Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Call for proposals for a satellite meeting of the International Biogeography Society

The International Biogeography Society solicits proposals for a small conference in late 2013 or early 2014, as a complement to the primary biennial meetings. 

Historically, the IBS has held biennial meetings in Europe or North America because of the geographic location of the majority of our members.  However, the IBS also has convened small meetings between the biennial meetings.  In 2011 an “early-career conference” was held at Oxford University, and in 2010 the IBS sponsored a symposium at a UNESCO conference in Paris.  We wish these “satellite” meetings to become a regular activity, to better help students and professionals remain active and exchange ideas.  We also wish to provide new opportunities in regions where IBS’s membership currently is small, such as in the southern hemisphere and Asia.  A list of the locations of our past meetings is provided here: http://www.biogeography.org/html/Meetings/index.html

The IBS has limited funding to invest towards development and planning such a meeting.  The local committee, in collaboration with the IBS, will be involved in all of the steps of developing the meeting such as including securing the venue, publicity, registration, abstract submission, among other tasks.  Importantly, registrat
ion fees and sponsors must fund the meeting.  We are also open to joint meetings with other societies for mutual benefit.

The meeting should have a theme that appeals to IBS members globally and to people nearby who previously have been unable to attend an IBS event.  A meeting size of 100–200 people would be a success.

If hosting a satellite meeting interests you, please respond with the following information by 1 March 2013.  Proposals are welcome from existing or new IBS members, but discouraged from convention centers or tourism bureaus.

1. The basics: a) location of the meeting (city), b) the host institution or organization, c) proposed dates, and d) names of the proposed local organizing committee.
2. The topical focus (e.g., early career conference, a regional focus, or a sub-discipline focus) and the target number of attendees.
3. The proposed format:, a) general organization of talks (number of keynote speakers in plenary sessions, number of concurrent sessions), b) possible workshops, c) possible field trips.
4. The actual site of the meeting: a) the capacity of the auditorium, b) area for posters

5. Budgetary issues.  At this point the main considerations should be a) cost of the venue, and b) cost of hotels.
6. Transportation infrastructure, including travel from airport


Sincerely,

Dan Gavin
Associate Professor, University of Oregon
VP for Conferences of the IBS

2 comments:

Ben Vallejo said...

Any plans of having the satellite meeting in Asia, especially in South East Asia?

This should attract more participation from biogeographers who work where Wallace worked!

Mike Dawson said...

It can be on the table ... we would love to see a great proposal!