Fourth International Online Information Meeting

Abstract

The Fourth International Online Conference followed the usual pattern of success established by its three predecessors. With over 900 delegates from 25 countries, it fully justifies its title as an International Conference. There was a rather higher proportion of continental delegates and a rather lower proportion of British ones than in previous years. This was no doubt due to the recession affecting the U.K. and to rumours that there will not be an Online Meeting in Germany in 1981. The conference followed its by now well established pattern. A plenary opening session with ‘big name’ speakers. Thereafter, a bewildering choice of either full papers, product reviews or the exhibition, with the odd poster session thrown in. Last year there were a large number of poster sessions, and they were extremely well attended, with lots of discussions taking place. This year, however, there were fewer of them, they were less well organised, being strung out along the edges of the Queen Mary Suite foyer and with very poor lighting. There was no exhibition in the foyer (unlike last year), so people were not browsing in the vicinity anyway. The quality of some of the poster displays left a lot to be desired. I got the feeling that an author is awarded a poster display if the paper is regarded as not being good enough to be a presented paper. The authors — or some of the authors, I should say — seemed to feel it wasn't worth the effort of going to a lot of trouble to do a good display having been awarded a consolation prize only. The organisers of the conference should think carefully about the role and purpose of poster sessions in future International Online Conferences.