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The purpose of this paper is to provide an outline of the 26th Annual Poster sessions held at the American Library Association Annual Conference held in Washington DC in June 2007, with focus on the poster session for “The Art of the Picture Book” conference.

A description of the background, processes and planning of this poster session.

Design, targeting and resources for “The Art of the Picture Book” conference are reported, together with evaluation techniques and results.

This report is of value to those (particularly information and library professionals) involved in conference planning and poster session planning.

The authors examine the approaches necessary in planning for annual conferences which will produce a real measurable return on the investment.

Although conferences can be costly, there are ways of ensuring that they yield a genuine and measurable return.

Librarians whose patrons need access to scientific and technical conference proceedings will find the Index to Scientific and Technical Proceedings a multi‐faceted library reference tool designed with their needs in mind. ISTP provides comprehensive current worldwide coverage of scientific and technical conference proceedings, packaged for ease of use for a variety of library purposes, ranging from reference use to use in acquisitions and interlibrary loans. The table of contents format of the main Contents of Proceedings Section of the monthly issues of ISTP, like the table of contents format of the Institute for Scientific Information's Current Contents publications, makes current awareness browsing for research and for acquisitions of new conference proceedings possible for both scientists and librarians. The six index access points to this main section facilitate quick convenient narrowing of scan when time is a factor. The semiannual cumulations provide similar capability for retrospective searches. To date, librarians have found both library staff and scientists using ISTP require a minimum of training in its use.

In a closed conference the identity of all conference participants is known by others and all participants are notified when a new user joins the conference. The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) supports signalling of several conference models, but not of closed conferences. Introduces an extension of SIP for closed multiparty conferences. The extension expands SIP for the functionality for discovery of participant identities in a conference. Furthermore, it ensures that each conference participant is notified before a new participant joins. Verifies this extension by applying it to two SIP conference models – conference with conference server and full‐mesh conference. Ends with an analysis of additional signalling traffic that this extension generates.

To report on the 2007 Code4Lib conference held February 27‐March 2nd in Athens Georgia.

Provides a review of the conference and some background on the Code4Lib community.

The Code4Lib conference is developed by the open Code4Lib community. The single track program included a pre‐conference, keynote sessions, scheduled presentations, lighting talks, and breakout sessions.

A conference report reviewing some of the trends in development, within libraries which should appeal to programmers and management alike.

The study reported here focuses on the world of professional conference managers and hotel managers and tests for a degree of consensus between them as to what attributes are salient to the selection of a hotel as a conference venue. Both a strong consensus and an operational rather than a facilities focus emerges. The suspicion is raised that re‐occurring operational problems lie behind the consensus.

Conferences, while central to academic endeavors, are an understudied research site. This purpose of this study is to describe the experience of an Arab Israeli teachers’ college in hosting a large international academic conference on multiculturalism, conducted entirely in English. Most of the academic staff and all of the students are Arabic speakers. This added a layer of challenge for all our faculty and students.

This reflective, retroactive and descriptive case study builds on the above points. It is a reflective “case story” told by the college head.

This paper describes the benefits and growth experienced by each of the involved parties, which resulted in a changing academic culture and new academic self-confidence and vision for all concerned. This paper also details weaknesses and opportunities missed. Envisioning, planning and bringing to fruition this conference was a crucible experience for the college, enhancing our multicultural understanding, learning and commitment.

This reflective description offers an original perspective on multiculturalism through the lens of an international conference hosted by an academic institution where the native language is not English.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relative importance of various attributes (i.e. the total cost of attending, conference organizer, publishing opportunities for an academic career and personal development, reputation as measured by the number of conferences held, location and size) in terms of their ability to impact the decision of attendees in their selection of which academic conference to attend.

Conjoint analysis was used to examine the relative importance of various attributes to impact an attendee’s decision to select an academic conference (i.e. the total cost of attending, conference organizer, publishing opportunities for an academic career and personal development, reputation as measured by the number of conferences held, location and size).

The choice-based conjoint analysis revealed that the most crucial attributes for attending an academic conference were the total cost of attending the conference (28% of relative importance) and the conference organizer (28%).

Since the total cost of attending a conference is one of the top two attributes, conference organizers should reduce the costs as much as possible. Recommendations include choosing a university venue instead of a hotel or conference center and offering multiple options for registration passes (i.e. one-day pass). However, organizers should be careful about meals provided during the conference program, as meals have a positive effect on attendees’ decisions.

This study introduces to the literature a new indicator for selecting an academic conference – the reputation of the conference as measured by the number of times it had been held. In previous studies, this variable was not considered in the context of selecting an academic conference.

This study aimed to assess whether sociodemographic variables explain significant differences in attitudes towards transforming academic conferences into more sustainable events.

An analytical model of participants' attitudes towards sustainable conferences based on literature review as well as the theories of reasoned action and planned behaviour was developed and applied to a sample of 532 surveyed individuals from 68 countries who regularly attended academic conferences in the last five years prior to 2020. The results were refined using statistical and computational techniques to achieve more empirically robust conclusions.

Results reveal that sociodemographic variables such as attendees' gender and age explain differences in attitudes. Women and older adults have stronger pro-environmental attitudes regarding event sustainability. On the other hand, attitudes towards more sustainable academic conferences are quite strong and positive overall. More sustainable events' venues, catering, conference materials and accommodations strongly influence attendees' attitudes towards more sustainable conferences. The strength of attitudes was weaker towards transportation.

First, the analyses focused on only aspects related to the attendees' attitudes. Assessing their real behaviour would complete this research. The geographical areas defined by the U.N. and used in this study have the limitation of combining highly developed countries and developing countries in the same geographical area, for example, the Americas and Asia and the Pacific.

Specific socio-demographic variables' effects on attitudes towards sustainable academic conferences can indicate how organisers can best promote these events according to attendees' characteristics and develop differentiated marketing campaigns. For women and older adults, event sustainability should be emphasised as a competitive strategy to promote events and attract these audiences. Marketing strategies for younger attendees (under 30 years old) could focus on technology, networking or attractive social programmes. Sustainable venues, catering, conference materials and accommodations are easier to promote. Event organisers should encourage participants to make more environmentally friendly decisions regarding more sustainable event transport.

A strategy based on promoting the event as contributing to sustainable development could educate attendees and put them on the path to developing stronger positive attitudes regarding sustainability and more sustainable behaviours. Sustainable academic conferences can educate students, organisers, service providers and delegates through their involvement in sustainable practices.

To our best knowledge, this research is the first to assess whether sociodemographic variables explain significant differences in attitudes towards the sustainable transformation of academic conferences.