In these times, meeting in-person is always a looked-forward to and surreal experience. After two years of online meetings and Conference programme planning, the ACPC (Conference Programme Committee) finally met in-person in Brussels (while maintaining as much social distancing, self-testing and hand hygiene practices as possible).

The reason for the meeting: to shape and plan the programme for #ecsite2022, taking place on 2-4 June in Heilbronn, Germany.

The ACPC is made up of a group of experts and past, current and future Conference hosts, who donate their time and expertise to organising Ecsite's flagship event.

Shaping the programme

Before the meeting, the committee were sent a pdf of all the submitted sessions, on which they could then rank and provide comment. In Brussels, they then split into small sub-groups focusing on Learning, Exhibitions, Science ❤️ Society and Operations and Marketing, in which each of the submitted sessions was placed. These sub-groups, a group with knowledge and expertise on their given theme, then had the task of deciding which of the sessions were in, and which were out.

There is always plenty of room for discussion, and the committee then re-grouped for a plenary to give a final 'yes' or 'no' to each proposal. Once the proposal was in, it was then given a slot in the Conference programme; no mean feat when factoring in issues such as timetable clashes and Conference tracks (and of course making sure that speakers aren't scheduled to be in several rooms at once). All of the proposed Pre-Conference workshops were also discussed and a decision made on each one.

The ACPC also discussed other elements of the programme, including progess made with keynotes (more news to follow in early 2022!), updates to the social programme (we cannot wait to share these with you too) and even ways to connect with fellow participants ahead of arriving in Heilbronn.

Next steps for successful speakers and convenors

All those who submitted session proposals will find out before 17 December whether their proposal has made it into the programme - from then they'll have a period of around four weeks to finalise and fine tune their abstracts, include speakers and make any changes (if any were advised by the ACPC). After this date, the Ecsite comms team will finalise them and launch the programme at the beginning of February!

Being together in person was not without its challenges (and some members of the ACPC joined parts of the meeting online), but was a very rewarding experience and a wonderful opportunity to be together and share stories, advice and suggestions, something that occurs much more naturally than an online meeting.

So, after three intense but successful days, the ACPC have come up with a Conference programme that promises to be rich, relevant and intellectually stimulating, and we hope that you'll be able to join us in Germany in June 2022.