[Difx-users] DiFX users meeting 2016 pre-announcement

[Mark Kettenis]

> From: Adam Deller <deller at astron.nl>
> Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2016 17:23:42 +0200
> 
> Dear difx-users and -developers,
> 
> The time has come to start planning the 10th (yes, 10th!) annual DiFX users
> and developer's workshop.  At Hobart in 2015, we discussed possible venues,
> and Shanghai was nominated with broad support.  Since the workshop has been
> held in Europe and Australia three times each, the US twice, and Asia only
> once so far, it would be appropriate and enjoyable to head to China this
> year.
> 
> Wu Jiang has investigated some options for dates and locations.  The
> baseline plan would be to hold the meeting in downtown Shanghai (where
> there observatory headquarters are), which is most convenient for
> transportation and accommodation.  We could arrange a visit to suburban
> campus co-located with the Tianman and Sheshan 65m and 25m telescopes on
> one day.
> 
> A visa is required for most visitors to China. No visa is required for
> ordinary passport holders from Singapore, Brunei and Japan to visit China
> for up to 15 days for business, sightseeing, visiting relatives and friends
> or transit.
> For more information, please see http://cs.mfa.gov.cn/wgrlh/lhqz/lhqzjjs/,
> and note that it will be necessary to  prepare your visa application at
> least 30 days before the entry date to China.
> In terms of dates, the meeting has traditionally been held sometime between
> September and November.  Due to some public holidays and other meetings,
> the earlier part of this date range is not so convenient.  So we would like
> to propose 3 options:
> 
> October 24-28
> November 1-4
> November 8-11
> 
> In each case, the users meeting would be held during the first two days,
> and the developers meeting the last three days. If you want to attend the
> DiFX users and developers meeting this year, can you please respond to this
> mail with a preferred week or weeks, or any other scheduling conflicts that
> we may have forgotten about?  If we can collect some responses over the
> next week or two, it would be nice to select a date soon to allow attendees
> plenty of time make travel plans and arrange visas etc.  Once the date has
> been settled, there will be a meeting webpage put up, registration made
> available, talks solicited, etc etc.

The earlier dates are more likely to work for me than the later ones.
The usual caveat applies though that I'm not sure there is funding for
me to go.