The XML conference I chair has traditionally run from Tuesday to Friday, with a closing keynote at lunch on the Friday. Friday has always been a slow day, and was so last year despite some excellent talks. Part of this is because people are tired, and partially because the exhibitors pack up and go home on Thursday evening.
So we’ve made some changes this year.
The conference proper will now run from Tuesday to Thursday, with exhibits on all three days. We’ll close the conference with a big dinner and keynote speaker Thursday evening.
Tutorials used to be on Sunday and Monday; they will now be Monday and Friday. We also expect some standards groups to hold meetings on Monday and Friday; for obvious reasons they are encouraged to not clash with the conference, but scheduling meetings at the same time as tutorials is not such a problem.
These changes do mean that we will be able to take fewer papers, so it will be harder for speakers to get through the review system and on to the program. Overall, this is probably not a bad thing but it does make the job of the Planning Committee more challenging and my gratitude to the reviewers even greater.
I think these changes will help the conference. Being in November (rather than December) will also help. And we’re back to a small hotel, rather than a big conference center, so people will easily find each other. All of these are big positives. Now we just have to make sure that people submit their talks on time (deadline is a month earlier than last year, since the conference is a month earlier!).
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