HUF 2006

Wecome to HUF 2006

The forum will take place in Reading (Berkshire, United Kingdom) on the 26th, 27th and 28th of September.

• Registration
• Agenda/Call for presentations
• Conference Hall information
• Accommodations
• Transportation
• Contact points

Registration

Attendees are asked to complete and return the registration form which can be downloaded from here:

• Registration form (28kb)

The registration fee for attendees registering before July 31st amounts to £50.

The registration fee for attendees registering later will be raised to £75.

Payment can be made either by credit card or cheque, or by cash on the day of the conference. See the registration form for more details.

So far, the following attendees (7Kb) have registered or indicated that they would be present.

Agenda/Call for presentations

As usual, there will be two types of presentations made during the HUF:

• twenty minute Site Presentations;
• one hour Presentations on HPSS Related Topics of Interest.

Please let Francis Dequenne (francis.dequenne@ecmwf.int) know of presentation topics that:

• you are willing to contribute to, or
  
• that you would like to hear about. We will endeavour to find a speaker to present such topic.

• The agenda can be found here. (50kb)

Site presentations guidelines

The meeting room will be equipped with the following:

• Screen
• Projectors - Mac users, please be sure to provide your own vga connector.
• Overhead (transparency) projector
• Laser pointer
• Wireless network - please provide your own wireless card
• Windows-based presentation desktop for optional use by presenters.

Each site presentation is allotted 15 minutes, with an additional 5 minute Q&A session.

Please develop your presentation in MS Office PowerPoint, if possible.

If you email your presentation to Francis Dequenne no later than Friday, September 21st, we will ensure it is installed on the presentation desktop in readiness for your talk. Otherwise, please bring your presentation on either a memory stick or a CD. Back-up transparencies of your presentation are advised.

Suggested Site Presentation Outline:

The goal of site status presentations is to gain an understanding of each site's use of and experience with HPSS. Therefore, we suggest providing the following:

1. A brief overview of your site and a description of your site's mission;
2. A description of how HPSS fits with your site's mission, and how HPSS is used at your site;
3. A short description of your site's HPSS hardware & software platforms;
4. Expectations over the next few years: any/all of the following:
   • current performance and configurations, and future data projections;
   • configuration changes;
   • planned technology insertions;
   • future requirements;
5. Items uniques to your site:
   • problems/solutions;
   • utilities & tools;
   • interfaces to HPSS;
   • statistics;
   • operations and administration techniques & tools;
6. Wish list of HPSS development items prioritized.

Conference Hall information

The forum will take place on ECMWF premises. Directions can be found here:

http://www.ecmwf.int/about/location/

The Conference hall is equipped with wifi access.

A limited number of power points will be made available. Note that like everywhere in the UK, power comes in 230V. Please make sure that your laptop transformer is able to handle this voltage. Note also that the UK uses distinctive 3 prong plugs, quite different from plugs found on the continent or in the States. Make sure to bring the adequate plug adaptors.

Refreshment/coffee will be provided during the conference. As hotel rates in the UK normally include both bed and breakfast, no breakfast will be provided on the conference site.

Registered attendees will be provided lunch at ECMWF’s restaurant for the three days of the conference. The cost of these lunches is included in the registration fee.

Accommodation

Plenty of hotels are available in and around Reading. See http://www.ecmwf.int/about/location/hotels.html for a small selection of these.

Note that there is no hotel in a reasonable walking distance from ECMWF.

If you are planning to visit London or other parts of the country using the train system, you may prefer to stay in central Reading. London is approximately 40 minutes away from Reading, by fast train (Paddington Station) or 1h30m by slow train (Waterloo Station).

Special rates can be obtained at the George Hotel (number 2 on the map) , if you mention that you attend a conference at ECMWF (or the “European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast”).

Although you are encouraged to do your own bookings, ECMWF can help organise some reservations should you have problems with your bookings. Please note that ECMWF does not guarantee availability of rooms. Please contact Mrs. Karen Clarke (+44 118 9499 2137, Karen.Burling-Clarke@ecmwf.int.

Transportation

Information about travelling to Reading and ECMWF can be found at http://www.ecmwf.int/about/location/

Contact Points

Should you have any additional questions, please contact:

Francis Dequenne
+44(0)118-9499361
francis.dequenne@ecmwf.int

or

Karen Clarke
+44(0)118-9499213
Karen.Burling-Clarke@ecmwf.int