The Boston conference is less than a month away, and frankly speaking, if you've not made travel and hotel arrangements, you've got your work cut out for you. As submissions were way up this year, so too is registration and we have sold out the every block of rooms in our three conference hotels. But, don't despair: There is a waiting list for hotel rooms in case of cancellation, and other spaces are being located. What all this means is that the conference is already a success, going by the numbers. But it promises to be a success in terms of content as well. In addition to the hundreds of sessions organized by the Divisions and Interest Groups, let me remind you of the centrally planned highlights:

The opening plenary session, featuring SSRC President and NYU University Professor Craig Calhoun, speaking on "Communication as the Discipline of the 21st Century," with responses from Joe Cappella, Susan Douglas, Sonia Livingstone, John Durham Peters, and Georgette Wang.

The closing plenary, featuring Noam Chomsky speaking on "Democracy, the Media, and the Responsibility of Scholars."

ICA President Francois Cooren will deliver the presidential address on "Communication Theory @ The Center: The Communicative Constitution of Reality."

Two panels of recently elected ICA Fellows: On Friday, a Fellows Panel titled "Dynamic Media Environments and How They Are Understood" will feature Wolfgang Donsbach, Gail Fairhurst, Joseph Turow, and Sonia Livingstone. Saturday's Fellows Panel, Mediated Negotiations: Identity, Conflict, Childhood, and Scanning, will feature Michael Slater, Michael Roloff, Dafna Lemish, and Robert Hornik.

Additional Friday miniplenaries include:

• "Copyright and Freedom of Expression: The Social Impact of Communication Scholarship," moderated by Patricia Aufderheide, will feature Steve Anderson, Francesca Coppa, Andrew Kenyon, Andres Monroy-Hernandez, and Jonathan Zittrain.
• "The University in Crisis," a panel moderated by Ellen Wartella, will include Nick Couldry, Isabel Maria Capeola Gil, Melissa Gregg, and Stewart Hoover.
• A miniplenary on "Reframing the Crisis in U.S. Journalism," chaired by Robert McChesney, will include Rodney Benson, Victor Pickard, Nikki Usher, Bruce Williams, and Michael delli Carpini.

Saturday's miniplenaries will include:

• "Communication Scholars in the Policy Arena," moderated by Robin Mansell, and including Vinod Pavarala, Benjamin Scott, Ernest Wilson, and Irene Wu.
• "Juggling Knives and Hula Hoops: Challenges Facing Academic Parents," chaired by Kristie Farrar, will include Kristen Harrison, Elizabeth Hatfield, Marina Krcmar, and Srividya Ramasubramanian; Robin Nabi will respond.
• "Boston Redux," organized by the Urban Communication Foundation, will be chaired by Susan Drucker, and will include Jim Campano, Kevin Carragee, Eric Gordon, and Nigel Jacob.

Finally, another program innovation will feature Master Classes by distinguished senior scholars. The inaugural roster of Master Teachers includes John Hartley, Youichi Ito, Elihu Katz, Annie Lang, Max McCombs, and Patti Valkenburg. These sessions will be held Friday and Sunday from 6:00 to 7:30 pm.

As I hope everyone knows by now, we are introducing an expanded virtual conference component this year, building on last year's initial experiment. This year's virtual overlay will include over 100 papers, organized into sessions by almost all of the Divisions and Interest Groups, that will be accompanied by commentary by respondents, and will be open for additional comments and discussion by participants. In addition the virtual overlay portion of the conference will offer live streaming of the opening and closing plenaries, as well as two prerecorded Keynote Addresses: Barbie Zelizer will reprise her 2010 Presidential Address, "Journalism in the Service of Communication," and Henry Jenkins will speak on "Spreadable Media."

The virtual overlay, developed in collaboration with our publishing partners Wiley-Blackwell, is an exciting venture that expands the opportunities for participation, not only by ICA members present in Boston, but for members and others who will be able to join the conversation from anywhere in the world. Whether you are with us in Boston or not, please be sure to check out this new and very promising innovation.

Finally, be sure to look into the many interesting and engaging preconference opportunities available on Thursday, 26 May, before that day's opening plenary and reception. Most of the preconferences are organized by ICA divisions and interest groups, but this year there are also a number of professional development preconferences that you might want to look into. These include a morning and an afternoon program on non-academic career paths for communication scholars, a program on surviving the junior faculty tenure track, and a publishing workshop developed by Wiley-Blackwell. We've worked to create these new workshops in response to feedback and requests from members, and we hope that this experiment will be successful.

So, taking all things together, it's looking like a very memorable Memorial Day weekend in Boston. See you there!