination is always a plus.
A conference should a learning experience at the same time it is enjoyable. A conference is a place for sharing and exchanging of ideas. Having well known speakers always attract greater number of people, but submitted material of high quality from attendants should also have a prominent chunk of your time. Keynotes are extremely busy people so confirm them very early and try to mix senior sicnetists with young Principal Investigators (PIs). Young PIs may be more enthusiastic and inspiring for students, while top senior scientists will be able to present a more complete perspective of your fiels. Something that has worked quite well for us has been to ask propose to your potential audience a list of speakers and let them choose their preferred ones. Allow plenty of time for socialising too, breaks and meals are ideal occassions for meeting potential collaborators and fostering networking with peers.
Many skills are required for a successful organisation of your meeting. You do not need to master all skills, but you will need an organising committee that is able to cover all of them. Some potential areas in which people from your organising committee could be separated as follows: 1) contents and design of website and promotion materials; 2) finances and fundraising; 3) reviews of submitted material; 4) on-site specifically related issues; 5) marketing and promotion; 6) programme and speakers. Your organising committee should be large enough to handle all the above aspects but not too large, avoiding free loaders on your committees. Your local organising committee will play a crucial role involving local institutions, speakers and companies. You may want to offer some time as industry talks or demos as a way to raise money. Local organisations can help you with administrative tasks, dealing with registration of attendees and finding accommodation around the venue.
We recommend from nine months up to a year as the minimum time for the organisation of a conference. Bigger conferences even allow one and a half years. You need to take into consideration enough time for the submission and production deadlines. Allow yourself double your initial prection time for submission. Review of abstracts or articles is a time consuming process and you will need time to allow your reviewers do their job, notify authors and give them time to submit their corrections. You also have to think of leaving your attendants enough time to book their flights early, get their visas and let your societies and network spread the annpouncements of your conference as much as possible. Early booking may also affect the price of your venue.
Sponsors are the other great source of income together with the registration fees. You will need to present your sponsors with a clear proposal that states how they can benefit. For that reason, you will also need to do your thinking and approach those potential sponsors that best match your proposed area and topics for your conference. The closer the topic to the technologies related to your conference topic, the greater the chances of raise your sponsor's interest. If they say they are not interested this year, keep their contact for the future, as they might change their mind. In any case approach them early rather than later. The cost of your conference will be proportional to the capacity of the venue, therefore a good estimation of the number of attendants can tell you a good estimate of your final costs. You will need to include meals, coffee breaks, the actual cost of renting your venue. This will all ultimately affect the registration fee. Other potential costs might include fellowships, publication costs of proceedings in a journal and awards for outstanding contributors. During the Conference
After the Conference
AcknowledgementsWe would like to acknowledge the International Society for Computational Biology for their support towards its Student Council, in particular BJ Morrison-McKay and Steven Leard. We are also grateful to all the Student Council leadership for their enthusiasm and work in the many activities. References
THIS IS THE PREVIOUS MATERIALBefore the Conference
During the Conference
After the Conference
|