Scope of the conference
Overlap with LHCP? Spirit of the conference is to be more topological (like Higgs, Top) and to allow focus on topics of interest. Also, by keeping the format more discussion-oriented and more future-oriented, this is a unique value.
The aim of the conference is more of an ideas conference, which is important
Do we want to connect to a future collider session? Moriond for example doesn’t have any of this and the future colliders part is very isolated from the rest of current conferences. Very interesting idea. Higgs for example has a session on this.
Strong consensus that the first edition has to be very exciting to set the stage for all future conferences.
Meeting location
Do we want to keep the meeting at CERN always? Cheaper, to keep the cost low. Something to keep in mind for the future.
We should start the first edition and then we may have to evolve as it goes in the future.
If it is at CERN more people will come. But then people will attend without registering. This financial part needs to be considered (being at CERN helps with the costs).
Could establish in by-laws boundary conditions for future editions like small fees or no fees otherwise it stays at CERN.
Problem with CERN is that people have many daily things there and people come and go. Need to think about how to work around this, how to entice people to stay the whole time.
Long coffee breaks with good food are good at keeping people. Do we have themed rooms during the coffee break? With whiteboards? Interesting idea.
Meeting format
Plenary is best with lots of discussion. This view was shared by everyone.
Joint coffee breaks are good, need many overlapping discussions
For 300 people, you need parallel sessions. Keeping it at CERN helps with this
300 people is the max that we want. If we have ~150 this is also fine.
The intention of the Search workshop was to have a ‘unified mind’ covering broad topics. The speaker here is really key. The format was plenary but there was a lot of discussion that needed good moderators. The theory to experimental ratio was also balanced. Also had some theorists with a much broader view of the field. These all were important elements to its success.
Need to find a balance between speakers and discussions. Can include in this balance the moderators and their role.
Could include lightning talks with abstracts to help with people to have a direct contribution.
The moderators are really key to help start the discussion, let it run when it is important but stop it when it is derailing
Panel sessions could help generate a ‘cross-talk’ effect. General support throughout the discussion about the panels.
For abstracts, this can be difficult. If there are too few, it is not what we want. If there are too many, then we have to find a way to reduce them.
The Search Workshop was invitation only. For this conference, we will have open registration but for the first additional we will probably send many personal invitations to encourage key people to come. In particular we want to promote and share this to especially younger members of the community.
For MCNet, they have an ‘open topic’ session at R1 in the evening which is geared towards especially younger people.
Maybe a session that is associated with ‘ideas’ like an ‘idea day’ that could be more spontaneous.
If each session had someone (big speaker) that everyone wants to listen to, this would be a big draw.
Idea to submit abstracts and then have a more senior person to summarize them. This could be accompanied with a poster session.
For students in particular, we need to offer some contribution if we want them to be sent. We should have a balance in who comes. A balance between senior and junior people.
Need some mechanism to bring ideas to us (like abstract submission) so that we are not a small, closed group.
Next steps
Schedule a next meeting in the next 2-3 week to start to discuss what topics to cover
Monica and Maurizio (M&M), based on today’s discussion, will prepare for the next meeting a possible session/coffee breaks/lunches schedule
M&M will also prepare a google sheet to start gathering ideas on topics before the next meeting.