ACM ASIA CCS 2022
Conference Service Co., Ltd.
Representative Director Mr. Jiromaru Sawa
[Event period] May 2022, 5 - June 30, 2022
[Venue] Dejima Messe Nagasaki
[Number of participants] Approximately 440 people (hybrid event)
Please tell us your impressions of this tournament.
Mr. Jiro Marusawa
Activities to attract the conference began in 2018, so it took four years to complete the conference. As the ACM, an international information conference organization, was a prestigious conference that rivals the IEEE, I am very grateful that it was a success.
Please tell us about your main initiatives this time.
Mr. Jiro Marusawa
When the plenary session was held, we were in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, so we spent the most time trying to find a balance between preventing infection and stimulating discussion. The plenary session was held in a hybrid format, which required consideration of both the quality and quantity of communication as well as time difference issues.
Informal interaction between offline participants is known to be difficult in hybrid and online meetings, and this issue remains unresolved to date. Therefore, at this conference, we took measures to maximize formal exchange regarding presentations and research. in particular,
1. Create an environment where presentation materials can be shared in advance to understand the presentation content in advance.
2. Utilize communication tools so that discussions can take place outside of presentation time.
3. Record your presentation and share it with participants at a later date
We took three measures.
In addition to presentation slides, we also used pre-recording of presentation videos to share presentation materials in advance. Almost all the presenters provided materials and we were able to share them with the participants. Slack was used as the communication tool, and more than 2 communications took place, resulting in lively discussions. The recordings of the presentations have been viewed for several months, and we believe they were fully utilized.
Regarding the time difference issue, since there were many participants in the plenary session from the United States and Europe, we decided to have online presenters from the United States in the morning of Japan time, and presenters from Europe in the evening of Japan time. Therefore, we made sure that each presenter did not give a presentation in the middle of the night. As a result, most online presenters were able to present their presentations on time, and the discussion progressed without any problems. In addition, participants who were unable to listen to the discussion in real time due to time differences were able to learn about the presentation by watching the presentation materials and presentation videos, and were able to ask questions at a later date via Slack. There were no complaints from online participants about the presentations or discussions.
Please give a message to those who are planning to invite or hold a conference in Nagasaki in the future.
Mr. Jiro Marusawa
I felt that Dejima Messe Nagasaki was a conference hall that was ideal for holding academic conferences. We can secure sufficient line capacity, which is a problem with hybrid events, and best of all, since it is a 1-minute walk from Nagasaki Station, there is no need to allocate resources to guiding participants to the venue. This seems like a huge plus when it comes to holding meetings. Additionally, the ceiling is high enough to encourage lively discussions.
Also, there are many tourist spots, so it's easy to organize excursions. There are few purely Japanese-style facilities, so excursions for international conferences may require a bit of ingenuity, but you can go to places like Unzen and Takeo by bus, so I didn't have any trouble choosing a destination.