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ANZSMS16- Convenor's Report5th May 1997The 16th conference of ANZSMS was held at the Hobart Campus of the University of Tasmania from 2nd to 6th February 1997. The conference featured six invited Plenary & Keynote lecturers, 48 short oral presentations and 46 posters, a trade exhibition and a number of social events. There were 162 delegates registered, including a handful of day registrations. Under subheadings below are listed various points for the information of the ANZSMS Central Committee and the organisers of the 17th ANZSMS conference. Convention Managers For the first time professional convention managers were employed from the very early planning stages of the conference. This decision was taken partly because of the very small mass spectrometry community in Tasmania to share the work load, and also as it is becoming increasingly difficult to expect society members to take on many aspects of the organising which consume a large amount of their personal time, and which can be better carried out by professionals. Mures Convention Management undertook this role for ANZSMS16, and for a very reasonable fee more than fulfilled their professional obligations. They were present at all committee meetings, and from their extensive experience offered advice on all aspects of the conference planning, as well as carrying out day to day tasks such as coordinating sponsors and exhibitors, printing, receipt of submitted abstracts, catering, registration & accommodation ackowledgements & bookings etc, not to mention their role during the five days of the conference. As the committee had a professional secretariat carrying out a large number of tasks, the position of 'committee secretary' was not filled, although in hindsight this added significantly to the workload of the convenor. Plenary & Keynote Speakers Invitations were forwarded to a number of potential speakers twelve months prior to the conference; when possible (such as when there is a two year gap between conferences) these should perhaps be sent out up to eighteen months prior to the conference to ensure booking prominent speakers. A number of invited speakers were very tardy in their replies. Some apologised for this, saying they wanted to come but could not make the commitment at that stage; this however placed the organising committee in a difficult situation, and in one case the committee had to continually push the invited speaker to respond one way or the other, ultimately resulting in his reluctant non-acceptance of the invitation. Names of potential speakers were sought from all members of the society, and two of these suggestions were ultimately speakers at the conference. It was agreed with the organisers of the Lorne Protein meeting to share the costs of one invited speaker; they accepted our suggestion of Carol Robinson as the shared speaker. Richard Simpson, secretary of the Lorne meeting, indicated that Carol's contribution was excellent, and was well received by the Lorne delegates. He would be happy to repeat this arrangement, thus saving costs for both conferences. ( We have, however, yet to receive our share of these costs). Companies not represented at recent conferences by keynote speakers were invited to supply names of potential keynote speakers; this offer was not taken up, but ANZSMS has at least covered itself against any possible claims of partisan support of a company by the society. Scott Tanner, while an employee of PE-Sciex, was a direct choice of the committee, and was not a name put forward by PE. The committee attempted to have speakers covering a range of topics in mass spectrometry, but due to constraints of budget and timetable could not cover all areas. Invited speakers were offered a fixed amount (A$3000) to cover expenses, plus free registration, rather than attempting to cover full airfares and accommodations costs. This greatly simplified budgeting, and from experience from other conferences most speakers are happy with this, provided it substantially covers their expenses. Accommodation decisions were left in the hands of the speakers. Persons accompanying invited speakers were also offered free registration. Every effort was made during the conference to ensure that the invited speakers were shown appropriate hospitality; all were offered transport from the airport to their accommodation, and we tried to ensure they were always accompanied at meal times etc. The tight schedule, however, did not allow the committee much time for showing speakers around Hobart. From the organisers' point of view, we were without exception very happy with the quality of the speakers' presentations, and felt they were all excellent value. Conference Schedule The 16th conference was scheduled so as to not clash with the Lorne Protein conference, which was held the following week. The companies involved at ANZSMS-16 also put in early requests that they needed time to ship their equipment and displays to Lorne by Sunday 9th Feb, and that to do this they would need to pack up on the Thursday morning to catch the Bass Strait ferry. The committee therefore decided to make the scientific program last for 3.5 days rather than 4.5 as is more traditional. While this satisfied the exhibitors and tied in with Lorne, it made the program quite full, and we regretted not being able to offer a free morning or afternoon during the conference. Delegates Given that apart from the members of the organising committee there was only one local delegate (not counting the student A/V helpers), the total number of delegates (162) was a very pleasing result, making it possibly the largest number of interstate and overseas delegates the society has attracted to a conference. The society's first offer of a 'travel subsidy' to bona fide students presenting an oral or poster at the conference did not appear to significantly swell the student numbers. Exhibitors Varian, Thermoquest, HP, PE, Micromass, Bruker, Shimadzu and SGE all had trade displays. The way the sponsorship packages were constructed meant that a trade display was one of the benefits of major or principal sponsorship, but of itself did not constitute sponsorship; for example, Bruker and SGE were not sponsors.. The general feedback from the exhibitors was that the combination of the venue layout and placement of tea & coffee facilities gave them excellent access to delegates, with several stating that it was the best venue for ANZSMS to date from their point of view. A copy of the full package presented to potential exhibitors is attached. Advertising The conference was advertised extensively (all free of charge) in trade magazines, chemical journals, international mass spectrometry journals and on the internet. Several requests to place paid advertisements were received from publishers, but none was accepted. The conference was also promoted in the regular way by two circulars sent to the full ANZSMS mailing list; one being a brief 'flyer' and the second a full registration brochure. Flyers and brochures were also sent to most local industries and laboratories with any MS involvement. Abstracts The committee decided not to make electronic submission of abstracts compulsory, but in the light of the subsequent need for standardising formats of several submitted abstracts, and the fact that all abstracts were ultimately to be placed onto the ANZSMS Web site, it would appear to be advisable to insist in future that abstracts are submitted in electronic form. Sponsors This proved to be one of the most difficult aspects of the conference to organise. Feedback from some sponsors of previous conferences was that they felt they had not always received good value for money, and so we carefully set the price ranges of the various sponsorship options to try to ensure both adequate income and sponsor satisfaction. Despite mailing a comprehensive sponsorship package to all potential sponsors, most companies managed to either lose these or claim that they had never received them; in some cases the package was sent three times. Numerous follow-up phone calls were made to all potential sponsors, and very few written replies were received at any stage. One company initially withdrew after promising to sponsor a specific speaker, after the invitation to the speaker had been sent on that understanding. This forced us to immediately offer the speaker's expenses from our own funds, which at that stage were not covered in the budget. One prominent company only became a sponsor very late in the organisation of the conference. We found the whole process very difficult, but can offer no advice to improve the situation, since a written invitation (together with the full sponsorship options) was sent to the key representative of all potential sponsors and numerous follow-up calls were made to check that the information had been received. Sponsorships were offered on a first come first served basis, with the principal sponsorship ($7,000) being taken up quite early by Varian (to the dismay of some of the others). The full Exhibitors' and Sponsors' packages, as distributed to all potential sponsors and exhibitors about one year before the conference, are attached. The final breakdown of sponsors and exhibitors was;
The committee also agreed to place advertising material in the
conference satchels at a price of $130 per item (i.e. approximately
$1 per satchel), and this was taken up by a number of companies.
Bruker (Australasia) - $1000
Student Prizes
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