ESJ55

55th Annual Meeting of Ecological Society of Japan (ESJ55), March 14-17, 2008 Fukuoka

Notice to Participants

updated on 2008-01-13

Check in

Reception desk will be available at noon on March 14th, Friday.
The reception desk will be situated at the entrance hall (ground floor) of the Fukuoka International Congress Center.
Please wear name tag in the conference hall.
The reception desk is expected be crowded in the morning on March 15th, Saturday, when the symposia and oral sessions start. Those who will check in Saturday morning are highly recommended to come early in the morning. The reception desk will be open at 8:00am in the morning.
Registration for the ESJ55 meeting is still available on the website http://www.esj.ne.jp/meeting/55/index-e.html. Although on-site registration is also possible (regular registration fee is 9,000 yen and student registration fee is 6,000 yen), pre-registration and remittance are welcome. Those who register on or after February 23 (Saturday), 2008, should show the receipt issued by postal office at the registration desk.
Rooms H and I are arranged in the Fukuoka Sunpalace located next to the Fukuoka International Congress Center. All the other rooms for sessions and business meetings are situated in the International Congress Center. The second floor of the Fukuoka Sunpalace is connected through a corridor with the second floor of the International Congress Center.

Oral presentation

Session rooms are equipped only with an LCD projector (true XGA, 1024 x 768) and a personal Computer. Windows XP, Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 2003 and Adobe Acrobat Reader are installed on the PC. No overhead projector and slide projector are available. The use of your own PC is not acceptable.
Your presentation file should be registered in advance on the official web site and will be preloaded on the PC in your session room before your presentation. Please follow the following instruction for preparing your presentation file.
1. Your Power Point file should be compatible to Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 on Windows XP. Only the standard font sets on this OS are acceptable and the use of animation is not permitted. A file made on Mac OS should be converted to a Windows file and its validity should be confirmed on a Windows PC before registration. A file prepared on PowerPoint 2007 should be saved not in the form of PowerPoint Presentation (*.pptx) but in the form of PowerPoint 97-2003 presentation (*ppt).
2. The size of your presentation file should be as small as possible (less than 5 megabytes). A file whose size is smaller than 2 megabytes is highly recommended. Make sure to avoid including high-resolution photos or graphics and convert them to files with resolution in harmony with the screen resolution (1024 x 768).
Deadline for submission of your presentation file is March 4th, 2008 (Tue.). Please register your file on the official web site before the deadline. The name of each file will be automatically generated. If your presentation file is not registered by the deadline, your presentation will be cancelled. If you need not use a PC and an LCD projector in your presentation, please notify the organizing committee of it via email to .
Each presentation at the oral sessions should be 15 minutes long (12 minutes for presentation followed by a 3- minute question and answer). Sounds of a bell will inform you of elapsed times from the start of your presentation; first at 10, second at 12 and finally at 14.5 minutes, Please be strictly punctual.
At the start of your presentation, an operator in your session room will operate the PC and show the first slide of your presentation. Then, either you can operate the PC by yourself or you can ask him/her to operate the PC.
Each presenter should take the chair of the next presentation to his/her presentation. A member of the organizing committee will take the chair of the first presentation in a session.

Poster presentation

Poster hall (Room P, multipurpose hall on the second floor) is accessible from 8:00. Please put your posters on the board during 8:00-10:00 for presentations on March 15th (Sat.), and from 17:30 on the previous day (the room will be closed at 20:00) to 10:00 on the appointed day for presentations on March 16th (Sun.) and 17th (Mon). Posters should be removed before 17:30 on the day of presentation. As for the presentations which have applied for poster prize, posters should be posted by 9:00 on the appointed day if possible.
The position of your presentation is indicated by the number of presentation on the exhibition board set near the “Information Desk for Poster Presentations” (located in lobby in front of the poster room) in the poster hall. If you cannot find the place of your presentation, please ask at the information desk.
Each poster will be mounted on a 90cm width by 210cm high poster board.
Each presenter should prepare pins or thumbtacks necessary for sticking his/her poster on the board. No Scotch tape or adhesive tape is permitted.
The core time of poster presentation is different on different days. It is 12:15-13:45 on March 15th (Sat.), 14:00-15:30 on March 16th (Sun.), and 12:15-13:45 on March 17th (Mon.). Please stand by your poster and explain your paper on request of the audience during the core time.
As for the presentations which have applied for poster prize, the organizing committee will put a small paper showing “Applicant for Poster Prize”. If you cannot find the paper even though you applied for the prize, please contact a staff at the “Information Desk for Poster Presentations”.
Announcement and commendation ceremony will be held between 16:00-17:00 at the Information Desk for Poster Presentations. Those who applied for the poster prize should come during the hour. The posters winning the best-poster prize will be honorably posted on the exclusive board (placed in lobby in front of the poster hall). The winners are asked to move his/her posters.

Poster Prize

The Ecological Society of Japan (ESJ) awards Poster Prize to excellent poster presentations for encouraging young scientists. The prize has been managed by the program committee for annual meetings in the ESJ since the Niigata meeting. Please note that the prize now is an officially authorized prize by the ESJ. The poster prize will be managed in the following way. Please prepare your poster, taking the following points in consideration.

1. Units of selection and award

Judgment will be done separately in each ecological field and the judging committee will select the best prize (at most one) and the excellence prize (one or two authors) in each field.

2. Field

As a general rule, judgment will be done separately in each field listed in the program. However, some fields with few applicants may be combined with related fields that the applicants selected as the second best one at registration. In the fields where applications are few, only the best prize (or the excellence prize) may be awarded.

3. Time for exhibition and explanation

As for the presentations which have applied for poster prize, posters presented on March 15th should be mounted during 8:00 and 9:00 on that day, while those on March 16th and 17th should be mounted during 17:30 and 20:00 in the previous day, or by 9:00 on the appointed day. Presenters should stand by their posters and explain their papers on request of the audience during the core time. These points are the requisites for judgment, and the authors who do not obey the rule will be excluded from the judgment.

4. Criteria of judgments

Since the posters are judged from the following viewpoints, please prepare your poster to meet these points.

Judgment in the first stage

(A) Ability to spread excellence of the presentation in a short period

One of the most important features of the good poster presentation is the appearance which is necessary for “being selected” (being watched or listened to) among many presentations. Your presentation will not start unless someone stops in front of your poster. “To be selected”, a good title and an excellent abstract are indispensable, and eye-catchers are also necessary. “Legibility” for informing the audience of the outline of your presentation in a limited time is also important. In the first stage of the judgment, your ability to catch an audience within the limited time is tested. Only the presentations that are excellent in “drawing attention” of an audience will be evaluated in the second stage.

Judgment in the second stage

In the second stage, technique of presentation and quality of research are judged.

(B) Technique of presentation

(In viewing the poster)

The following points are considered important as the technique of presentation. (1) Visible characters and figures from far away. (2) Proper quantity of information　that is not excessive. (3) Comprehensibility without aural explanation. (4) Flow of explanation (Structure of presentation and logical process)

(In hearing an explanation)

(5) Explanation easy to understand. (6) Proper duration of explanation. (7) Direct and exact answers to questions. (8) Attention to the whole audience.

(C) Quality of research

The following points are considered important as the quality of research. (1) Novelty and originality. (2) Quality and quantity of data. (3) Appropriateness of analytical method. (4) Validity of discussion and conclusion.

In the first stage, a presenter need not stand by his/her poster. Starting time of the exhibition is advanced for judges to be ready for viewing posters. The posters selected in the first stage will be evaluated by the criteria (B) and (C). The second stage of the judgment will run mainly during the core time. The presenter is asked to stand by his/her poster during the period. It is welcome to stand by the poster in a longer period to allow judges to have plenty of time to view posters. The best and excellence prizes are selected on the basis of the sum of points in (B) and (C) in each field.

Symposia and Forums

The organizers of each symposium should manage their symposium to conclude their symposium within the scheduled time. No extension of time is granted.
The Organizing Committee provides only an LCD projector (true XGA, resolution 1024 x 768). The organizers should bring a personal PC which preloads presentation files of all the speakers.

Organized sessions and Workshops

The organizers of each organized session or workshop should manage their session or workshop to conclude it within the scheduled time. No extension of time is granted.
The Organizing Committee provides only an LCD projector (true XGA, resolution 1024 x 768). The organizers should bring a personal PC which preloads presentation files of all the speakers.
An operator will not stand by for an organized session or a workshop. If any trouble occurs, please inform the headquarters.
Those who participate in the contributed sessions and workshops on March 14th (Fri.) should come to the reception desk on the day (open at noon) to ease the congestion expected on the next morning.

Banquet

Enjoy the banquet open at 18:00 on March 17th (Mon.), 2008 at Fukuoka International Center, famous as the venue for the November Sumo Tournament. It takes only 2 minutes on foot to the place from the congress venue.
Application for banquet is still available on the official web site. On-site application will only be accepted when the registrants do not exceed the capacity of the place at the beginning of the ESJ55. Please apply as soon as possible.

Food and Drinks in the venue and Smoking

We will provide tea at some places in lobby and poster hall.
You can also buy drinks at vending machines on each floor.
Capacity of restaurants near the congress venue is very limited. Lunch boxes will be on sale for four days from March 14th to 17th in the venue.
Smoking is prohibited in the venue except for some assigned places. Please enjoy smoking at the smoking areas on the ground, second and fourth floors.

Book of Abstracts

Book of abstracts can be distributed to non-participants at a cost of 3,000 yen per copy (including postage). Those who need copies should contact the organizing committee. The fee should be sent by postal transfer (the account number is 01730-2-118970 and the holder is the Organizing Committee of the ESJ55). The book will be sent after the meeting is closed.

Day Nursery

A day-care center for participants’ children is available. Pre-registration is required for the day care.
Children from six-month old babies to third-grade pupils are accepted.
The center is expected to be open from 9:00 to 17:00 on days from March 14th (Fri.) to 17th (Mon.).
The center will be placed in the Fukuoka International Congress Center (Room 506 on the fifth floor).
An applicant should send an email to . Information on the number of children, ages (grades) and the date and time of care is necessary. The organizing committee will inform detailed conditions and send a form necessary for application including a form of signed approval. The deadline for application is February 22nd (Fri.). Subject of the email should be “application for day nursery.”

Parking

Please refrain from coming by car.

Access

Information on access to the Fukuoka International Congress Center is available at http://www.marinemesse.or.jp/eng/ (This URL will be available from the end of January).

For correspondence on any subjects (except for transportation and accommodation), please enter your questions in the inquiry form on this website.