Attending a Conference

1. A conference is an important event in a researcher's life, particularly an international meeting, and Mr. White was very glad to receive an invitation to participate in the annual conference of the Electric and Electronics Engineers Society that was to be held in Geneva in March. It was run under the auspices of CERN (the European Organization for Scientific Research) and sponsored bythe Convention of National Societies of Electrical and Electronics Engineers of Western Europe.

2. First of all, Mr. White had to send a short abstract of 200 words to the Programme Committee. This he did and his abstract was accepted. Soon he was informed that he'd better submit his paper 4 weeks before the conference. Mr. White sent his paper well in advance and also made a hotel reservation.

3. On entering the building where the conference was to take place Mr. White found himself in a familiar atmosphere characteristic of any scientific meeting anywhere in the world. There were groups of delegates everywhere, they talked mostly about science and discussed their research and results of work. Soon Mr. White entered the hall, he saw that many people were already seated with the printed programmes in front of them. Mr. White recognized some familiar faces.

4. The room hummed with conversation which gradually subsided as the chairman stood up to address the conference. This was Professor Hall, a veryprominent scholar and a Nobel Prize winner. "Ladies and Gentlemen", he said. "I declare the Conference open. On behalf of the Organizing Committee and in my own name I wish to welcome the guests and the participants of the conference to Geneva. I wish you every success. I believe this assembly will provide an ample opportunity for everyone present to meet, exchange opinions and discuss scientific and organizational problems of common interest. My first and pleasant duty as a chairman is to introduce to you our honorary guest Professor Grant from the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge". An elderly white-haired gentleman stood up and everybody applauded.

5. When the conference was opened, the chairman read the agenda and explained briefly the work to be done. He informed that everyone who wanted to take the floor had to ask the chairman in advance or by simply raising his hand after the chairman opened discussion. He required every speaker to keep to the point, to avoid repetition and digression. If the chairman rose while a reader was speaking, the latter had to stop and take his seat if asked so. The chairman said that the conference would follow a new practice introduced for scientific gatherings with numerous participants: the papers were divided between sections and generalized by a principal speaker for each section with the discussion following afterwards.

6. Next day Mr. White was to read his paper on his latest research in semiconductor devices at one of the sessions. The chairman called the meeting to order, read the list of the speakers and the subjects of their reports and introduced Mr. White. In response to the chairman's introduction Mr. White rose to his feet, faced the hall and waited for the sound to subside. As soon as he was satisfied with the silence, he began to speak. He spoke freely without looking into his notes and made every step of his reasoning very clear. When he finished speaking, the chairman called for questions.

After a short pause a man at the far end of the room rose to ask a question. Mr. White replied. The ice was broken and some minutes of general debate followed.

7. During the first two or three days of the conference there were many different things going on at once, and it was impossible to participate in all of them. The final session with review papers was of special interest to Mr. White for it summarized all that had been going on not only at the conference but also in his field of electronics for the past twelve months.

8. On the last day a one-day visit to see the electrical and electronics equipment for the new bubble chambers at CERN was arranged. The technical programme was divided into two parts. Part 1, from 10.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. included a presentation by a senior member of the centre on physical aspects of the bubble chambers, applications of superconductors, equipment and instrumentation operating in a strong electric field.

After lunch at CERN part 2 (3 p.m. – 5 p.m.) consisted of technical visits by groups of 10-15 people to see the bubble chambers, computers and photographic analysis, accelerators and power supplies for the accelerators.

The speakers for the demonstration used one of three languages – German, English or French – and a simultaneous translation into the other two languages was arranged. For the afternoon visits, the guides used one of these languages and the guests were grouped accordingly. A programme for ladies was organized, it included a visit to Geneva and its surroundings, together with a midday meal.

A contribution of 45 Swiss franks, which included the midday meal and bus fares was asked from the participants and accompanying persons.

The participants of this visit had to apply to the Director-General, enclosing details of their names, address, occupation, last institution membership, and whether they were going to be accompanied. Since the number of visitors to CERN was limited to 90, applications were dealt with in chronologicalorder.

9. When the work of the conference was drawing to a close there was a conference dinner which was held in one of the city's biggest hotels. At the end of the meal, when everyone was feeling relaxed, Professor Hall, the oldest and by far the most distinguished of the delegates, rose to speak. "I propose a toast", he said, "to cooperation in the scientific community and continued progress in science". People were talking more animatedly. There were no longer any language barriers. Naturally, most of those present talked shop. Mr. White left the dinner with the feeling that the conference had definitely been a very interesting and useful experience.

Go back to passage 1. Look it through and comment on the sentence: “A conference is an important event in a researcher’s life, particularly an international meeting”. Prove your opinion by giving examples from your own experience.

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Dialogue 3	\|	Scan passage 2. Pay attention to the requirements to abstracts and papers sent to a conference. Say if it’s sometimes possible to exceed the limit? In what cases can it be done?

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