From the society: Plan now for the Miami 2013 conference

Abstract

membership corner ISSN 1948‐6596 from the society Plan now for the Miami 2013 conference Registration is now open for the 6 th Biennial Con‐ ference of the International Biogeography Society (IBS) in Miami, Florida on 9‐13 January, 2013 1 . Lo‐ cated at the Kovens Conference Center at the Bis‐ cayne Bay campus of Florida International Univer‐ sity, we are preparing for what we hope will be the largest conference of the IBS. With the bulk of the planning now complete, we wish to share our excitement about the conference’s agenda, loca‐ tion, and associated activities. Highlighting the meeting will be the keynote address by the Alfred Russel Wallace Award win‐ ner, James H. Brown. Jim was the first President of the IBS. Jim also received a Lifetime Honorary Membership from the society in early 2012. The society will be presenting its new award, the Mac‐ Arthur & Wilson Award, to Miguel Araujo (see Frontiers of Biogeography 4.2 for short biogra‐ phies of the award winners). The plenary sympo‐ sia will span the gamut of subfields in biogeogra‐ phy across temporal scales, from paleontology to projected impacts of climate change and across taxonomic scales, from a focus on functional traits to entire biotas. In addition, this year we will dou‐ ble the number of contributed oral presentations, with four concurrent sessions on the third day of the conference. Posters will be highly visible, located in a long gallery and adjoining rooms running through the conference center. Posters will be organized thematically and two long poster‐viewing times per day will provide plenty of time for interaction. To facilitate attendance at posters, we are explor‐ ing a means by which poster presenters can invite conference attendees to their poster. At some point after registration closes, poster presenters will be able to view a list of all attendees and in‐ vite up to five people to their poster. The system will prevent any one person from receiving more than five invitations. Although this remains a ten‐ tative plan, we have witnessed its success at the 2013 Evolution meeting in Ottawa and we think it has great promise to enhance the IBS conference. January is peak tourist season in Miami. The conference hotel, the Newport Beachside Re‐ sort, is literally on the beach in the city of Sunny Isles Beach. Located halfway between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, the row of hotels has the official slogan of “Florida’s Riviera”. The hotel will be hosting the conference banquet and auction on the beach. During your time off, you can get about easily within the city using a free shuttle service within Sunny Isles Beach. We have ar‐ ranged competitive pricing at the conference ho‐ tel, with one price that covers breakfasts, a shut‐ tle for transportation to the meeting location, and taxes. Please see the conference “Travel & Ac‐ commodation” web page for important informa‐ tion on booking your room. The slate of field trips and workshops is also impressive. The field trips, which will be run both pre‐ and post‐conference, will focus on the nature of the greater Everglades National Park and nearby coastal habitats. In addition, one field trip tours the world‐class Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden. Please see the conference web site 1 for more information. Prior to the main meeting, we will offer five optional workshops, which will provide unique opportunities for training and professional growth. The “Biogeography of Stress” workshop will involve presentations and discussions on the geographic patterns and processes impacting stress, disease susceptibility, and genetic diversity in natural populations. Another half‐day work‐ shop will be a presentation and discussion of “Bayesian Statistical Analysis” with applications in ecology and biogeography. The full‐day “Biodiversity Informatics Tools” workshop will ad‐ dress how to tackle both conceptual and practical issues in dealing with massive quantities of bio‐ geographic data. Lastly, there are two workshops involving writing and presenting your research. The “Communicating Biogeography” workshop 1. Full details are available at http://www.biogeography.org/html/Meetings/2013/ © 2012 the authors; journal compilation © 2012 The International Biogeography Society — frontiers of biogeography 4.3, 2012