IATI Biomed conference participants to choose speakers

The Israel Advanced Technologies Industries (IATI) will hold its flagship IATI Biomed conference in June in a different format from its predecessors. In addition to the keynote speakers, there will be 200 brief talks of 20 minutes each, and the conference participants will choose the speakers.

Participants in the conference have until March 31 to submit abstracts on the topics they wish to present at the conference. The 200-word abstracts will be submitted in English via the conference website.

The conference organizers believe that most of the presentations will be made by Israeli and foreign life sciences companies, but the forum is open to anyone who can interest the public, including investors, scientists, doctors, and students. 50 proposals have been submitted to date.

Conference chairwoman Ruth Alon and IATI chairman Dr. Benny Zeevi said that this method will expose as many Israeli technologies and companies as possible. Alon said, "This is a pioneering process at major conferences, such as ours. Until now, it was only used in a slightly different way at small conferences."

Zeevi said that IATI was selling the concept abroad in the hope that foreign speakers will register to make presentations. "In the past few years, the Biomed conference has become one of the most important conferences in its field in the world. Thousands of guests participate, including top people in the field from around the world. We hope that presenters from all over the world will use this channel, in addition to our plenum sessions."

"Globes": How will you prevent boring speakers recruiting their colleagues to vote for them?

Alon: "We'll have to think about this, possibly by bringing in a science committee as a consultant, or by ruling that only registered participants at the conference will be able to vote. In any event, we will not allow unsuitable presentations."

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 4, 2013