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Just-in-Time sessions: Another innovation introduced at this year's Conference was the scheduling of Just-in-Time (JIT) sessions. As with poster sessions, these JIT sessions are intended to put the notion of "conferring" back into the meaning of "conference." The JIT sessions are reserved for discussion of impromptu topics that are driven by the interests of participants. These sessions are based on the "open space" concept described at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Space_Technology, and are intended to promote real dialogue between attendees as well as encourage cross-pollination between disciplines. Instead of just spending all of their time listening to prepared presentations following a pre-set agenda, the Just-in-Time sessions will allow participants to engage others in topics with new thinking, constructive criticism and problem solving. The organizing team is excited about this innovative addition to our annual Conference. This is another innovation that we especially hope to see repeated in Huntsville.
More formal approach to tutorials: Other conferences, such as the annual Digital Avionic Systems Conference (DASC), feature prepared tutorials with prepared handouts, registration and other attributes that clearly put their tutorials in the area of professional training. Many tutorials offered at previous Conferences of the System Safety Society have also been high quality. However, the lack of formalities such as prepared handouts and registration has sometimes created difficulties. For example, it is common for participants to wander in and out of tutorials or, as we sometimes called it, "pigeon-like" behavior. For example, someone might attend the first 30 minutes of one tutorial, and then visit another tutorial for a few minutes, next attend a paper presentation and then wander back to the first tutorial to pick up their CEU certificate. Our efforts to put the tutorial component on a more solid foundation focused mainly on performing a more thorough review of tutorial proposals. For example, this included a requirement that tutorial proposals be accompanied by sample slides from the teaching material. For logistical reasons, we were not able to implement a formal registration process. However, we recommend a formal registration process for tutorials be implemented at future Conferences. We also recommend offering to partially reimburse tutorial presenters for travel expenses — just enough to make the tutorial proposals more competitive, but not so much as to undermine the "volunteerism" that the Society has enjoyed from members who have prepared and presented tutorials at the annual Conference.
Multiple tiers of sponsorship: Our Sponsors and Exhibitors chair produced an innovative strategy for offering multiple tiers of sponsorship in an effort to attract a larger amount of funding from sponsors, without excluding sponsors who are only able to afford sponsorships at the existing level. For various reasons, it was not possible to implement this strategy this year. However, we passed on the results of this effort to the Huntsville team for next year.
Welcome reception: Aside from the obvious fact that this Monday evening reception enhanced the Conference experience for our registrants, this event was intended to help avoid a surge of people who would otherwise wait until Tuesday morning at 7:50 a.m. to register, pick up their Conference bag, etc. To further this goal, a complimentary drink ticket was included in the registration materials, and attendees needed to register first if they wanted to have a free drink at the Welcome reception.
Awards luncheon: After careful consideration, our planning team decided to break with tradition by scheduling an awards luncheon rather than an awards banquet. This decision was made for a number of reasons. Some of these reasons were unique to the circumstances of the Vancouver Conference. However, the most important reason for this change was the desire to provide a greater opportunity for Conference participants to see presentations of best papers. At past Conferences, these presentations were not well attended because many participants leave the Conference on Friday morning. This year, the best paper presentations were given on Thursday afternoon. Another important reason is that the social event on Thursday evening provides an opportunity for informally congratulating and celebrating all of the award winners. Recognizing that the awards ceremony is a significant part of the Conference, we took several measures to ensure that the luncheon on Thursday was both celebratory and special.
More hospitality for guests: The "lessons learned" from recent Conferences have called for more hospitality for spouses and guests. While it might be argued that spouses are not our "customers," we suspect that more than a few spouses have had some part in a decision by registrants to attend the Society's Conference each year, and any funds spent on hospitality for spouses this year will almost certainly be recovered in the form of additional registrations next year. (This is true even if it only yields three or four additional registrations.) As well, we benefit from the volunteer help of several spouses. In keeping with our Conference theme, we have extended this hospitality to include children.
Multi-chapter planning team: Although this is not really an innovation, this year's Conference is not formally associated with any specific chapter. Members of the Eastern Canada Chapter, under the leadership of Bob Fletcher, have individually contributed a large portion of the overall effort that went into planning this year's Conference. As well, the Eastern Canada Chapter has served the Conference by being its Canadian "banker." Nevertheless, Society members from other chapters have held key positions on our planning team. The fact that individuals from multiple chapters were involved in the planning team was not problematic. In fact, it could be argued that this approach brought us some important benefits: (1) because we could not have a conversation at the local water cooler, we were probably more careful to communicate plans and issues with one another and (2) we somewhat avoided "burning out" a single chapter (although I am sure that the Eastern Canada Chapter is looking for some respite from Conference planning for a few years). In conclusion, the multi-chapter approach to Conference planning is quite feasible under appropriate conditions and offers some distinct advantages.
"Lightweight" approach to printed program and proceedings CD: Mindful of both our budgetary constraints and the impact of our Conference on the environment, we decided to take a lightweight approach to the printed program. Based on quotes we received, the costs of printing a program similar to last year's have increased sharply over the past year. This increased cost would have placed an unacceptable pressure on our budget. Furthermore, we believe that most registrants discard the printed program soon after the Conference. While not as attractive as the printed programs of past Conferences, we believe that the printed program for this year's Conference fulfilled its functional purpose, reducing the impact on both our budget and on the environment.
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