Overview
The VIS Organizing Committee is happy to announce the IEEE VIS Satellite Program for 2021. While we will strive for the best virtual experience possible, there are valuable in-person experiences that we’ve come to expect from a VIS conference, but are lacking in a virtual format. The satellite program can fill that gap, by providing VIS attendees to opportunity to attend small, local or regional in-person events.
What does a VIS Satellite event look like?
Each satellite will be an official IEEE event. While we would like the specifics of the satellite plans to be open-ended to encourage creativity in their design, there are certain aspects that we would like to see in each:
- Each satellite will have a small auxiliary program that would complement the virtual program and take advantage of the virtual program’s compressed schedule. For example, this can be a session per day before/after the virtual VIS program. Example sessions include: lightning talks for students/researchers, panels, posters, Q/A sessions with local content providers, or lab/software demonstrations. We would like proposers to be creative in their local program.
- Each satellite will be featured on the VIS website and integrated into the virtual program via shout outs. Shout outs will be via short videos from each site that can be used to promote local research labs or satellite programs. The frequency, length, and format of shout outs are still being determined and will be driven by virtual program considerations.
Who runs a VIS Satellite?
Each satellite site will have a local chair(s) who will plan, coordinate, and run each satellite location. For their efforts, local chairs will be considered full members of the organizing committee with distinction.
How to propose a VIS Satellite.
Potential local chairs should submit a short letter of interest to the 2021 General Chairs (general_chair@ieeevis.org) by July 1, 2021. Full plans will be due by August 1, 2021.
Each Satellite plan should have the following components:
- A plan on how the local program will be organized. This plan must follow all local laws, safety protocols and COVID restrictions, and comply with the IEEE guidelines and the VIS code of conduct.
- A description on how and why the satellite site will attract 20+ participants with a projection of how many participants are expected with a possibly preliminary list of attendees.
- Space and technology to allow 20+ participants to view the virtual VIS streams.
- The plan for the small auxiliary program.
- A budget detailing the financial support the site would need and a plan for covering these expenses (see below).
Important considerations:
- To keep this plan scalable, the primary VIS conference cannot provide monetary support to local chairs. We encourage local chairs to seek out supporters to offset any costs. For instance, this can be in-kind support from a local university that provides space or food/beverages. All local supporters will be acknowledged as a new category “Local Supporters” in our supporters program. Sites that offer compelling plans for outreach to increase diversity and inclusivity of VIS attendees through their satellite program may be eligible for funding from the primary conference through Diversity and Inclusivity grants.
- As planning meetings in regards to COVID still has risk, any reservations on space must be able to be canceled without penalty. In addition, since IEEE will need to approve all contracts, sites that can reserve space without a contract are preferred.