[2009-program-committee] INCF congress program update

[Pontus Holm]

Dear program committee,

Attached you find an excel sheet summarizing the status of speakers and workshops for the Pilsen 2009 congress.

Keynotes:
Andrew Schwartz (Pittsburgh U.) has accepted to replace Black or Donoghue, both of whom could not make it. This gives us 5 confirmed keynote speakers of the 6 we aim for. In addition, Thomas Hofmann of Google Zürich has been invited.

Workshops:
So far we only have 4 confirmed workshop speakers, out of the 15 we need. We also still need abstract from 4 workshops and co-chair for one.

Recent developments include Andreas Herz accepting to be co-chair of Gaute's workshop. This workshop is now number 3 instead of 1 because of time constraints of a speaker. For Workshop 5 on Connectivity , Karl Friston declined to act as chair. Instead David steps in as chair with Kevan Martin as co-chair. This workshop now has a title (The neuroinformatics of neural connectivity) and a first confirmed speaker in Albert Cardona (UCSD). At first, also Klaas Stephan (UCL) accepted to give a talk but he unfortunately had to cancel due to a double booking. Giorgio Ascoli (GMU) will be invited as third speaker.

Training:
There may be multiple training events taking place in conjunction with the congress. Albert Cardona, who will speak at workshop 5, is planning one such event. We should see to it to coordinate all such initiatives, i.e. the Finnish node course and others.

Venue:
I and David went to Pilsen in early December and met with the local organizers. The congress hotel, Parkhotel, looks very suitable for our needs! We were also shown the very nice historic old town of Pilsen by our hosts, Roman and Vaclav. From the Prague airport one gets to Pilsen by 45 minutes in car or one hour with direct bus. The highways from Germany also present a good alternative, whereas train or bus transportation from Germany to Pilsen is less convenient. All in all, we were very happy with what we saw.

Evening program:
We are planning a welcome reception on the first evening at the Pilsner Brewery, a long poster session with refreshments on the second evening and the conference dinner on the third evening.

Program committee composition:
Vaclav and Mirko has joined the program committee as representatives of the organizing INCF node. Since Andreas is now co-chair of workshop 3, he is also a member of the program committee.

Satellite event:
Professor Syka of the Czech Republic is organizing a satellite event to the congress to showcase Czech science. This event will be supported by the INCF Secretariat but will not be part of the regular congress program and will be completely organized by the Czechs.

Congress web page:
The web page is taking shape, although a lot of facts and design issues remain. Please have a look at www.neuroinformatics2009.org<http://www.neuroinformatics2009.org>.

So, we are well on our way, but needless to say, we need to put more emphasis on recruiting workshop speakers. I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Cheers,
/Pontus

--
Pontus Holm, Ph.D.
Program Officer
International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility Secretariat
Karolinska Institutet
Nobels väg 15A
SE-171 77 Stockholm
Sweden
Email: pontus.holm at incf.org<mailto:pontus.holm at incf.org>
Phone: +46 8 524 87016
Fax: +46 8 524 87150
web: www.incf.org<http://www.incf.org>
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