News

The General Meeting of the EASP in 2011: Welcome to Stockholm!

The 16th General Meeting of the European Association of Social Psychology will be held coming July (12-16) in Stockholm, Sweden. The meeting will be held at Stockholm International Fairs, a modern and pleasant venue, with plenty of space for our scientific as well as social activities.

We received a total of 960 submissions this year, including symposia (137, each including either 4 or 5 talks), individual oral presentations (578), and posters (245). This reflects a total of roughly 1200 talks, within symposia and thematic sessions. This constitutes a 34% increase relative to Opatija, which is particularly impressive given the current financial constraints that affect many of our colleagues' ability to attend conferences. Each symposium proposal and each individual oral presentation was evaluated by two reviewers, and by at least one member of the program committee. In cases of doubt, submissions were also reviewed by a second member of the program committee, and sometimes even by a third member of the committee. Sub-chairs for each panel made final decisions regarding submissions in their panel. Sub-chairs also evaluated the posters submitted to their panel. The program chair carefully considered each poster that was recommended for rejection, and made fin al decisions regarding acceptance of posters. Authors of individual oral presentations and symposia which could not fit in the program were offered the chance to bring posters to the conference, and most accepted to do so.

To maximize the number of talks that we could accept, we added one parallel session (we now have 11 parallel sessions, in contrast to the 10 of Opatija), shortened the length of the symposia (talks within symposia now take only 20 minutes in total, the same as individual oral presentations), and divided the day into slots of 4 and slots of 5 talks (be it symposia or thematic sessions), so as to ensure that as few time slots as possible would be wasted by parallel sessions with unequal numbers of talks. The result of all of these maneuvers is that we were able to accept close to 67% of all symposia and 51% of all individual oral presentations submitted.

The program is thus rather full, but there is still time for some special social events, such as the reception at the Stockholm Town Hall (the venue where Nobel prizes are awarded), the farewell dinner at a restaurant in the beautiful Skansen open air museum, and the traditional football game.

During Tuesday the 12th of July, at least 4 pre-conferences will be held at various locations in the city. The registration desk for the main conference will open on Tuesday at 15:00 (3 pm), and again on Wednesday morning at 8:30, at Stockholm International Fairs. The scientific program will start on Wednesday at 9:30 and will occupy most of Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday, while Friday will only have scientific sessions during the morning. Friday afternoon will be dedicated to the awards session (including the Tajfel lecture), and the business meeting. There will be one poster session per day (so 4 in total). Posters will be up all day, and authors are expected to be close to their p osters during a portion of the lunch break. The poster sessions will be held in a spacious area of the venue, with plenty of light and space to move around, close to where food and drinks can be found, and close to the area where the talks will be held. There is no way posters can be missed, and we wish to emphasize and promote their importance in events such as these. To facilitate navigation through the poster sessions, posters are also organized into themes on each day, and these themes will be indicated by signs.

The scientific program will be made available online ahead of time, on the conference site: www.easp2011.com. When this is available, please check the details of your presentation or poster and let us know if you spot a mistake. The last speaker in each thematic session has been designated as the chair of that session, so if you are included in a thematic session, please also check whether you have been indicated as chair of that session and please let us know if you are unable to fulfill this role. You will be reminded of this when the program becomes available.

Upon registration, you will receive a conference package that includes a light and easy to handle paper version of the program, where you can see all of the talk and poster titles and short abstracts, as well as their time and location. In addition, a memory stick will be provided where the complete program, with full abstracts, is included.

Be sure to check the conference web-site to register and to consult information about accommodation. We look forward to seeing you in Stockholm this July!

Manuela Barreto, Program chair
Torun Lindholm, Chair of the local organizing committee