IEEE R8 Sections Conference Coordinators

Call for Appointment of Section Conference Coordinators

Dear Section Chairs,

We would like to propose an approach to streamline working with and likely to organize very successful events.

The IEEE Region 8 Conference Coordination Committee (CoCC) has been actively serving the Region for over two decades. Its primary mission is to support and streamline the planning, development, implementation, and coordination of conferences, conventions, and technical events that are sponsored or co-sponsored by Region 8. In addition to providing strategic oversight and ensuring alignment with IEEE standards, the CoCC also serves as a key liaison to Societies and Technical Councils organizing events within Region 8, offering guidance and fostering collaboration to enhance the overall quality and impact of these initiatives.

The CoCC website, https://ieeer8.org/technical-activities/conference-coordination/, offers a range of valuable resources designed to assist in organizing conferences. We encourage you and your Section team to explore the site and make full use of the available materials.

Conferences are among the most impactful activities within IEEE and Region 8, offering vital opportunities for knowledge exchange, visibility, and networking across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Strengthening collaboration with Region 8 Sections and Subsections is therefore a key priority.

To support your Section in enhancing its conference engagement and effectiveness, we strongly recommend the following steps and kindly request that they be implemented at your earliest convenience:

1. Appoint a Section Conference Coordinator, if one has not yet been designated. A draft job description is provided below to assist you in defining the role, if needed.

2. Ensure that your appointed Section Conference Coordinator is correctly listed in the vTools platform https://officers.vtools.ieee.org

3. Inform your Section members—particularly Chapter and Affinity Group officers, as well as current and prospective conference organizers—about the following:

   1. IEEE R8 Conferences Sponsorships opportunities https://ieeer8.org/technical-activities/conference-coordination/;

   2. IEEE Conferences, Events & Experiences (CEE), https://events.ieee.org/, is an available support for organizing successful events, including hybrid and virtual ones;

   3. IEEE Center for Leadership Excellence (CLE), https://ieee-elearning.org/CLE/, is providing several trainings and webinars for conference organizers.

Please also note that the Region 8 CoCC is actively seeking proposals for new flagship events or projects focused on emerging topics and strategic sectors. These initiatives may initially be launched in a virtual format, with the potential for successful ones to evolve into in-person events in the future.

In subsections or smaller Sections, the Section Chair may also serve as the Section’s Conference Coordinator.

If you have any questions regarding Region 8 conferences or would like to learn more about how to get involved in our activities, please don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected].

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Section Conference Coordinator – Job Description

The Section Conference Coordinator is responsible for coordinating and arranging major IEEE conferences in the Section and to ensure the good technical quality of conferences technically / financially co-sponsored by the section as well as by the local chapters.

Summary of duties and responsibilities:

• Activities, including but not limited to planning, organizing, controlling and keeping the executive updated as to fundraising and budgeting for planned major events such conferences to be supported by Section.

• Be aware of Section demographics with relation to membership employed by academia, industry, and government.  Where appropriate, coordinate with the Awards & Recognitions Chair for special initiatives related to events.

• Maintain information about  expos and conferences in the section and, where appropriate, promote these to the IEEE membership.

• Help and support conference organizers to succeed in organizing IEEE conferences.

• Maintain the report of each conference organized in the section.

• Submit a regular report to the Section Executive Committee and the R8 Conference Coordination Committee on status of conferences and potential events to be considered for our memberships benefit.

• Passes all relevant records of office at the end of term to the successor.

Qualifications:

• Must be an IEEE member in good standing.

• Must be an active IEEE member of Graduate Student Member grade or higher.

• Must reside in the geographic boundaries of the Section.

• Should have a Conference organizer experience.

• Ability to spend sufficient time and energy to support conference organizers.

• Ability to respond quickly to communications by email.

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