[ RadSafe ] IRPA 12 Congress in Buenos Aires

[Peter Bossew]

I heard the IRPA 12 was quite badly organized, some participants 
complained about the logistics. - Any opinions about this ?

I agree with Franz that monster conferences are questionable, and in 
general too expensive. I also doubt their efficiency in terms of costs 
(time, logistics, $$$) and benefits (apart from the benefit to the 
conference organizing industry, of course), and I try to give them a 
miss, if I can. (For IRPA 12 I could.)
It is true on the other hand, that these are opportunities to meet 
people (in particular at coffee breaks and at the (hm) social events in 
the evenings) whom one would not meet at the usual small meetings and 
technical workshops etc., which are certainly more efficient, but as 
"family conventions" have it, their horizon may be more restricted, so 
to say. (I envy Franz for the Morocco conf.)
For example, I have been to the IGC 33 in Oslo in August ... ~10^4 
participants, Oslo filled with geologists up to the last backpacker 
hostel room; excellent organization, interesting subjects; but again, I 
met almost only with people whom I had already known before, and the 
sheer size of the event almost did not allow any contacts across borders 
of disciplines. (For those interested, we (JRC) had a sub-symposium 
about Rn mapping, presentations in: 
http://radonmapping.jrc.ec.europa.eu/index.php?id=37&no_cache=1&dlpath=Conference_Presentations%2F2008_33IGC 
; if the link does not work: http://radonmapping.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ -> 
Documents -> Conference Presentations -> 2008 33IGC)

Next monster-conference (well, medium sized compared to IRPA and IGC) 
will be Geostats 2008, Santiago / Chile, in Dec., conference fee 850 $ 
!!! (and that is the early-bird rate!) -- unfortunately "the" event in 
the field, and therefore not to be missed. -- Porca miseria, as we 
Italians say...

Peter




Perle, Sandy wrote:
> These large meetings do provide many benefits, even if the fee is considered too high. I found that the IRPA fees were not too bad, compared to other meetings of this scope. One negative comment I heard often was that many did not consider that some of the sessions required additional fees, that were not covered in the registration fee. On a positive note, the costs of everything in Argentina was very inexpensive.
>
> As far as the meeting, there was ample time to attend sessions and one was able to move from session to session without difficulty. Scheduling and maintaining time was done quite well.
>
> I find the best reason to attend these meetings is the networking that can be done, and, meeting with colleagues and friends who also attend. For example, I met with colleagues such as Dr. Hefner and others from ARCS. These meetings afford one the opportunity to meet and discuss topics of mutual interest in-between sessions.
>
> Regards,
>
> -----------------------------------
> Sander C. Perle 
> President
> Mirion Technologies
> Dosimetry Services Division 
> 2652 McGaw Avenue
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>
> +1 (949) 296-2306 (Office)
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>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On Behalf Of Franz Schönhofer
> Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2008 8:01 AM
> To: 'Bjorn Cedervall'; radsafe at radlab.nl
> Subject: AW: [ RadSafe ] IRPA 12 Congress in Buenos Aires
>
> Björn,
>
> My comment is very simple: I never take part in such "monster-conferences",
> not even when it was held in Vienna, my town of residence. The fee is much
> to high. I do not believe that any reasonable work can be done at a
> conference with several parallel sessions, which one is usually not able to
> switch to in time. The topics are much to broad to be able to find out about
> details of interest.  
>
> Sorry, I just came back from a conference in Marocco, less than 200
> participants - a number enabling one contacting everybody on topics of
> interest and to establish new contacts. 
>
> I will not visit such IRPA monster conferences in the future. 
>
> Med vaenlig haelsning,
>
> Franz
>
> Franz Schoenhofer, PhD
> MinRat i.R.
> Habicherg. 31/7
> A-1160 Wien/Vienna
> AUSTRIA
>
>
>
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-- 


-----------------------------------------------------
Peter Bossew 

European Commission (EC) 
Joint Research Centre (JRC) 
Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) 

TP 441, Via Fermi 1 
21020 Ispra (VA) 
ITALY 
  
Tel. +39 0332 78 9109 
Fax. +39 0332 78 5466 
Email: peter.bossew at jrc.it 

http://rem.jrc.ec.europa.eu/
  
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