Technical Activities and Conferences J. Roberto B. de Marca IEEE Vice President – Technical Activities 25 July 2008, IEEE Panel of Conference Organizers (POCO)

Personal Conference Organization Experience General chair of 1st Brazilian communications conference General Chair of first two IEEE communications conferences in South America (1990, 1994) General Chair IEEE GLOBECOM 1999 Technical Program Chair, IEEE WCNC 2003 General Chair, IEEE WCNC 2004 Co-General Chair IEEE Mobile WiMAX (2007)

Personal Conference Organization Experience (2) Co-General Chair, IEEE INFOCOM 2009 Chair IEEE WCNC Steering Committee (2008 surplus ~ US $220K) Member IEEE ComSoc Meetings and Conferences Board (several years) Member IEEE Conferences Committee (2005)

Importance as a Source of New Technical Information and Networking Opportunity Societies, Technical Councils and Technical Activities Board Committees (blue) are the primary sponsor of IEEE conferences, both as a financial sponsor (top) and technical cosponsor (bottom) Growth in sponsorship by Geographical Units is growing (yellow)

Very Important as a Business: Significant contribution to IEEE revenues 2006 : 38 % of total revenue ( 309 million USD) – 29% from on site revenue and 9% from conference publications 2007: 37% of total revenue (323M USD) –( 28% on site revenue and 9% from conference pubs) In both years, the institute wide net revenue from conferences was about 17 M USD (approximately the same amount as the total IEEE operations surplus.

Industry vs Academia or Industry + Academia

Industry Advisory Committee Member feedback indicates that IEEE needs to improve links with industry VP-Technical Activities formed as an Industry Advisory AdHoc Committee in 2008 –8 members from 5 countries –Representing key segments  Computing  Communications  Power  Devices and manufacturing  Venture capital

Industry Advisory Committee feedback Agreement by committee members that IEEE conference brand is strong in: –Addressing basic technologies –Breadth of coverage –Source of timely technical information –Opportunity for networking IEEE brand not as well known in: –Application oriented events –Identification of turning-point technologies Many managers (those who approve funding for an individual to attend a conference) do not see a value in sending their engineers to IEEE conferences; these are the people you need to reach.

Suggestions to improve industry interest in conferences Maintain High Quality technical programs. Guarantee participation of world leaders in the field Identify and advertise tracks and presentations that appeal to industry Hold industry tracks –Select session chairs from industry –Reduce requirements for pre-submission of papers; allow both paper and video presentations Hold special sessions just for industry executives –Discussion topics of interest to executives –Provide networking opportunities

Suggestions to improve industry interest in conferences Develop opportunities for links between venture capitalists and attendees Develop collaborations (co-locations?, co- sponsorships?) with trade/applications shows Develop more tutorials (must select right speakers, market it aggressively and price it reasonably) Goal is to improve perception of value in the eyes of industry managers; if they see a value they will fund travel to the conferences

POCO is the ideal place for developing new ideas and sharing best practices among IEEE volunteers (TA, MGA, etc.) and staff on how to attract industry (back?) to our conferences.

THANKS! HAVE A GREAT MEETING!

Summary of Challenges Address the right topics. Attract the right people to submit papers and make presentations Reach an increasing and diversified audience world wide Continue to bring in increasing revenues –These revenues may become essential to IEEE/Society/Council to offset likely changes on how the publications business operates.