Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EuConNeCts 2 (European Conferences on Networks and Communications (EuCNC))

Teaser

The purpose of EuConNeCts2, a Supporting Action, is the organisation of the 2016 and 2017 editions of the EC sponsored conference in the area of communication networks and systems. The conference is named EuCNC - European Conference on Networks and Communications.EuCNC serves...

Summary

The purpose of EuConNeCts2, a Supporting Action, is the organisation of the 2016 and 2017 editions of the EC sponsored conference in the area of communication networks and systems. The conference is named EuCNC - European Conference on Networks and Communications.

EuCNC serves as a technical and scientific conference for researchers, namely European ones, to show their work in the area of Telecommunications, focusing on communication networks and systems, and reaching services and applications. However, the conference is not restricted to European researchers, rather aiming at attracting others from all other regions in the world. It also serves as a showcase for the work developed by projects co-financed by the EC, but aiming at attracting works in the area of communication networks and systems from other objectives.

The main objectives of EuCNC are:
1) to be a European conference, but with a large international dimension;
2) to showcase the R&D activities performed within EC programmes, directly and indirectly;
3) to showcase the cooperation in R&D between European organisations and worldwide ones;
4) to bridge between academia / research centres and industry;
5) to coordinate its goals with the EC and the main European players;
6) to be a high-quality R&D conference;
7) to be a well-recognised conference in Telecommunications;
8) to provide a forum for the presentation of state-of-the-art technology, in both theoretical and experimental forms;
9) to communicate the research results to the wide audience of the general public;
10) to foster the participation of both established researchers and students, as well as industry members from various areas;
11) to be a transparent and not-for-profit conference;
12) to positively differentiate itself from other conferences, which will be achieved by reaching all previous objectives.

Work performed

The second year of the project was dedicated to the organisation of the 2017 edition of the conference. This follows the successful previous three editions, held under the same name.

Rather than presenting the organisational and logistic details, one presents here the results of that work, in the form of describing the information presented at the conference website (and some steps towards its preparation), www.eucnc.eu, which is hosted and managed by the project partners.

The main sections of the website reflect the conference structure:
• Committees: Information on the composition of the Steering Committee, Technical Programme Committee, and Local Organising Committee. Regarding general chairs, the objective is to have a senior EC official, and the representative from the main conference sponsor.
• Authors: Information regarding the submission of scientific papers/posters/ workshops/special sessions/tutorials to the conference, including all the necessary guidelines for submission, and for paper/poster presentation. The organisation of EuCNC, done by EuConNeCts2, is a non-profit action, so, the available surplus is used for students’ grants (free registration and travel waivers) in order to allow students to participate in the conference widening the community and promoting talented young researchers.
• Registration: Information for people to register to the conference, including the rules applicable to authors with multiple papers or posters accepted to the conference. Early-bird registrations have a discount. The rules for Travel Grants are available here, including the key dates and the application process.
• Programme: Information regarding all the sessions of the conference, with special emphasis on keynotes, panels, workshops, special sessions and tutorials. Keynotes and Panels are usually the highlights of such events, and the 2017 edition was no exception, with senior representatives from most of the major players in the area, such as Nokia Bell Labs, Huawei, NSW Data Analytics Centre, Deutsche Telekom and Ericsson.
• Venue and Travel: Logistics information regarding the conference, namely, the venue, maps for facilitating the participants’ orientation to the venue, travel and visa information, as well as information about the city and available touristic tours.
• Exhibitors: Information for exhibitors (e.g., call for exhibitors and exhibiting guidelines), since the exhibition is a good opportunity for European projects to showcase their work. Patronage opportunities are also presented.
• About: General information about the conference, including the video blog with videos produced before and during the conference, the photo gallery and the live webcasting of all the plenaries. Information about the actual patrons is also presented.

One should add that, by the end of the project (i.e., by the time the 2017 edition was starting), a new conference website has been set-up, basically with the same structure (however, with improvements, so that patrons and exhibitors have more visibility), but with a new, up to date, and more functional design.

Final results

Although it is difficult to have a precise view of Key Performance Indicators for a conference, the objectives for the conference at the time of writing the project proposal were established having the recent previous editions of the conference, as a reference, and increasing the parameters in a calculated ambitious way, to be achieved by the conference. The initial parameters taken for the evaluation of the conference, hence, of the project as the conference organising entity, were:
• Number of submitted papers – 300
• Number of submitted workshop proposal – 20
• Number of submitted special sessions proposal – 20
• Number of participants – 400
• Number of exhibitions – 40
• Ratio of oral/poster papers – 3
• Acceptance ratio – 50%

After the 1st project review, following a recommendation from Project’s Reviewers, the metrics were revised by the StC during 2017, targeting already the 2017 edition of the conference, being listed in Table A.1. Some of these goals have been achieved, but, definitely, there’s work to be done in order to achieve, and surpass, all of them.


Table A.1. New Conference Key Performance Indicators.
Indicator Initial Revised 2017
Number submitted papers 300 300 242
Number submitted posters - 30 20
Number sub. workshop prop. 20 20 18
Number sub. spec. sess. prop. 20 20 14
Number sub. tutorials prop. - 6 13
Number participants 400 600 641
Number exhibitions 40 40 38
Acceptance ratio [%] 50 50 55
Number website visitors - 20 000 19 694
Number LinkedIn Group - 150 132
Number Videoblog viewers - 2 500 750
Number Facebook followers - 2 000 1 904
Number Twitter followers - 1 000 1 054
Number Instagram followers 500 26
Non-European Participants [%] 20 8.3

The KPIs listed above can be generally grouped as follows:
• Attraction of authors
o Number submitted papers
o Number submitted posters
o Number sub. workshop prop.
o Number sub. spec. sess. prop.
o Number sub. tutorials prop.
o Number exhibitions
• Technical quality
o Acceptance ratio [%]
• Attraction of participants
o Number participants
• Dissemination and visibility
o Number website visitors
o Number LinkedIn Group
o Number Videoblog viewers
o Number Facebook followers
o Number Twitter followers
o Number Instagram followers
• Internationalisation
o Non-European Participants [%]

Website & more info

More info: http://eucnc.eu.