(revised from the update for the 2000 conference in Nashville)
Conference dates are scheduled to be Friday March 30 thru Sunday April 1, 2001
The location will be at The Conference Center and Inn at Clemson University. The Madren Center is large enough for our conference as there will be some meeting rooms we will not occupy. We have 80 rooms at the Martin Inn ($80) that is adjacent to the Madren Center. An additional 120 hotel rooms are held at the Ramada Inn ($70) at Clemson. All unreserved rooms will be released February 28, 2001!!!
Transportation from the Ramada to the Conference Center and back will be coordinated with the hotel (their van) and Clemson Area Transit (public transportation, should be no cost). Automobile rental appears to be more cost effective than a shuttle service from the airport and this info will be available at our registration web site area.
An Organization chart has previously been sent to the Region 3 Ex Com. High-lights are:
Conference co-chairs – Mark Stokes & Nick Pasquerilla
Accomodations, Treasurer & Secretary – Nick Pasquerilla
Registration & Publication – Mark Stokes
Industry Relations Committee- Lee Stogner & Allen Thomas
Program Activities Committee – John Gowdy
Student Activities Committee – Randy Collins & John Komo
Our budget format was taken from the Southeastern Conference 1999 Lexington Budget. It was re-worked and currently shows a $5000+ surplus. The budget has been reviewed by IEEE headquarters and Region 3. A change of less than $100 was required due to firming up the conference meeting space.
IEEE conference services worked to acquire competitive bids for this conference. Then they negotiated with The Conference Center for meeting space, hotel rooms and meals. Also, they arranged the rooms at the Ramada. We have signed contracts for all of the above.
We are currently working on our registration system including credit cards. This is scheduled to be completed by December 2000.
The schedule will follow closely the Lexington and Nashville schedules. This schedule is complete and should be reviewed by the Region 3 ExCom. We need to know by December 1 if any other meeting space will be required.
We hopefully will have a few interesting plant tours, spouses activities, some tutorials and possibly a student job fair. We are planning a Graduate Student Recruitment area for Saturday. Hardware competition specifics are on our web site as this has generated much interest.
We currently have issued our Final Call For Papers via e-mail and our web site.
Corporate Sponsor mailings went out. This time of the year is typically budget setting for next year. We hope to begin hearing responses soon.