In early 2001, Tom Wiener, then president of the OES, asked me to head a committee to formalize our conference activities, finding the proper balance between the responsibility of the sponsoring society and the authority and autonomy of the local organizing committee, and improving the management of our conferences so that our technical, professional, and financial goals are met.
I named this committee, CoCoPo (Committee on Conference Policies) and this was the real start of my greater involvement with the operations of the OCEANS conferences. This committee came up, among other things, with the two conference-a-year concept, the first edition of which I chaired in Brest in June 2005. In the meantime CoCoPo evolved into JOAB (cf. the paper “From CoCoPo to JOAB: A new era in Oceans Conferences” in a previous issue of the Newsletters) which implemented the tools necessary for insuring a sustainable procedure for the OCEANS conferences and to support the coming “future” ones. In the last four to five years CoCoPo and JOAB have achieved a great part of the challenge proposed by Tom Wiener. There has been an evolution from a first concept – advisors revolving around a paid consultant – to another approach, more internal to the societies: a Web exchange between the local organizing committees, the advisors and the data.
Parallel to that, OES rejuvenated the Constitution & Bylaws of the society and separated the position of VP international into two vice-presidencies: development and operation of the conferences. I had the feeling that my experience with CoCoPo, JOAB and running a conference (Oceans’05 Brest) made me fit for the job. I was really pleased to be elected to this position in September last year. I have since then, as VP Conference Operations, worked towards a greater reinforcement of the link between the local organizing committees and the society resources. The main challenge consists first of coordinating the help we, society, can provide to all the new conferences coming up: technical domain, website tools and more generally all pertinent advices (Exhibit, .Tutorials, Student Program, etc.). I just had a look at my agenda and here is the program for the next conference which are already granted and for which support is starting: Oceans’06 Singapore, Oceans’06 Boston, Oceans’07 Aberdeen, Oceans’07 Vancouver and I’m not counting two or three more which have already started early and are waiting (Oceans’08 Quebec, Oceans’09 Bremen …).
By the time I’m writing these lines we are still at the very beginning of 2006, so I wish the best to all the OES members and their family.