Program Committee for PTC´09

The PTC'09 program committee is already at work with planning for our 31st annual conference 18-21 January 2009. The committee is co-chaired by Stephan Beckert and Richard Taylor.

The Program Committee, made up of PTC Member and Board of Governors volunteers, includes Tom Costello, Susan Irwin, David Lassner, Steve McClelland, Shrihari Pandit, Morley Winograd, Lorain Wong and Ken Zita. The secretariat facilitates this committee that also includes Sharon Nakama and Mark Hukill.

The committee has already decided on a theme for PTC'09 -- Collaborating for Change: Strategies, Opportunities and Partnerships. The program will focus on the vital role of collaboration in bringing new communications services to market.

The program committee is now working on topics for inclusion in the conference. While it is expected that the majority of the conference, especially for the featured speaker sessions and various managed sessions, will be invited by the committee, a Call for Participation will be issued in early April with proposals due 6 July. A group of program reviewers will make recommendations on the proposals received from the Call for Participation and after final acceptance, high-quality proposals relevant to the theme and topics of the conference will be slotted in the program by the leaders of the Program Committee in mid-August.

A concurrent process is also in place for research paper submissions from students and participants that will lead to the awarding of the two research paper prizes (see below). Separate announcements for research papers and the prizes are being distributed soon.

Your ideas are always welcome for PTC'09. Please feel free to contact the Secretariat with your suggestions.