Australia Telescope National Facility

1. ON ARRIVAL AT SYDNEY AIRPORT

Most international flights arriving at Sydney Airport on Sat. 12 July-Mon 14 July and Sun 20 July and Monday 21 July will be met by a welcoming group of students near the exit from the customs area. They will be wearing bright red vests and carrying IAU signs. They will provide confirmation of the location of your accommodation booking, advise you about the best way to reach the accommodation, and show you where you can find an ATM or money exchange facilities. However, they will be unable to provide transport for you to your accommodation.

2. REGISTRATION, ENQUIRIES, TRAVEL AND TOURS DESKS

The Registration, Enquiries/Information, Hotel, Travel and Tours desk is located in the long ground-floor area (Promenade) at the southern end of the Sydney Convention Centre in Darling Harbour (follow the signs). The opening times are:

On registering, you will be given an appropriate badge plus GA satchel containing useful information, including the Program Book, Abstracts Book, List of Participants and room plan of the Convention Centre. For security purposes, the name badges are to be worn at all times with the Conference and Exhibition Centre. If you require assistance, contact the Enquiries desk or ask National Organising Committee members (red badges) or Student-Volunteers (white badges plus red vests). The National Organising Committee will be based in Skyline Room 2 on Level 3, the Student-Volunteers near the registration desk.

Note that a set of participants? mailboxes, and bulletin boards intended for meeting notices etc are located near the registration desk.

3. POSTERS AT THE GA

We had planned to locate all the posters in the main Exhibition Hall but because of the larger than expected number (estimated at some 1350) additional venues have had to be set up. Accordingly, depending on the associated meetings, the posters will be displayed in the main Hall and outside meeting rooms. Each poster board will contain two posters on each side, and poster owners will be responsible for mounting their own posters; student volunteers will be available to assist. Velcro "dots" for mounting the posters will be provided when you register (and thereafter from the Registration desk). The Abstract Book groups the poster abstracts according to the meeting with which the posters are associated. Within each meeting they are listed by number according to alphabetical order of first author surname. Each poster space will be designated in terms of meeting identification and appropriate poster number.

During the first week, posters for Symposia S217 and S218 will be displayed outside the appropriate meeting rooms (Harbourside Auditorium 2 and Tumbalong Auditorium respectively). Except for some small meetings, posters for other meetings (including Symposium S216, JDs, SPSs and WGs) will be displayed in the poster area of Exhibition Hall 5. Unfortunately we cannnot get access to the Exhibition Hall on Monday July 14, so for that day the posters for S216 will be displayed in Harbourside Meeting Rooms 3 & 4 and moved by Student Volunteers to the Exhibition Hall on Monday evening. The posters can be mounted from Monday July 14 from 08:00. The remaining posters planned for the Hall can be mounted in the Hall from 07:30 on Tuesday July 15. We request that you remove your posters by 17:00 on Sunday July 20. Any remaining posters at this time will be removed and can be collected from Skyline 2.

For the second week, posters for Symposia S220 and S221 will be displayed outside the appropriate meeting rooms (Harbourside Auditorium 2 and Tumbalong Auditorium respectively, and those for S219 and other meeting will be displayed in the Exhibition Hall. They can be mounted for 07:30 on Monday July 21 onwards. The Hall will not be available after Thursday July 24 and poster for SPS4 meetings will be relocated by Student Volunteers to an area nearer the meeting room on the Friday. All posters need to be removed by the Friday evening.

4. EXHIBITION HALL 5

This is the communal area for Delegates and will be accessible from the morning of Tuesday July 15, from 07:30 to 18:30 each weekday and 11:00 to 17:00 on the weekend during the GA. In addition to posters, it contains areas for Internet Caf‰, 150-seat theatrette, coffee/tea and seating, and a caf‰. The Hall is also shared with the Astro Expo exhibition.

5. AUDIO-VISUAL FACILITIES

Please read the webpage on AV facilities; it is linked from the GA website at www.astronomy2003.com. It is recommended that speakers report to the Speaker Preparation Room well before their talk. This room will be open with student volunteers to assist from 12:00 on Sunday July 13. Speakers wishing to use computer projection should bring their presentation on CD or USB stick (this can be organised by staff in the Room). Files may also be ftp'd to a central site (see AV webpage for details), but you should bring CD or USB-stick backup. Personal laptops should only be used for presentations if absolutely necessary.

6. PRESENTATIONS AT THE GA

At least one of the authors must participate in the General Assembly for a presentation (either oral or poster) to be given.

7. ABSTRACT and PROGRAM BOOKS AVAILABLE ON LINE

The Abstract Book and Program Book are available as down-loadable pdf files on the GA website under Scientific Program. These have now been sent to the printers and no further changes are possible. The Program Book content was put together by the IAU Secretariat and it includes program information sent to the IAU Secretariat by May 31. An update of the Abstract Books may be available later in the mailboxes. However, SOCs should update the programs listed on their websites and may wish to distribute final programs.

8. MEDIA RELEASES DURING THE 2 WEEKS OF IAU2003

All Symposia, Joint Discussion, and Working Group Chairs should look out for new and exciting developments which are suitable for press or other media releases during IAU2003. If you are aware of important new findings or discoveries that could attract media attention please contact Helen Sim (a member of the NOC) about the details as soon as they are available.

Chairs should send suggestions to her as soon as possible so that she can plan ahead.

9. HEALTH ON LONG FLIGHTS: PREVENTING BLOOD CLOTS

We suggest you look at the www site(http://www.Airhealth.org) about the frequency and danger of blood clots forming in the legs on long aircraft flights - something that appears preventable if people know to flex their legs often and drink lots of electrolytes (water not alcohol). We also suggest that you take regular walks around the aircraft cabin during such long flights to help circulation. A good time is when everyone else is asleep.

10. STUDENT VOLUNTEERS AT THE GA

There will be student volunteers helping out at the IAU.

A group of 4 students will be at the international Sydney Terminal from 7:30-13:00 on Saturday July 12, 07:15-19:00 on Sunday 13th and 07:15-19:00 on Monday 14th .

At least one student will be provided to help for each symposium. Door monitors will also be provided and will be able to perform any urgent tasks the symposia organisers require.

There are insufficient students to cover all of the joint discussions and special sessions, but there will be roaming volunteers prepared to help as the need arises.

A phone number will be provided for contacting the volunteer coordinator and the coordinator will be based at the registration desk.

11. LIST OF PARTICIAPANTS

A final list of participants (dated July 2) is available on the GA website (under Registration).

12. INTERNET FACILITIES

Access to internet facilities will be provided during the GA. There will be an 'Internet Cafe' in the Exhibition Hall with at least 35 PCs and a similar number of Ethernet ports for people with their own laptop. The Internet Caf‰ computers will be available from Tuesday July 15 and will have the following software: Windows XP Pro, SSH Secure Shell (the SSH.com client), Internet Explorer & Mozilla, Java for internet mail and a CD burning program.

In addition to this, most of the Exhibition Hall, the Promenade area and the main lecture halls will have wireless coverage using the 802.11b standard. This will be available from the beginning of the GA.

REPEATED INFORMATION FROM PREVIOUS INFORMATION SHEETS

We list here some information that may be already known to you, but is of particular concern:

- The General Assembly (GA) Date: July 13-26 2003
- The Venue: The Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia
- Our conference organizer is ICMS Australasia Pty Ltd ( iau-ga2003@icmsaust.com.au )

The website for the GA organisation is http://www.astronomy2003.com and it should already contain links to your meeting website, which in turn should be linked to the GA website.

OTHER INFORMATION

Speaker Preparation Room

A Speaker Preparation Room is located in the Harbourside Meeting Room 8, Convention Centre North Level 2, and will be open from Sunday July 13 until Saturday July 26. The purpose of the Room is to assist speakers with technical details of their presentation.

For PowerPoint presentations, slide presentations or overhead presentations for the major meetings, where these are controlled by an audio-visual operator, it is advised that you check in to this room at least two (2) hours prior to your presentation. Audiovisual staff will assist you with equipment, up-load and check your presentation where required. Advice on other presentations will also be available.

Slides and computer presentations used in meetings with operators will be available for collection from the Speaker Preparation Room following the meetings.

Meeting Rooms and Schedules

The meeting schedule and the room assignments (Version 16) can be downloaded as a pdf file from the Meeting Room Assignments area of the GA website. There is a link to floorplans of the Convention and Exhibition Centre if you wish to see where your meeting rooms are located in the buildings.

Additional small ad-hoc meetings

Convention Centre rooms that are used for meetings during the day will, unless designated for additional events, be available after 17:30 for meetings of small groups. Other rooms designated U/Bkd in the meeting are also available. People who anticipate holding such meetings should send their preferences for dates and times to the NOC in Skyline 2.