Report on IAMAS/IAPSO 97 1997 Joint Assemblies of the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences and the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans Melbourne Convention Centre 1-9 July 1997 by Tom Beer

Table of Contents

1. PREFACE

The site of the Joint Assemblies was chosen by Bob Stevenson, the previous Secretary-General of IAPSO. When he learnt that IAMAS had decided to hold their 1997 meeting in Melbourne he decided to join with them at the Melbourne Convention Centre (which was known as the World Congress Centre in those days) and made contact with various Australians to make sure that the Local Organising Committee was established. During a visit to Melbourne, Bob Stevenson shared his dream of a meeting that brought together all the IUGG associations. The Melbourne Convention Centre was the only suitable venue in Melbourne capable of handling such large numbers.

2. CHRONOLOGY

1993
The Australian bid to IAMAS at Yokohama to hold the 1997 scientific assembly in Melbourne succeeded. This was officially communicated to the President of the Australian Academy of Science in a letter dated 13 January 1994.

Dr R Stevenson, Secretary-General of IAPSO visited Melbourne and obtained quotes from the World Congress Centre (later renamed the Melbourne Convention Centre). The desire to hold joint assemblies was officially communicated to the Academy in a letter dated 6 May 1994. This letter indicated that there would be participation by IAG, IAHS, IAGA, IAVCEI and ITC.

1994
At the request of the Australian Academy of Science National Committee for Climate and Atmospheric Science, Dr G I Pearman organised a Local Organising Committee. An initial planning document was prepared in June 1994 estimating attendees in the range 1350 to 2750, with a planning figure of 2000.

Convention Network chosen as Professional Conference Organisers.

Dates confirmed and a deposit paid to the venue.

Logo designed.

1995
IAMAS/IAPSO 97 publicised at IUGG in Boulder (July, 1995) with a booth at the Trade Exhibition. Publicity flyer prepared. Unsuccessful bid made, with the assistance of Dr R Coleman, to hold 1997 IAG assembly in Melbourne.

Briefing to IAMAS executive and bureau meetings in Boulder by Dr Tom Beer.

Briefing to IAPSO executive meeting in Honolulu by Dr Stuart Godfrey.

World Wide Web Page established (October, 1995).

Symposia and convenors finalised with international associations (December, 1995).

1996
First announcement and call for papers sent (January, 1996).

Fees set (June, 1996).

Main announcement and registration brochure sent (July 1996).

e-mail newsletter to convenors and co-convenors initiated (July 1996).

Plenary speakers (Rowland, Munk, Peltier) finalised (October, 1996).

Original abstract deadline (2 December, 1996).

Abstract deadline extended in November 1996 to 10 January 1997.

1997
LOC members inspect site (10 February).

Speaking program finalised (1 March).

IAMAS/IAPSO 97 (1-9 July).

3. LOCAL ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Members of the Local Organising Committee were:

3.1 Subcommittees

Various subcommittees were established. The most active were:

3.2 The Working Group

Day-to-Day decisions related to the organisation of the conference were controlled by a working group that consisted of:

Tom Beer, Suzie Brook, Paul Holper, David Jasper, Brian Sawford, Sue Wood.

4. Professional Conference Organiser

Convention Network was chosen as the PCO in 1994 after interviews with one Sydney-based and four Melbourne-based organisations. As part of their bid, Convention Network prepared a draft budget and schedule and these formed the first drafts of these documents which guided the subsequent logistics.

Convention Network provided the Secretariat services for the Joint Assemblies. They were solely responsible for:

Registration, Accommodation, Tours, Venue (logistics, and staging).

In addition, they provided support to the Local Organising Committee and its sub-committees. Such support included:

Obtaining costings

Preparation of agendas and minutes of meetings

Updated budgets

Banking of monies received

Collation of all papers received

Liaison with convenors concerning papers

Preparation of Sponsorship and Exhibition proposal

Arranging exhibition.

Arranging Tours for accompanying persons

Arranging publicity at Boulder in 1995

Arranging design, typesetting and printing of necessary material

Preparation of guidelines for session chairs and room monitors

 

The Joint Assemblies were overseen by Ms Sue Wood, Director of Convention Network. The project manager during the Joint Assemblies was Ms Suzie Brook, who built on the earlier project management provided by Ms Marg Scarlett from 1994 to 1996.

The success of the conference logistics is a tribute to the work of Convention Network, who provided precise and meticulous scheduling instructions to all involved from 1-9 July 1997.

5. SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS

5.1 Program

The Scientific Program for IAMAS/IAPSO 97 was determined by the International Associations. Though the Local Organising Committee was invited to, and did, make suggestions to the list of symposia - the choice of IAMAS symposia, the choice of IAPSO symposia, and the choice of joint and combined symposia were all made by the two Secretaries-General.

The final choices of symposia were:

5.1.1 Coding

All symposia were under the auspices of either, or both, of IAMAS or IAPSO. The letter preceding the symposium code, namely, J, C,I or W indicated a Joint, Combined, Individual symposium or a Workshop respectively. Subsequent letters referred to the international association involved:

Abstracts were designated by assigning a letter after the symposium code. If more than 26 abstracts were received then the letter was repeated. A typical abstract code was, thus, IP2aaa, or JMP3qq.

The system of letters following the symposium code was based on the previous practice by the professional conference organisers. The system, in hindsight, was not suitable for symposia that attracted a large number of abstracts because it was easy to confuse IP2aaa with IP2aaaa. A system that used only two letters, as in aa, ab, ac, ba, bb, bc, should have been used instead.

The symposia codes also caused confusion. This was especially the case with JMP3/JPM3 and JMP9/JPM9 which were too alike. However, given the protocol reasons for the choice and ordering of the letters, it is difficult to see how to devise a clearer system.

5.1.2 Convenors

Convenors and co-convenors were chosen by IAMAS and IAPSO. The Local Organising Committee insisted that every symposium have an Australian convenor or co-convenor and arranged for appropriate names to be transmitted to the Secretaries-General if none had been supplied.

Convenors had the liberty to use, or not use, their co-convenors. The ultimate decision on acceptance of abstracts for oral or poster presentation, on the ordering of talks, and on the choice of session chairs rested with the convenors.

Because the convenors played such a critical role in the success of the joint assemblies, a series of regular newsletters was instituted. These newsletters (or pastoral letters as they were called by the Working Group) were sent by e-mail. The early establishment of an e-mail mailing list of all convenors and co-convenors made this very easy.

The e-mail convenor list was accessed by sending a message to conv97@dar.csiro.au. Having such an address, and keeping the list up-to-date proved invaluable. The only confusion occurred when convenors sent messages to conv97@dar.csiro.au thinking that it was the e-mail address of the conference secretariat (convnet@peg.apc.org). It was rather disheartening to the organisers when one of the convenors announced to the whole group that he was not going to come. He had intended the message solely for the secretariat.

One disadvantage of such e-mail communication became apparent early in 1997. A list of all abstracts was sent to all convenors as a Microsoft Word attachment. This document contained a word macro-virus which was such a new virus that it slipped through extant virus checkers. Once a new virus checker capable of detecting it appeared, all convenors were notified. Viruses were endemic on e-mail submissions from developing countries but all except this one were intercepted.

5.2 Publications
The publications prior to the meeting consisted of:

a) Publicity flyer announcing the conference (5,000)
b) Call for papers (14,000)
c) Main announcement and registration brochure (7,000)

The publications for distribution at the meeting were
a) Handbook
b) Program
c) Abstracts.

5.2.1 Program
The Working Group decided that it would be most useful to participants if the program consisted of a listing of all the activities that took place at a particular time, rather than the standard form listing the activities by symposia. This was designed to encourage participants to move between symposia and not spend all of their time seated in one session.

Because there was a one-to-one relation between symposia and rooms, the program of speakers within each symposia was posted on noticeboards outside each room.

Half an hour before the start of each session, room monitors provided an updated list of speakers and titles to the program chair.

5.2.2 Abstracts
The Local Organising Committee was mindful of the need to assist developing countries by not imposing technological barriers to their participation in the meeting. Accordingly, abstracts of talks were accepted by e-mail, world-wide-web, mail or fax. An abstract submission form template was provided with the Call for Papers and the Main Announcement and Registration brochure.

To convert these submissions into a uniform format required substantial re-typing. In fact, there was a substantial administrative task involved in monitoring the 1600 abstracts through the stages of word-processing. This was complicated by late submissions, author amendments and convenor re-allocations. More sophisticated Web submission packages now exist and would significantly reduce this work-load.

All abstracts were edited both for scientific consistency, and for English usage. The Australian co-convenors and the Working Group members undertook this work.

5.3 Exhibition and Sponsorship

5.3.1 Exhibition
The exhibition did not attract the trade interest that was originally envisaged so that only 20 of the possible thirty booths were sold. It was originally planned to have the exhibition last for the whole length of the conference, but a survey of potential exhibitors indicated a preference for a shorter exhibition so that only 1-4 July were used for the exhibition.

The venue staging was designed to funnel participants through the exhibition area. The welcome reception, morning teas, afternoon teas and catered lunches were all served in the exhibition area. The exhibition booths were ringed by the poster displays as well. In addition, upon registration participants received a competition card which was eligible for a prize draw if stamped by all exhibitors.

The final exhibitors were:

5.3.2 Sponsors

5.4 Publicity
Paul Holper, Communication Manager for the CSIRO Division of Atmospheric Research acted as media manager for the conference.

In the year prior to the event, his focus was to maintain a high profile for the conference in order to attract delegates, sponsors and exhibitors. Numerous articles were placed in key journals as well as notes for free '‘future events" listings. Weather and the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society published paid advertisements.

During the two months before the event, attention turned to alerting the media that a major event was to take place. Media teasers were sent to more than 60 outlets, with follow-up phone calls.

Paul issued numerous media releases during the event, all of which received significant coverage. Very successful were the two media conferences: the first featuring Rowland, Munk and Peltier; the second a panel discussing El NiÒo.

To facilitate media coverage of the event, Paul scanned all the abstracts and e-mailed session convenors to find story tips for journalists. This proved very effective, with every one of the 15 or so stories ideas being pursued. This resulted in coverage of many presentations that would otherwise have gone unnoticed by the media.

Media coverage for the conference was excellent. There were 8 TV items, including three stories on ABC TV news, more than 16 newspaper articles, a number of magazine reports including New Scientist, and over 30 radio spots.

Attached as an appendix is an example of a media release and all the story ideas put out during the conference. Also attached is Paul’s communication strategy and action timetable for the conference.

5.4.1 World Wide Web (WWW)
The establishment and maintenance of a World Wide Web page for the conference turned out to be an essential element. The WWW page received over 20,000 ‘hits’. The WWW page was used to provide detailed information and thus conserve space in the printed publications that were mailed out.

Maintenance of the WWW information was especially time-consuming, and required the services of a person for one day per week from the time of the WWW page starting in October 1995 until the conference.

5.4.2 Volunteers
Mr Steve Siems from Monash University co-ordinated student volunteers. Tertiary students throughout Australian were offered the chance to attend IAMAS/IAPSO 97 and have their registration fee waived, provided they served as room monitors for 3 days of the conference.

6. Key indicators

6.1 Demographics

7. FINANCIAL SUMMARY (all figures in Australian dollars)

8. SURVEY OF PARTICIPANTS

A total of 72 delegates were surveyed over 2 days (7^th and 8^th July). Their responses are summarised below.

What symposia did you mainly attend?

The most popular (3 or more responses) were IAMAS, IAPSO, IM5, IP11, IP12, IM2, glaciers, radiative processes, cloud physics, and ‘variety attended’.

What were the two things that most favourably impressed you about the conference?

In order of importance:

• Quality depth, and range of research presented (24).
• Organisation (21).
• Venue (14).
• Variety of attendees (10).
• Timing of sessions (9).
• Opportunity to meet people (7).
• Conference at one venue/building (5).
• Invited speakers, staff, Australia (4).
• Atmosphere, learnt a lot, large conference (3).
• Program, atmosphere and oceans at one conference, session attendance (2).
• Australian attendance, restaurant, number of staff, UCAR meeting lunch, breaks - opportunity to discuss (1).

What were the two things that you least liked about the conference?

In order of importance:

• Lunch (expense/quality, misleading information about the availability of alternatives), expensive registration (prevented many from attending) (19).
• Number of cancellations (of papers, and of attendees, would have liked to be notified) (16).
• Coordination of session topics (similar papers held in different rooms at the same time) (15).
• Poster display, availability of audio-visual equipment (5).
• Length of conference, discussion time too short (4).
• Program, e-mail facilities (not enough terminals) (3).
• Poor overseas attendance, coffee availability, cold, abstract confusing, getting between rooms (2).
• Distance to get to Australia, university venue would have been better, organisation, paper time slots moved, paper times not enforced (1).

What were your overall impressions?

Almost all delegates surveyed gave a positive answer.

9. CONFERENCE OUTCOMES

9.1 Benefit to Australian scientific and technological capability

The Joint Assemblies were run on behalf of two international associations, namely IAMAS (the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences) and IAPSO (the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans). Australia is a member of both of these associations and the appropriate formal links are maintained through the Australian Academy of Science. The Academy was one of the co-sponsors of the meeting which thus served to fulfil our international obligation to periodically take our turn at hosting such a meeting.

The joint assemblies provided a showcase for Australian scientists to present their work to an international audience, and to be informed about the latest work being conducted by overseas scientists. There were 1600 papers presented and these are summarised in the book of abstracts.

The presence of the joint assemblies, and the presence of a Nobel laureate as one of the plenary speakers, was used as a occasion to publicise Australian science to the Australian public. The member of the organising committee who was in charge of publicity, Mr Paul Holper, issued numerous media releases during the event, all of which received significant coverage. Very successful were the two media conferences: the first featuring Rowland, Munk and Peltier, the second a panel discussing El NiÒo.

To facilitate media coverage of the event, Paul scanned all the abstracts and e-mailed session convenors to find story tips for journalists. This proved very effective, with every one of the 15 or so story ideas being pursued. This resulted in coverage of many presentations that would otherwise have gone unnoticed by the media.

Media coverage for the conference was excellent. There were 8 TV items, including three stories on ABC TV news, more than 16 newspaper articles, a number of magazine reports including New Scientist, and over 30 radio spots.

The Joint Assemblies included a trade exhibition which provided an opportunity to show-case Australian technology.

Finally, it is worth specifically noting that by running an international meeting of this size, we have trained a core of people able to run an international scientific meeting.

9.2 Interaction between Australian and overseas delegates

The demographics of international attendance are given in section 6.1.

It may be noted that Australian participants were out-numbered by overseas delegates. This provided many opportunities for interaction during the Conference. Other known contacts include:

• Long-term visits to Australian institutions by overseas scientists before the meeting.
• Short-term visits by overseas scientists to Australian institutions during and after the meeting.
• Satellite specialist conferences arranged to utilise overseas experts attending the Joint Assemblies.

9.3 Continuing Action

Australia continues to maintain a high profile in IAMAS and IAPSO by on-going liaison through the Australian Academy of Science. There is ample evidence that the topics discussed during individual symposia of the Joint Assemblies were at the forefront of scientific research and part of an ongoing activity. Examples of this include a satellite meeting on atmospheric modelling held at Echuca after the Joint Assemblies, and the seminar on Antarctica and Global Change held in Hobart after the Joint Assemblies. These were visible, and immediate, manifestations of the spirit of collaboration engendered by the Joint Assemblies which will find its visible expression in joint activities, publications, patents and software that will appear in the months and years to come.

Earth, Ocean, Atmosphere: Forces for Change MEDIA RELEASE Embargoed 11 a.m., Tuesday 1 July 1997

Air pollution detected over remote oceans

Forest and agricultural burning around the globe is causing air pollution in even the most remote locations, according to Professor Sherwood Rowland, 1995 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry.

Professor Rowland was speaking in Melbourne at the opening ceremony of one of the largest scientific meetings ever held in the southern hemisphere. More than 1000 meteorologists, climatologists, oceanographers and geologists from around the world have gathered at the Melbourne Convention Centre for a week-long meeting.

"Researchers have measured high levels of the pollutant ozone above both the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean," said Professor Rowland.

Ozone is a key ingredient of photochemical smog, an environmental problem in many of the world’s major cities.

"NASA recently found high ozone concentrations during aircraft measurements over the ocean north of Fiji," Professor Rowland said.

The scientific meeting, which runs until Wednesday 9 July, is the joint assemblies of the prestigious International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences, and International Association for Physical Sciences of the Ocean.

Participants will be presenting the latest findings on a range of environmental issues involving the atmosphere, the geosphere and the oceans. Topics to be covered include global warming, El NiÒo, ocean circulation and remote sensing. Also covered will be atmospheric chemistry, cloud processes, ocean-atmosphere interactions, palaeoclimatology, the water cycle, estuarine science, climatic variability and climate modelling. CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology and the Australian Academy of Science are organising the event.

Professor Sherwood Rowland, from the University of California at Irvine, was joint winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for research in the 1970s that described the formation and breakdown of the ozone layer. Professor Rowland is attending the meeting as a Potter Foundation Visiting Fellow.

A media conference will be held in the media centre on level 2 at the Convention Centre on Tuesday 1 July at
11 a.m. Professor Rowland and the distinguished oceanographer, Professor Walter Munk from Scripps Institution of Oceanography will be present. The media conference will include a brief presentation on a new, high resolution weather forecasting system for the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Broadcast quality tapes of related 3-D visualisations will be available.

Media representatives are welcome to attend any of the Conference sessions free of charge. Please sign in at the registration desk and pick up a media kit, which will include the full program, media releases and all abstracts.

For more information, please contact
Paul Holper, Ph: 0419 894 427 (mobile); (03) 9583 9903 (home)
Tom Beer, Ph: 0418 123 914 (mobile)

IAMAS/IAPSO Conference

Communication Strategy
(Stragegy prepared by Paul Holper (This version 10 January, 1997)

This plan is divided into three phases:

1. Pre-conference
2. During the conference
3. Post-conference

Pre-conference

Objectives

To create awareness of the Conference as one of the largest international scientific meetings to be held in Australia.

To stimulate interest in, and a desire to attend the Conference

To ensure that Conference stakeholders are kept well-informed.

Audiences

1. Potential conference attendees

National and international

2. Mass media

TV: news, current affairs shows

Radio: news, talk shows

Newspapers: news pages, features

News magazines

3. Other

Sponsors

Public

Key organisations involved

 

Strategies and Actions

During the Conference

Objectives

To create an awareness of the Conference and its contents

Strategies and Actions

Post Conference

Objective

To publicise success of conference and the importance of the science

Strategies and Actions

1 Place articles in appropriate publications,
Action: PNH

2 Follow up media opportunities (features, news magazine)
Action: PNH, opportunistic only

For more information contact: Tom Beer on email: tom.beer@dar.csiro.au

This page has been designed by Julie Penn