1. Technical & Conference Activities Board Report
John Walz
VP for T & C Activities Board
9-June-2010
IEEE-CS BOG Meetings in Denver, CO
This presentation summarizes my written Board report to the BoG

2. Outline Who is T & C Achievements to date Projects Financial Report
Activities
Upcoming Activities
Show achievements and plans 2

3. Technical and Conference activities (T & C) Board governance
40 plus technical communities
contain over 30K people, mostly CS members,
who provide the bulk of IEEE-CS Intellectual Property in our
TM papers (24K in 2009),
publication articles,
standards
sponsor our 200 plus conferences / Technical Meetings (TM)
where TM and there steering committees provide
surplus,
channel for proceedings sales, and
portion of IEL / CSDL surplus distribution
leading to a $14M CS business line
Who is T & C

4. Technical Committee members roles
Subscribers to IEEE IP,
most subscribers belong to a couple hundred large academic and industry institutions having IEL subscriptions.
TM attendees (30K),
IEEE IP authors, or
TM / Steering Committee organizers for about 200 conferences
Who is T & C 4

5. Achievements Recruited T & C Board members
Conference Publications Committee is still open
Key Board liaisons to SAB & MGA are still open
Submitted and received approval for nine CS Projects / Operations related to T & C.
New Chair Welcome letter for TC Chairs
TC Chair resource and expectations web page
CS Chapter BOG Briefing presentation
IEEE initiative on Smart Grid
Completed startup CS Smart Grid web portal
Completed CS Smart Grid Project Initiation Form
Supported CS position on Executive Team
TCs technical co-sponsor of two conferences in 2010 5

6. Achievements - TM New Conference Connection newsletter
New Conference Sponsorship Approval Process
TCS, TMRF, and MOU forms revised
Conference Attributes defined and assign values to existing portfolio
Define three conference measurement definitions for BOG Balanced Scorecard for baseline measurements in 2010 which support goal setting in 2011
CS Student Author Travel Grants process proposed
TM is our abbreviation for Technical Meetings, commonly called Conferences 6

7. Projects with budget for 2010
Technical Committee best practices for Growth and Excellence [CS#30]
Industry participants attracted to our conferences [CS#28]
Technical Committee Leadership [CS#31]
Conference Business Process & Systems [CS#25]
Conference Competition Strategy [CS#24]
Conference Lifecycle Management & Improvement: [CS#30]
Conference Margin Improvement [CS#23]
NSC Review [CS#26]
New NSC Model [CS#27]
Nine T & C Projects approved by CS Planning, ExCom, & FinCom with associated staff & budget
One slide for each Project

8. Technical Committee best practices for Growth and Excellence [CS#30]
Collected, categorized, and deployed to all TCs to make better use of IEEE CS funding for TC growth and Technical Meeting (TM) excellence
Identify those TCs that yield the better results from their annual plans
Identify the types of activities that lead to greater involvement by TC membership and may not be supported by the current practices followed by other TCs
Increase TC membership and recruit more to CS membership
Move TC and their key TMs organizations from external static web sites to Liferay web portals to promote both transparency and volunteer collaboration
Increase TC membership and sponsored conference attendance through the use of TC Taxonomy / Thesaurus
continued

9. [CS#30]
Help improve overall TC activities beyond those related to conferences and publications
Establish the infrastructure necessary to support active and continuous exchanges (communications and activities) between TCs and their membership
Evaluate how to best support expansion in the following areas:
Networking
Input into CS and Engineering curricula
Contributing to a "public service" list of the next frontier in computing research and applications
Standards
Publications
Tracking & promoting emerging technologies
Newsletters with technical summaries
Publicizing technical developments
Articulating their domain, Thesaurus, BoK/KA
Determine any necessary requirements for the development and implementation of tools and systems needed to support this effort

10. Industry participants attracted to our conferences [CS#28]
Identify needs (value-add) of potential Industry participants that can be integrated into current CS conference infrastructure
Utilize domain expertise within TCs to author and distribute Webinars to Chapters on their subject matter of interest.
Provide more venues and opportunities for Industry authors and participants
create Intellectual Property in CSDL / Xplore
Provide more relevant IP of immediate use by commercial organizations
Share existing best practices of Industry workshops and tracks with both TC and their sponsor Conference Steering Committees (CSC); practices such as peer-review and CSDL publications
Experiment with Industry leadership roles in each TC to jump-start Industry workshops and tracks; add new Industry leadership position on the Conference Organizing Committee
Technical Co-sponsor existing successful Industry conferences such as SSTC or ASQ Software Division or IPQC conferences
Attract more Industry members into CS & Technical Committees (TC)
Continue to work with TC Chairs and T & C Board members to create value to practitioners and industry

11. Technical Committee Leadership [CS#31]
To obtain T & C Technical Committee Chairs current opinions regarding their perception of the Computer Society (CS) and the CS BoG
Work with BoG to determine root causes and action plans
Communicate CS BoG action plans to TC Chairs
Institutionalize annual health reviews of CS organization 11

12. Conference Business Process & Systems [CS#25]
Help conference organizers plan and execute successful conferences by improving sponsorship review and approval interface tools, especially for budget review and closing processes
Help conference organizers and TCs start their publicity efforts earlier in order to attract the best authors by securing IEEE-CS conference sponsorship approval in two phases: first technical and second financial
Support the implementation of tiered conference support levels, whose Goals include:
Help experienced conference organizers to expedite established conferences with new tiered conference support levels
Help inexperienced conference organizers to complete new conferences with new tiered conference support levels
Help faltering conference organizers turn the corner with new tiered conference support levels
continued

13. [CS#25]
Support conference organizers with 21st century tools and systems capable of adjusting to changing IEEE & CS conference business rules while supporting the migration to IEEE Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) systems from CIMA system
Design and deploy controls to minimize risk of fraudulent papers accepted and published
Improve communications from conference organizers and CS staff to present and past conference attendees, authors, and sponsoring TC membership
Insure successful integration or elimination of current CS conference databases (CIMA and TECA) with the recently funded IEEE Conference Exchange (ICX) during the next three years of ICX New Initiative development.

14. Conference Competition Strategy [CS#24]
Learn from our competing conferences on their best practices to improve our conferences
Request TC Chairs and their Conference Chairs identify their competing conferences
Conference attributes, e.g. quality of authors, program committee, ease of doing business, etc
Registration fees
Compete against ACM Full-Service Conference Business Model
Confirm deliverables associated with the ACM full-service conference business model and determine if this model would work for our TCs and Conferences, either within the USA or internationally
Confirm feasibility of CS adopting as similar full-service conference business model
Articulate, pilot, learn, offer, & plan for a CS full-service conference business model, if appropriate
Conference margins
Query General Chairs from 2008 & 2009 conferences with small margins or deficits to request them to identify competing non-IEEE conferences as a possible root cause; compare and analyze registration fee structure
During initial review of conference technical proposal, volunteer organizers should provide examples of a range of registration fees from competing conferences. 14

15. Conference Lifecycle Management & Improvement: [CS#30]
Improve transparency of conference deliverables to sponsoring TCs and conference volunteers.
Better communications between TCs and conference volunteers.
Establish policies and guidelines through which TCs can improve decisions made in respect to overall conference business: closing surplus, publication net, and Xplore net.
Help conference organizers plan and execute successful conferences as measured by authors, attendees, quality papers, relevant papers and financial surplus.
Develop a transition plan to eliminate conferences’ dependency on IEEE acquisition payments by providing alternative incentives
Increase usage by CS sponsored conferences of Conference Publishing Services (CPS)
Mentor inexperienced conference volunteers in organizing new conferences, including delivering quality publications
Establish metrics, policies and guidelines for peer review quality
Improve IEEE brand through better plagiarism controls managed by required participation of the sponsoring TCs

16. Conference Projects Conference Margin Improvement [CS#23]
Implement tier conference services
NSC Review [CS#26]
Moving best CPS NSC into TCS
New NSC Model [CS#27]
Balance IEEE branding concerns with the ongoing financial health of CPS
The main work is done by staff with advice from volunteer leaders

17. Financial Report
2009 Board finished 4% over budget of $329.9K and fell short in planned surplus with conference closing in 2009
23% Conferences ended in deficit
Overall conference business line had a major impact on CS ending in the black
CPS published 360 conferences in 2009 which exceeded the 293 conferences published in 2008
Technical Activities Committee (TAC) has received from the TC Chairs, where the Annual Report & Operating Plan are posted on the TC web page for their members.
10 TCs with Annual Report and 2010 Operating Plan and Budget Request (TCCC, TCCGM, TCEC, TCFT, TCMVL, TCOS, TCRTS, TCSIM)
1 TCs with Operating Plan and Budget Request (TCBI)
20 TCs with Budget Requests and without Annual Report nor Operating Plan
update 10 TC reports received

18. Requested or received sponsorship
Conference trends
Type of Conference
2010 YTD
2009
2008
100% sponsored 76 95
100% sponsored between two TC 8
Cosponsored 68 54
>
under review for financial approval ?
Technically cosponsor (TCS) 31 55
<
under review for Technically cosponsor 23
Requested or received sponsorship
206
204
184

19. Activities
T & C Plans and Initiatives at CS Planning, CS ExCom, & CS FinCom
IEEE Conference Publications Committee
Acquisition Payments for Sponsored Conferences
IEL distributions
IEEE PSC reorganization
NCS branding
ESPC: Instant Communities (IC), Topic Areas (TA), and Special Interest Group (SIG)
MGA: Conferences support of Keynote speakers for Chapters and CS membership booth
Moving best CPS NSC into TCS
IEEE Smart Grid Strategy
IEEE Cloud Computing Initiative
PPM updates 19

20. Upcoming Activities Quarterly T & C Vice Chair LiveMeeting
Quarterly T & C ExCom LiveMeeting
Jun CS BOG ExCom & BOG
7-Jun, T & C sponsored CS Projects
8-Jun, T & C TAC, CAC, & TMRC Committees meetings
9-Jun, T & C ExCom meeting
10-Jun, T & C report to CS ExCom
11-Jun, T & C report to CS BOG
Jun IEEE BOG: Conferences, PSC, FinCom, & TAB
Nov CS BOG ExCom & BOG

21. Whats New in Computer Society
Board of Governors (BoG) focus on strategy, CS projects, and Balance Scorecard measures
Investment in areas of most membership value and margins
Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
Investment in IT infrastructure: Liferay, Instant Communities, IEEE servers
Instant Communities rollout
Efforts to move off Financial Watch
New Revenue Generation
Controls for risks to IEEE brand
Engagement with IEEE Boards: Conferences, Publications, Publishing
SAB - Smart Grid, Game Technology, Cloud Computing
MGA - member recruitment at conferences and conference speakers attending local chapter meetings
EPSC - Instant Communities
Awards - TC sponsored Awards

22. Whats New in IEEE Increased focus on standards
Support for emerging technology with New Initiatives funding
Focus on overhead cost reduction
Investment in IT infrastructure
Increased marketing to public
Controls for risks to IEEE brand 22

23. Questions?