Scheduling the conference is a yearly ritual that takes place at ICA headquarters in Washington, DC in early February. It consists of locking up the Executive Director, the Communication Director, and the President-Elect in a quiet room, with any number of computers and a data projector, and letting them consider one by one the nearly 600 sessions that will make up the conference to assign them a date, a time, and a room. Scheduling is done based on a number of parameters. We try to provide larger rooms to sessions likely to attract a larger audience, we make sure that one person does not have to be in more than one place at the same time, we even try to avoid programming simultaneously sessions that we think might interest a similar audience (due to a related theme).

The program for the London conference is, like everything related to this conference, exceptional in many ways. It will feature the largest ever number of sessions. It will be the longest ICA conference (four full days and the opening evening). We have managed to never have more than two sessions of the same division or interest group taking place simultaneously.

The main concern remains space. The trade-off is known by now: the only way we could organize an ICA conference in central London was to turn to a property which offers the usual number of conference rooms, but many of which are smaller than we would have wanted. Though we are still working with Hilton to maximize space, participants should be prepared to meet in rooms that sometimes won't seat more than 30 people. We sincerely hope that this will not affect the comfort of participants, but we would like all to be prepared for the possibility that it might.

A record number of participants have already registered for the conference and/or a preconference and/or a postconference. As a result, the conference hotel (Hilton Metropole) is already sold out on some nights (or perhaps all, by the time you read this). ICA has negotiated conference rates with two other hotels and listed a number of hotels in the area, which are available on the conference website, here.

We hope that all participants can now finalize their travel plans. London being the busiest city in the world by airport passenger traffic, not to mention high-speed train connections with Brussels and Paris (via Eurostar to St. Pancras Station), we trust you will find a suitable option for your travel. If you plan to fly to London, remember that the most convenient option is to fly to Heathrow which has a direct train service to Paddington Station, just a short walk away from the conference hotel.

Note also that we have received an unprecedented number of requests for travel grants. It is therefore unlikely that we will be able to respond favourably to all requests.

If you are planning to attend the IAMCR conference in Dublin after the ICA conference, there is one option to combine train and ferry for a trip across England, Wales and the Irish Sea. Learn more on Virgin Train’s website, here.

Make sure you visit the conference website often to learn more practical travel and planning information, and to prepare yourself for a very promising conference indeed.