This is a list of important things that must be mentioned, but doesn't fit into a formal invitation letter (besides, you probably already know them). I'm including them in the spirit of trying to make everything as productive and reinforcing as possible for everyone by explicitly and formally touching all the bases.
SQAB is a single track conference with about 200-300 attendees. It is a sophisticated, knowledgeable and "loyal" audience. The room is set "schoolroom" style (rows of tables with chairs). This seating provides a comfortable, homey work area for each attendee. There is plenty of room for coffee, a Danish, and a notepad. Virtually everyone stays for every paper. The audience is attentive during the presentations and has informed and illuminating questions which are both thought-provoking and helpful. Many people have noted that the discussions are characterized by their absence of posturing and contentiousness.
While SQAB is like ABA, Psychonomics, or Neurosciences in that presentations are lectures, it differs in that the point is the quantitative characterization of changes in the dependent variable as a function of changes in the independent variable. The idea is to attempt to specify the value of the dependent variable for any value that the independent variable could take. Mathematical expressions are used to: characterize one or more dimensions of an obtained data set, derive predictions to be compared with data, or generate novel data analyses.
Each presenter is normally allocated 25 minutes of presentation time. This is followed by 5-10 minutes of time allocated to the Society for discussion. You need not use any of your presentation time for discussion. On the other hand, you may not allow your presentation to run over into the Society's time for discussion. This group, more than most, takes advantage of the discussion to clarify its understanding of your vision, and considers it an essential aspect of the presentation.
Unless you wish otherwise, I will signal you:
1) when you have 2 minutes left in your presentation time, and
2) I will stand up when you have actually intruded into the Society's time.
In this case, please stop immediately.
I accept that having irrevocable timelines has its bad points. However, the alternative is to lose discussion time, for which people come to this conference, or to usurp time from subsequent presenters. Please respect your colleagues.
Be aware of the complexity of the material and limitations of the venue. Please try to make heavy use of some visualization technique. The room will have a laptop running Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Microsoft Office for PowerPoint presentations, and we can make arrangements for an overhead projector if you let the Program Coordinator know long in advance. Depending upon the venue, there may be either one or two screens.
When laying out your visualizations, please consider your colleagues who sit in the back of the room. It is very easy to misjudge just how tiny things will appear to these people, especially in PowerPoint slides. As a rule of thumb, the text should be 28 points or larger. Tables and axes labels should be visible throughout the room.
It is both my responsibility and pleasure to do whatever I can to help you most enjoy presenting at SQAB. Don't hesitate to call or e-mail; I'm at your service. I look forward to your presentation and again thanks for helping to make this an exciting program.
Copyright © 2010 Society for Quantitative Analyses of Behavior