How to take part in a Virtual Conference
The idea behind the IPROMS 2006 Virtual Conference is similar to other face-to-face conferences. In fact, the IPROMS conference attempts to emulate as best as possible, the good qualities of face-to-face conferences. Full papers are submitted for peer review to two members of the International Programme Committee and other internationally recognised reviewers. On the basis of reviewers' reports, the highest quality papers are selected and successful authors are invited to submit final versions of their papers.
The full papers are then "presented" by the authors for the duration of the conference. For most of the papers, "presentation" means that the papers can be found in pdf format at the conference website, not only for the duration of the conference as they are archived for future reference. The papers will be available on the conference website up to four weeks before the conference starts. Registered participants are then able to read selected papers before the conference begins. During the conference (which lasts for a two week period from 3 to 14 July 2006) delegates are encouraged to read the papers and to make critical comments or ask critical questions in a bulletin-board format. Paper presenters are required to visit the conference site regularly to respond to comments on their own paper and to make critical comments of other papers. The discussions and answers on the bulletin-board are asynchronous (i.e. the discussants do not need to be online at the conference at the same time). In order to facilitate quality discussions, the conference lasts over a much longer time period than face-to-face conferences. It is hoped that a longer time period will allow for more meaningful, in-depth and quality discussion than is normally found at face-to-face conferences where presentations and discussions are usually quite rushed. Have a look at IPROMS 2005 to see what happened at the previous IPROMS conference.
Some of the papers may well be "presented" using virtual classroom technology. Papers presented in this format will be very similar to face-to-face conferences in that the presentations will use technology similar to PowerPoint presentations, and the presentations and discussions will use Voice-Over IP (VOIP) in a synchronous manner. Participants in the virtual classroom session will therefore have to be logged on and present in the session at the same time. For some of the participants this might mean getting up very early or staying very late. However, the synchronous session has the advantage of getting immediate answers to any questions or comments rather than waiting until an author responds.
In order to encourage quality papers and discussions, "Best Paper" and "Student Paper" prizes will be awarded for the best scientific papers from established researchers and from PhD students. A selection of the best papers at the conference will also get the opportunity to be published as journal articles in the Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Adapted from the advice given by Andrew Thatcher to participants at the CybErg 2005 Conference.