Call for Pre-Proposals – IGARSS 2029

IGARSS 2029 – Call for Proposal

Preliminary Proposal Due Date: March 1^st, 2025

The IEEE GRSS invites preliminary proposals from volunteers who wish to propose an Organizing Committee and venue for IGARSS 2029 in IEEE region 1-7 and 9 (i.e., North and South America.). (See www.ieee.org/communities/regional-world-map.html for a map of IEEE regions.)

Interested groups should submit a letter of intent and a preliminary pre-proposal to the Vice President of Meetings and Symposia of the GRSS (grss-vp-meeting@ieee.org).

Pre-proposals should be submitted in electronic format by Mar 1st, 2025 for consideration by the GRSS Administrative Committee (AdCom). For proposing teams that are notified as finalists after the pre-proposal review, the GRSS AdCom will request additional information, including oral presentations by the General Chair(s) of proposing committees at the August 2025 AdCom meeting, which will be near Brisbane, Australia, prior to the IGARSS 2025. The preliminary proposal should provide critical information to both encourage and justify consideration of the site by the GRSS AdCom.

The following information is required for the pre-proposal, which should not exceed 6 pages (excluding appendices), minimum 11 pt. font. The total pre-proposal with appendices should not exceed 10 pages. The IEEE GRSS Vice-President of Meetings and Symposia at their discretion might ask for follow-up clarifications or additional information after the pre-proposal deadline.

1. Proposed Year: 2029
2. Proposed Dates: IGARSS is typically scheduled in the period from late June to early August. This is not a requirement, but inevitable trade-offs associated with other dates should be considered carefully if alternatives are proposed. National and religious holidays and dates of other IEEE conferences which involve remote sensing or signal processing should be avoided to maximize attendance.
3. Name of Proposed City, Country, Venue
4. Proposing Team – Names of Proposing Team Members and their affiliations.

   The General Chair(s) must be a member(s) of the IEEE GRSS Society; the Chair has considerable latitude in the organization of the Committee. The General Chairpersons, the Technical Program Chair, and the Finance Chair should be identified at the time of submission of the pre-proposal. Members of the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) shall be from IEEE Region 1-7 or 9, but need not be located in the same city as IGARSS. With advances in online meeting technology, coupled with the use of a central conference management company, it is now possible to plan conferences with team members from diverse locations.

   The General Chair should exercise care in selecting members of the Local Organizing Committee for the conference. Each volunteer should be aware of any potential conflict of interest in voting or making decisions and notify the General Chair if there is any such potential conflict of interest. Please indicate whether any of the organizing committee members have conference or meeting planning experience, particularly with IEEE conferences. It is preferable that one of the Technical Program Committee co-chairs or General co-chairs may have experience in organizing past IGARSS or similar size conferences. The final LOC shall include:

   General Chair, Technical Program Committee Chair, Finance Chair, Local Arrangements Chair, TIE Forum Chair, Publicity Chair, Publications Chair, Exhibits Chair, Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Chair, Other Team Members.

5. Justification for the site selection.
   (a) Statement outlining the advantages of holding IGARSS in the specific location. Important issues include suitability of space, access by delegates, cost, and appeal to delegates.
   (b) Description of the proposed hotel or conference center venue.

Considerations should include:

• IGARSS attendance is now typically between 1800 and 4000, depending on the geographic location, although it is likely that it will grow in the future. Proposed venues must be able to handle a minimum of 14 parallel sessions, and up to 18 parallel technical sessions + 1 to 2 TIE track session. A suitable range of room sizes should be available for oral sessions (min seating of 100 to max seating of 350).
• An appropriate venue must be proposed for the plenary session, which may be attended by 2000 delegates or more.
• Easy access to appropriate space for the poster sessions and the exhibit area is also required. Appropriate facilities for tutorials on Sunday prior to the conference.
• Accessible rooms for support staff and sidebar meetings which may be held during the conference.
• The venue must be affordable to participants. Current rates must be provided for use of the proposed conference site. Site negotiations will be conducted by the professional staff of the GRSS conference management company after the venue is selected.
• Off-site hotel (if the proposed venue is not a hotel) that is suitable for the GRSS AdCom meeting the prior weekend and various committee meetings (possibly lunch or dinner meetings) during the week.

(c) The site being proposed must be convenient to hotels offering a broad range of rates. Affordable accommodation for students is also highly recommended. Provide current rates of properties around the conference site.

(d) Information regarding long-distance travel to the venue. Is the proposed site near major airports? Is the airport located within a reasonable distance of the venue? Provide information on the distance of the airport from the venue and current airfare costs from major cities in Asia, Europe, North America and South America. Also provide information on local transportation.

(e) Information on unique aspects of this location for attendees. What are the technical advantages of this location? What are the cultural and leisure activities available?

(f) Statement of the professional interest in the local area related to the broad field of geosciences and remote sensing, potential Chapter support and participation.

(g) Preliminary analysis of the amount of corporate/government/organizational support available for this venue, including the potential for sponsorship and grants, as well as assisting with conference activities.Pl

(h) Plans for diversity, inclusion, and equity within the conference and its organizing committee. IEEE GRSS recognizes that this can take many forms and is very dependent on the region, and can evolve over time. Similarly, any plans for sustainability with respect to conference organization.

6. Preliminary Budget: A high level budget with adequate expenses and income based on assumptions made by the proposing team is requested. IEEE requires conferences to maintain a 10% surplus and 10% contingency between income and expenses. Though the list below is not exhaustive, typical income and expenses are expected to have the following,

(a) Income: Conference registration rate, Tutorials, Sponsorships and exhibitions, Social event tickets etc.

(b) Expenses: Conference management, Food and Beverage, Convention center rental, poster-boards, honoraria, volunteer reimbursement, Social function expenditures, Audio/Visual, Administration fee etc.

7. Summary Table: A high level one page summary table with the following information is requested –

7. Appendix: An option appendix with the pre-proposal is allowed. Proposers can submit any additional information that they think might be relevant to the committee.