ARS | Publication request: EXPERIENCES OF THE LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE FOR A LARGE SCIENTIFIC MEETING

Submitted to: Acta Horticulturae
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: June 15, 2006
Publication Date: July 1, 2007
Citation: Spooner, D.M., Jansky, S.H., Bussan, A.J. 2007. Experiences of the local organizing committee for a large scientific meeting. Acta Horticulturae. 745:513-532.

Interpretive Summary: This paper describes the history and organization of the combined meeting of the 90th Annual Meeting of the Potato Association of America, the VI International Solanaceae Conference, and the III Solanaceae Genomics Conference. The unifying theme of these three groups is the science of the Solanaceae. The theme of the Conference, Solanaceae: Genomics Meets Biodiversity, describes this theme that aims to integrate all phases of Solanaceae science with the emerging field of genomics. This goal is fostered by the parallel DNA sequencing efforts of both the tomato and potato genomes. This meeting will be held in Madison Wisconsin USA from July 23-27, 2006, and to date has over 520 registrants from 23 countries. We spent much of two years organizing this meeting and raised over $110,000 from various industry and government sources. This paper highlights the challenges and opportunities of this meeting organization, shows statistics of the meeting, and insights in ways to make future meetings easier to organize. It will be of use to future meeting organizers.

Technical Abstract: This paper describes the history and organization of the combined meeting of the 90th Annual Meeting of the Potato Association of America, the VI International Solanaceae Conference, and the III Solanaceae Genomics Conference. The unifying theme of these three groups is the science of the Solanaceae. The theme of the Conference, Solanaceae: Genomics Meets Biodiversity, describes this theme that aims to integrate all phases of Solanaceae science with the emerging field of genomics. This goal is fostered by the parallel DNA sequencing efforts of both the tomato and potato genomes. This paper highlights the challenges and opportunities of this meeting organization, shows statistics of the meeting, and insights in ways to make future meetings easier to organize. It will be of use to future meeting organizers.