[Air-L] Registration for Internet Research 11.0: Sustainability, Participation, Action, Gothenburg, Sweden, October 21-23, 2010 now open

[Raquel Recuero]

Hi everyone!

I'm glad Steve brought this up. Although I understand all points Mia is 
arguing, the reality is that the cost of things in Sweden, plus fees, 
plus hotel, plus long distance air ticket is becoming prohibitive for us 
from South America (and I believe, also for our colleagues who come from 
other very far countries such as Australia and New Zealand - I won't 
even mention students.)

AOIR is growing and many of my colleagues and students in Brazil and 
other South American countries would love to be able to participate. 
However, with the growing costs, it is getting harder for everyone. 
Also, the problem gets worse because IR doesn't have proceedings (as a 
formal publication), making it even harder to get any support from our 
Universities/Research Agencies.

So, I'd like to suggest to the Exec. Comitee of AOIR 1) to think about 
other policies that would help lowering the costs of future conferences 
for participants who come from other continents (the fee waver is one 
step, but still small) and 2) to think about creating formal 
Proceedings, which would help many of us to attend the conferences.

Please, don't take this as a criticism to the Sweden conference 
organization. Having organizing conferences, I know it is extremely hard 
to get sponsors, a place and everything that is needed for something as 
big as IR on a small budget (sometimes you just have to elevate the 
fee). However, I believe it is important to point out that AOIR is 
supposed to be International and that perhaps, for future conferences, 
if not possible to lower the costs, we should think about more policies 
to help participants of other continents to attend.

Regards,

Raquel Recuero

Dept. of Applied Linguistics and Communication
Universidade Católica de Pelotas (UCPel)
Alm Barroso, 1202 Pelotas/RS - Brazil
+55 53 21288111





Steve Jones wrote:
> For some reason the url in the email announcement includes the "!" but it should not. The url is http://ir11.aoir.org/registration-3/
>
> The registration fees seem very high for this year's conference. Using current conversion rates to U.S. Dollars, and assuming a full refund of VAT (which may be an incorrect assujption):
>
> Earlybird Rates (through August 31)
>
> $265	• Student:  1980 SEK (plus 495 SEK VAT) = 2475 SEK TOTAL
> $244	• Student with 1-Year Membership: 1580 SEK (plus 395 SEK VAT), with student membership (244 SEK) = 2219 SEK TOTAL
> $434	• Professional: 3250 SEK (plus 812.50 SEK VAT) = 4062.50 SEK TOTAL
> $416	• Professional with 1-Year Membership: 2750 SEK (plus 687.50 SEK VAT), with professional membership (365 SEK) = 3802.50 SEK TOTAL
>
> Regular Rates (after August 31)
>
> $321	• Student:  2400 SEK (plus 600 SEK VAT) = 3000 SEK TOTAL
> $300	• Student with 1-Year Membership: 2000 SEK (plus 500 SEK VAT), with student membership (244 SEK) = 2744 SEK TOTAL
> $488	• Professional: 3650 SEK (plus 912.50 SEK VAT) = 4562.50 SEK TOTAL
> $470	• Professional with 1-Year Membership: 3150 SEK (plus 787.50 SEK VAT), with professional membership (365 SEK) = 4302.50 SEK TOTAL
>
> The fees do not include the banquet (at about $60 USD) and pre-conference workshops (one of which is free, the others are about $45 USD).
>
> Last year's fees are still online at http://ir10.aoir.org/?page_id=6 and were as follows for the non-earlybird registrants (I don't know what the early registration fees were off the top of my head, and they are not on that page, but I think they were around $30 or so less):
>
> 	• 2009-2010 Member, Professional Conference Registration - $ 325.00
> 	• 2009-2010 Member, Student Conference Registration - $ 190.00
> 	• Non-member Professional Conference Registration - $ 370.00
> 	• Non-member Student Conference Registration - $ 220.00
>
> This year's fees are significantly increased from the ones last year (and the year before that, as I recall that every effort was made to keep the fees the same), and while I am aware of currency fluctuations and the relative expense of operating a conference in some places compared with others, I am concerned particularly with the cost for students to attend the conference in Gothenburg. Furthermore, it is somewhat ironic to see this sort of increase given the conference theme, as it might cause _less_ participation and be _un_sustainable if AoIR continues to increase conference fees like this. I would also like to suggest to the executive committee that some relative stability in conference fees should be a goal so that people can budget for this conference each year and not be surprised (sometimes pleasantly, perhaps, and sometimes not) when registration fees are announced. 
>
> Thanks,
>
> Steve
>
> On Jul 9, 2010, at 1:53 AM, Ann-Sofie Axelsson wrote:
>
>   
>> Dear all,
>>
>> We are pleased to announce, finally, that the registration for Internet Research 11.0: Sustainability, Participation, Action, Gothenburg, Sweden, October 21-23, 2010 now is open and can be accessed at http://ir11.aoir.org/registration-3/!
>>
>> We welcome academics, industrial associates and practitioners from all fields to participate in this exctiting conference!
>> Ylva Hård af Segerstad and Ann-Sofie Axelsson
>> Organizing Committee
>>
>>
>> Ann-Sofie Axelsson, Ph.D.
>> Department of Technology Management and Economics
>> Division of Technology and Society
>> Chalmers University of Technology
>> SE-412 96 Gothenburg
>> Sweden
>>
>> Phone: +46 31-772 11 19
>> Fax: +46 31-772 37 83
>>
>> E-mail: annaxe at chalmers.se<BLOCKED::mailto:annaxe at chalmers.se>
>> Web(TinyURL): http://tinyurl.com/yw8n9s
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>     
>
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