We invite the submission of proposals for panel sessions. Panels offer an opportunity for exploration of current and emerging issues and can be provocative, informative, and entertaining. Panels provide an interactive forum that engages both panelists and the audience in lively discussion of important and often controversial issues. Proposed topics are expected to address new, exciting, and/or controversial ideas.

Panels should focus on emerging technologies, or unsolved problems in the Computer Music community. We expect the panelists to actively engage the audience and help them broaden their understanding of the issues. Panel proposals should address controversial or contentious issues and must be debate-oriented rather than a series of short presentations.

For a complete list of relevant topic areas please consult the call for papers.

Short panel summaries will appear in the Proceedings.

For any questions relating to this call, please contact Xavier Amatriain.

Submission Information

There is no specific format or template for this call. Nevertheless all panel proposals should explicitly address the requirements outlined below.

Submissions should include:

Panel title
Panel objective, scope, and target audience
Extended abstract including a summary of the topics to be covered (i.e. a tentative list of questions that will be posed to the panelists)
Panel format
Names and affiliations of up to four panelists (in addition to the panel chair) who have made a commitment to participate. A mix of industry and academic panel members is encouraged.
Short summary of their position statements.
Panel length (preferably 90 minutes)

Please supply short bios for the moderator and each panelist, from whom prior approval to participate should be obtained. The panel proposal should also indicate whether other similar panels have been formed recently in other conferences or workshops. If so, what is the difference?

A short panel description will be included in the proceedings, but this will be quite different from the panel proposal submission. The panel proposal must convince us that you have a good panel design (discussed below). We will give you instructions for writing the proceedings page(s) if your panel is accepted.

Proposals should be mailed in ascii, html or pdf format to Xavier Amatriain.

Deadlines

Panel proposals must be submitted before Tuesday, April 5th, 2005.
Applicants will be notified of acceptance or rejection by May 25th, 2005.

How to design a panel proposal for ICMC05

General guidelines:

Proposals must provide the Program Committee with information for determining which panels will best engage the ICMC audience. Acceptance relies on several factors.

A panel is a team effort. Thus, while its topic is important, good coordination, execution and management are vital for success. A simple abstract or set of abstracts is not sufficient.

As already outlined in the Submission Information some important points to focus on are:

the intended audience
the detailed topic
the take-home message of the panel
the team comprising the panel, focusing on the experience and the function/role of the moderator and each panelist
intended coordination of the panelists in preparation for the panel in advance of the conference
your approach to ensuring debate, controversy and, in general, a lively session that will engage the audience

How to design a good panel for ICMC:

Panels should raise important issues that will interest the participants.
Panels should attract people to the conference, and they should "pull in" people at the conference to attend the panel session. A Panel must be exciting:
- in terms of content
- in terms of the team playing the panel
- in terms of the team leader

A panel is a discussion between several characters. Panels should be lively and fun. The issues, panelists and their positions should be controversial to raise interest. It also must transmit a clear message.

The moderator plays a very important role, and is responsible, as a conductor, for the overall structure. The moderator should challenge the participants with questions after the (short) opening statements from each. The moderator should not participate as a panelist.

The audience should be encouraged to participate for between 1/3 and 2/3 of the session.

A panel is not a set of independent talks about a given topic.

To be a success, panels rely on strong preparation and coordination between the moderator and the participants. This coordination must take place before the conference.

When appropriate, we encourage panel organizers to provide a list of references, resources, leads, etc., as a handout.