Behind the Scenes of IEEE VIS 2024: Finding a Home
The following is part of a blog series that I’m putting together to record and express some of my thoughts and experiences from my time as a General Chair at IEEE VIS 2024. These experiences are presented from my perspective, but I want to emphasize that many/most decisions were made collectively with my co-chairs, Kristi Potter and Remco Chang, and many, many people were involved in the execution of the conference. All the credit for making the conference happen goes to these wonderful people.
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As the General Chair for VIS 2024, I’ve had the unique opportunity to witness and guide the conference’s evolution from a mere concept to what will soon be a reality. I remember, as a student, arriving at my first several conferences with basically no concept of how they happened. This journey began back in March 2021 when I submitted the hosting bid for what would ultimately become VIS 2024. At that time, I was an assistant professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa (hence our ultimate location).
An Uncertain Time
We were in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and our community had just experienced its first fully virtual VIS conference, which was supposed to be held in Salt Lake City. Planning was already underway for another virtual event “in” New Orleans, and Australia was scheduled to host in 2022 with an unclear format due to Australia’s COVID-19 policy at the time. My original bid was to host VIS in Florida in 2023, but as we now know, the Oklahoma City crew stepped up big time in 2022, pushing Australia to 2023 and Florida to 2024.
Looking back at the landscape in March 2021, VIS in Florida had the potential to be the first in-person conference after a series of virtual events. That was both an exciting and daunting prospect—an opportunity to reunite our community in a physical space after years of separation. While Florida is often the object of jokes (e.g., see “Florida man”), it’s undeniably a popular destination with plenty of outdoor appeal, front and center.
I submitted the bid on my own, with the idea of selecting co-chairs if the bid was accepted. Not long after I placed the bid, it was provisionally accepted. Over the course of the summer, I asked Kristi and Remco, each of whom I’ve known for a long time, to join me as co-chairs.
How a Bid Becomes a Contract
Our search for a venue focused on Tampa and Orlando. Our IEEE event planner, Michelle Ocampo at the time, sent an RFP to hotels in those areas outlining our conference and sleeping needs. We received several bids, but many were either prohibitively expensive or not ideally located. Our second round of RFP included the TradeWinds Island Resort in St. Pete Beach. I was familiar with TradeWinds from their hosting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS) conference, which is slightly larger than VIS. Fortunately, the TradeWinds came back with a competitive bid, leaving us to choose between two Orlando venues and St. Pete Beach.
Deciding on a location was far from straightforward. We weighed a variety of factors, including access to airports, hotel room costs, the availability of conference space, food and beverage (F&B) minimums imposed by venues, proximity to local restaurants, and the overall appeal of the location. In the end, the TradeWinds won our vote. While it isn’t perfect, it checks most of the critical boxes: the airport isn’t ideally close but is accessible; the room rates, though not cheap, are reasonable; the conference space is provided “free” (with the hotel recuperating costs elsewhere); the F&B minimums are within our expected expenses; and the location offers some of the best activities we’ve had at a VIS conference in a long time.
We capped off the decision with a site visit between me, the program chairs (Josh Levine and Gautam Chaudhary at the time), and Michelle. Everything checked out, and after a lot of approvals, paperwork, negotiation, and waiting, we had a contract!
As we continue to plan and refine the details for VIS 2024, I’m filled with anticipation. Getting the community together in person feels more significant now than ever. The path to getting here has been challenging, but I believe that our site choice will provide a memorable and meaningful experience for all attendees.
Stay tuned for more as we get closer to the conference—I can’t wait to see you all in Florida!
