Conference Management

General and Financial Matters

Schedule of Things To Do for a Conference

Presenter Instructions

Instructions for Paper Presenters

Each paper presentation room will have a data LCD projector, all with VGA input, some also have HDMI input (but you never know which you'll get). Presenters must bring their own laptop and projector adapters.

Presenters should arrive at their session early, introduce themselves to the session chair, and verify that their presentation displays correctly. Each presentation is scheduled for 20 minutes, with 15 minutes for speaking and 5 minutes for questions. Session chairs will monitor the time and keep the sessions strictly on schedule.

The following link provides guidance on giving a presentation:

• How to Present a Paper, a Speaker's Guide

Instructions for Poster Presenters

The Poster Session is usually held in the morning of the first day of the conference.

Please follow these instructions for preparing and presenting your poster.

• The poster boards are 4' x 3', landscape, just like this. They stand only in landscape mode, you cannot make them portrait.

• Find the poster area in the program and set up your poster on your assigned board. Pins, clips, tape, etc. will be available.

• FLAIRS personnel will check in periodically, but will not be present continuously during setup times. If issues arise, please contact FLAIRS staff at the registration desk.

• Poster presenters are expected to have their posters displayed by the beginning of the session and to be available to discuss their poster for the duration of the session.

• If you want to keep your poster, you must take it with you, at the end of the poster session. You cannot take the poster board with you.

The following links provide guidance on preparing a poster:

• Poster Design Guide

• Effective Scientific Posters

Poster Evaluation Process

General Process

• Let N be the number of posters. (If FLAIRS introduces "abstract only" posters, they will not be contenders for best poster.)

• Have 4 judges, selected by the program chairs before the conference. The judges should have different areas of expertise - senior researchers with broad knowledge of AI are desirable judges. Their identities must be kept anonymous, known only to the program chairs and the other judges.

• Make an initial division of the posters into 4 groups of N/4 posters, optimally grouped by the judges' areas of expertise. Each group is assigned to a judge. This should be done collaboratively by the judges before the poster session (before the conference would be best).

• Each judge makes makes an initial assessment of the N/4 posters in his/her group, deciding which are potential finalists (see below). This should take maximally 40 minutes.

• The judges meet to select finalist posters. Less finalists will allow for better judging in the finalists round, so as few as possible should be selected, maximally N/4. This should take maximally 20 minutes.

• All the judges visit the finalists to make a detailed assessment. Each judge assesses each finalist as strong, moderate, weak. For judges that like a quantitative scale, these may be mapped as strong = 5, moderate = 3, and weak = 1, which also allows for a five point scale. This should take maximally 40 minutes.

• The judges meet to select a winner. This should take maximally 20 minutes.

• If the judges conclude with a tie, the program chairs decide the final winner.

Judging Criteria

• Research Content

  • Decription of problem - must be understandable by a non-expert

  • Description of solution - must be understandable by a non-expert

  • Evaluation of solution - data, etc.

  • Contribution and impact clearly expressed

• Poster Preparation

  • Clear layout and sequence

  • Readability within 2-3 minutes (no large sections of text)

  • Appropriate use of images and colours

  • Use of reasonable materials (with deference to colleagues from less affluent places)

• Presentation by Author

  • Proactive greeting and invitation

  • Concise and clear explanation of research and contribution

  • Responses to questions

  • Adequate personal presentation (no need for a suit, just a "pass/fail" check that most presenters will pass anyway)

Excel Spreadsheet for evaluation, and a PDF version for printing.

Equipment Inventory

• Data projectors

  • InFocus LP540. 1700 lumens. DVI input. VGA->DVI cable. Spare bulb.

  • InFocus N24+EP. 2400 lumens. VGA input. VGA->VGA cable. Spare bulb. Replaced bulb 2018.

  • InFocus IN112. 2700 lumens. VGA input. VGA->VGA cable. Spare bulb.

  • 3 x InFocus IN128HDX. 4000 lumens. VGA and HDMI input. VGA->VGA cable. Spare bulb.

• 1 HDMI 4-port hub and amplifier

• 4 USB WiFi hubs.

• 4 DVI->HDMI adpaters.

• 3 HDMI->VGA adaptors.

• 1 VGA->HDMI adapter.

• 5 HDMI->HDMI cables.

• 2 USB-C->VGA cables.

• 4 USB-C->HDMI cables.

• 2 35' HDMI->HDMI cables.

• 4 25' USB cables.

• N Security cables for data projectors.

• 1 VGA extension cable.

• 2 laptops with Windows 10. 1 of them has Office 2016. One is dead.

• 2 sets of powered USB speakers

• 70 poster boards; clips, pins, tape, etc.

• Lots of power strips

None Performance Lists

No Showers

These people are known to be "no-show" authors, who get papers accepted, pay their registration fee, but then do not attend (without contacting us to explain - we understand extenuating circumstances). Repeat offenders will not have their papers accepted again.