Agenda and Presenters Selected for Adelaide Conference

Dr. David Schindel

The Program Committee of the Adelaide Barcode Conference has finished the massive job of reviewing 493 abstracts and organizing them into sessions.  This task was completed by members of the Conference Program Committee and about 40 volunteer Session Organizers who will be chairing sessions at the Conference.  The Conference organizers offer them a big THANK YOU for their contributions.

You can see the resulting agenda of sessions that includes links to lists of presentations in each session. Currently, only the title and submitter’s name are listed for each abstract.  The text, names of authors, and the time-slot for each presentation will be added in early October.

Based on this extensive review process, here’s what will be available to you at the Adelaide Conference:

• Three plenary sessions:  The Program Committee is still in the process of selecting these speakers so some of the submitted abstracts aren’t on the website or in the abstract search portal yet (see below);
• Four large sessions with 32 plenary talks on barcoding in major taxonomic groups;
• 15 parallel sessions on taxonomic groups;
• 16 parallel sessions on thematic topics;
• More than 160 oral presentations in parallel taxonomic and thematic sessions;
• An afternoon session for viewing 140 poster presentations; and
• 90 short ‘lightning’ oral presentations that summarize poster displays.

Those who submitted abstracts for consideration will begin to receive email notifications today, telling them if their abstracts have been accepted for oral and/or poster presentations.

CBOL has constructed an abstract search portal that makes it easy for you to find a specific abstract, determine if it will be presented as a parallel talk, a short ‘lightning talk’ that summarizes a poster presentation, or as a poster. The portal also allows you to browse the abstract titles by session, keyword(s) or type of presentation.

There are two more important tasks left before the agenda is completely finalized:

• Selection of plenary speakers.  Not all the submitters of abstracts will be getting notifications in the coming days.  About 30 have been nominated by Session Organizers as possible speakers in the large plenary sessions.  The Program Committee will be selecting those speakers in the next week.  Submitters will be notified at that time and their abstracts will be added to the online agenda and abstract search portal.
• Correction of abstracts.  CBOL is expanding the abstract search portal so that authors can make corrections to their text and the list of co-authors and their institutional affiliations.  Authors must use this portal either to make corrections or to confirm that the current version is correct.  All submitters will receive an email message with instructions when the portal is ready.

The Conference Organizers offer their sincere thanks to all the submitters of abstracts for their interest in the conference and their patience during the review period.