This is the final countdown before the beginning of the 2010 ICA conference on 22 June 2010. Everything has been organized to make this event a memorable and enriching experience and we hope that you will enjoy your stay with us in the vibrant city of Singapore.

This year's conference theme, as you know, is "Matters of Communication: Political, Cultural, and Technological Challenges," a theme that was meant to invite scholars and researchers to think about communication as the nexus where the material and immaterial dimensions of our world meet with each other. The theme programming will comprise seven theme sessions and one cross unit panel, all of which will address various aspects of this im/material character of communication.

Regarding our plenary sessions, let me remind you that Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht (Stanford U, USA) will be our first speaker with his opening plenary session scheduled on Tuesday evening. His keynote is titled "Infinite Availability: About Hyper-Communication [and Old Age]." The second speaker, whose talk is scheduled on Wednesday, is Ien Ang (U of Western Sydney, Australia). She will make a presentation, cosponsored by AMIC (the Asian Media Information and Communication Center, located in Singapore) and ICA, titled "The Transnational Communication of 'Racism': Migration, Media, and the Shaping of International Relations." Our third speaker, ICA president Barbie Zelizer (U of Pennsylvania, USA), will present the ICA presidential address, which is scheduled on Friday evening. Her presentation is titled "Journalism in the Service of Communication."

Finally, the Singapore conference will end on Saturday with a closing plenary titled "New Media and Its Impact on Censorship" with three keynote speakers: Peng Hwa Ang (Nanyang Technological U, Singapore), Joseph Chan (Chinese U of Hong Kong, Hong Kong) and Josephine Ho (National Central U, Taiwan).

In addition to these four plenary sessions, we also organized four miniplenaries, which are concomitantly scheduled on Thursday, June 24 at 1:00pm.

• "Queer in Asia: Issues, identities, and communication" will be chaired by Mark Cenite (Nanyang Technological U, Singapore) and will feature Alex Au (Yawning Bread, Singapore) and Audrey Yue (U of Melbourne, Australia). John Erni (Lingnan U, Hong Kong) and Larry Gross (U of Southern California, USA) will act as respondents.
• "Im/material Principles, Material Practices: The Women's Movement and its Media in Asia," will feature Lisa Brooten (Southern Illinois U - Carbondale, USA), Sylvia Estrada-Claudio (U of Philippines), Dana Lam (AWARE, Singapore), Hongmei Li (U of Georgia, USA), Sunitha Chitrapu (Sophia Polytechnic, Mumbai), and Radhika Parameswaran (Indiana U, USA). Radhika Gajjala (Bowling Green State U, USA) will chair this miniplenary panel.
• "Urban Communication in Singapore in an Age of Globalization" and chaired by Gary Gumpert (Urban Communication Foundation) will feature representatives from Singapore's Land Transport Authority, Public Utilities Board, and Urban Redevelopment Authority.
• "Matters of Communication: Making a Difference with Research," chaired by Linda Putnam (U of California - Santa Barbara, USA) to honor 4 fellows: Robert T. Craig (U of Colorado, Boulder, USA), Barbie Zelizer (U of Pennsylvania, USA), Youichi Ito (Akita International U, Japan), and Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach (U of Southern California, USA).

You are also invited to attend a series of panels surrounding an on-site exposition titled "Exploring Open Space in New Media." This multiplatformed exhibition, initiated by Patricia R. Zimmermann, proposes to explore the conceptual zone of "open space" in Singapore and Southeast Asia, addressing questions of interface, dialogue, human rights, collaboration, and performance. Four panels have been organized in this connection:

• "The Flexible Space of Interface and New Media Machines," Wednesday, 23 June, 8:30-9:45am, Room 313
• "The Collaborative Knowledge Spaces of Human Rights and New Media," Thursday, 24 June, 8:30-9:45am, Room 313
• "The Contingent Spaces of Performance/Performativity/Soundscapes," Thursday, 24 June, 10:00-11:15am, Room 313
• "The Permeable Spaces of new media Installations," Thursday, 24 June, 4:00-5:15pm, Room 305

Don't forget that we also organized several preconference workshops that can be found through the following link http://www.ica2010.sg/attend.html. Most of these workshops have been scheduled on the first day of the conference (Tuesday, 22 June, with one scheduled for the previous day) and will address topics as varied as global public relations, online social capital, intercultural dialogue, feminist scholarship, and popular media (among many others).

Finally, you are all invited to watch a great documentary film titled Burma VJ, which shows how journalists are currently defying censorship in Burma in order to denounce what is currently happening in this country, which has suffered from dictatorship for almost 50 years now (http://burmavjmovie.com/about_the_film/). This film will be scheduled on Saturday, 26 June, 10:00am - 11:15am, just before the closing plenary on "New Media and Its Impact on Censorship."

Looking forward to seeing you in one month!