Beyond IID Conference Series

At the 4th Beyond IID in Information Theory (BIID) workshop in Barcelona (18-22 July, 2016), a business meeting was held in the form of a general assembly. The purpose of it was to discuss the future of the workshop, in particular upcoming editions as well as editions in planning, and the format, scope and size of the workshop in general.

A number of constructive remarks were made, including the following, which should be taken as recommendations to future organisers:

1) Participants seemed generally happy with the single-track, workshop-style format, characterized by few, long talks and ample breaks.

2) Also the poster session is generally appreciated; in addition, it was suggested to advertise the posters in the form of flash talks (time permitting).

3) On the selection of talks, this should still be the task of the organizers according to their best judgement, ideally aided by a scientific committee. To encourage contributions from the community at large, it was suggested to allow submissions and nominations (with no specific format), up to a suitable deadline, from which then the program or part of the program will be selected.

4) A strong recommendation was that organizers and committee members are excluded from giving talks.

Finally, to avoid situations where different groups independently work towards hosting a future Beyond IID workshop, creating a clash, it was decided by acclamation of those present (a majority of the 80 participants of Beyond IID 4), to form a steering board consisting initially of the past organizers of the workshop.

The principal task of the steering board is to collect and coordinate bids for future editions of Beyond IID and to decide the venues of future Beyond IIDs. Beyond that, its role is advisory. Membership in the steering board is preliminarily defined by having been organizer in the previous three years, plus the organizer(s) of the upcoming Beyond IID.