[HPSG-L] HPSG 2020 Conference -- Call for online organizers

[Stefan Müller]

Hi everybody,

I think I can do this. I am heavily involved in environmental issues and
I think I have to do it. I think it is easy but I guess I will learn
about the difficulties on the job. 

If you (pl) think that I could do this, I would happily take on the task.

I would also like to take the opportunity to make a suggestion to a
wider circle of people: We could extend the rotation between Asia,
Europe and the US to include a virtual meeting every four years.

We have a big issue in academics: half of our CO2 impact is coming from
traveling (at least in Europe). We have to get to zero, so this means
flying has to go down. Zero emission planes will be available in 2050
(according to the industry, so who knows when they will be there in
reality).

Having a virtual conference every fourth year seems to be a step in the
right direction.

This would enable participation of those who cannot travel (for
political, economical, ecological, or social reasons). Also think of
families with young kids. (women)

I know that we are human beings and that social contact is very
important. Who do you sit next to during the conference dinner? Who do
you have a Apfelsaftschorle with? Some comments are given two days after
the talk and so on. So it is not easy.

But we will have to change. There is now way around this. If we do not
do this reorganization ourselves, our university administrations will
impose it on us in some years.

So, let's see, how the virtual meeting in Leuven will work out and we
could then think about having virtual meetings every four or seven years.

Best

    Stefan

PS: I also keep up my offer of hosting a non-virtual conference in
Berlin once the turn is in Europe again, but if Leuven did it with ICCG
next year this would be great. Then the next time for Europe would be in
2024 or 2025.

    St.

Am 19.05.20 um 13:53 schrieb Rui Chaves:
> Greetings,
> I am writing to you on behalf of the Standing Committee for the
> International HPSG Conference. We hope you and your
> families are safe and well.
>
> As you know, the 27th International Conference on Head-driven Phrase
> Structure Grammar was scheduled to take place at
> the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. Out of respect for the
> safety of everyone given the current pandemic, the Standing
> Committee has decided that the conference cannot take place as
> planned. This is a disappointing and painful decision to everyone,
> but it is simply impossible to predict when international travel and
> academic life will return to normal. we thank Frank Van Eynde and
> Liesbeth Augustinus, the local organizers, for all the hard work that
> they put into the conference.
>
> Nevertheless, we plan to still hold a conference remotely, and to have
> the papers that were accepted for this year's conference to
> appear in the proceedings, as usual. We are therefore making a call
> for volunteers from the HPSG community to organize a virtual
> conference, to be held perhaps around the same time as originally scheduled
> (17-19 August 2020). Those who are interested and able to
> do this, please let me know as soon as possible.
>
> An online conference is not ideal, of course, but it does have certain
> important positives: it is more inclusive, more environmentally
> friendly, and naturally much better than no conference at all. This is
> an opportunity for us to rise to the occasion.
>
> Rui Chaves