Hello

Hi





This is a private forum only viewable by invited members for UGM Organising Committee works. I hope that this technology can handle all aspects of the works but so far it appears useful, robust and fairly secure. Introductions:





The ChemAxon people here are:

• Ferenc Csizmadia (Pronounced; Ferents Chizmadia) - CEO
• Alex Allardyce (Pronounced; Allardice) - Communications Director
• Nora Lapusnyik (Pronounced; Lapushnyik) - Event organiser

From out 'there'

• C. Deniz Akyuz, Target Validation at Merck & Co. NJ, USA
• Bob Grossman, Professor at the Department of Chemistry, University of Kentucky, USA
• Dragos Horvath, Scientist, Institut de Biologie de Lille, France
• Caroline McGee, Applications Manager at Evotec, Oxford, England
• Sorel Muresan, Asoc. Prin. Scientist, GSI Chemical Computing, Astra Zeneca, Mölndal, Sweden
• TJ O'Donnell, Consultant in Scientific Computing and Visualization for various pharmaceutical and chemical companies, computer manufacturers and government research labs, based in San Diego, CA, USA
• W. Patrick Walters, Prin. Inv., Head of Meth. Dev., Computational Chemistry and Molecular Modeling, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, MA, USA
• Yingao Zhou, Program Manager, Cheminformatics and LIMS, The Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF), La Jolla, CA, USA

As far as the scope of this group - I think the main aim is to improve the UGM for all users. Given that for this year this will be the first - we should be able to achieve this :).





As far as operations go - I would like to have the forum default post an email all OG members (forum moderators) for each new post in this private forum. If you have a problem with this let me know - but if we can accept default email then at least there are no excuses for 'not knowing'. I would like the forum to be the primary note of record and ask that results from other communications be reported here.





To close, I would like to thank all concerned for their time and efforts and wish us patience and luck for the future.





Alex Allardyce

Hi Guys,





This is the first UGM update.





Status: The forum threads are in place, the call for papers email template is written and over the next few days I will be sending out the "call for papers"(first call completed-late October 2004). The venue (Gellert Hotel) is correct and I have an interesting location to visit on Monday for the banquet - we may justify a string quartet - its that stylish!





Issues to discuss

• Deadlines
  
  
  March 1st to recieve presentation and poster abstracts
  
  
  March 8th for the closing of registered attendees comments on proposed presentations
  
  
  March 15th for program finalisation
  
  
  So we - OC - will be busy around the first 2 weeks of March, reviewing and then voting
  
  
  
• Allowing registered UGM attendees to vote for each presentation
  
  
  So, after the submission deadline (March 1st) I was thinking that we should list all the presentations that have been recieved and let already registered UGM attendees vote for each presentation.
  
  
  The voting would be open for 1 week and (being in a hidden area) it can only be seen by us, CXN personnel and people already registered for the UGM.
  
  
  For each presentation I make a poll question which would be "rate this" and the options would be '1,2,3,4 and 5' - a '5' is the best. Note that each user only gets 1 vote per presentation (each is a new 'topic'). I like this idea - its more transparent and democratic, it encourgaes people to register early and the data would be useful for us. Opinion?
  
  
  
  
  
  SUBJECT CLOSED - accepted
  
  
  
• Discussion roundtable
  
  
  TJ suggested this as a feature of the meeting and apart from us wanting to hold it underwater in the Gellert swimming pool:-), we like it. Probably 2 hours - either a working lunch on the second day or the last 2 hours of the meeting. Comments?
  
  
  
• Publishing the presentations and other results of the meeting
  
  
  I would like to make all chosen presentations available from the website to any visitor (pdf or HTML), we should make the roundtable or any other formal discussion results available there also (ie minutes etc). I would have a private forum area, only for attendees, to share images maybee even continue discussions started at the meeting - after the meeting - that could be nice... Anyway, do you agree with online availability of the meeting materials only?
  
  
  
• Forum generated emails
  
  
  I do not wish to innundate your inboxes with UGM OC discussion traffic so I am thinking of turning off the automatic email function for the OC. Currently you will recieve an email for every post to this OC forum. If we agree to swith it off I would switch it on near deadlines only, the rest of the time you can configure to receive them as a daily digest - though this will make all post notifications be delivered in a digest form. Do you agree or do you not mind some 'infrequent; heavy OC email traffic? Comments

HI Guys, I dust off the Organising Committee with this post, I trust your festives were and the year is in focus.





I performed a fast survey to 300 contacts last week, to calm tension and confirm interest. The results were promising.

Attendees
• 32 positive responses and 49 negative response - quite a high response rate
• From the positive responses I expect (probability weighted) 26 - 33 people
• I would hope for at least another 50% - 100% attendees before the meeting
• There will be around 10 people from ChemAxon at the meeting (not included above)
Presentations
• 12 responses thought they would submit abstracts (mainly oral presentations)
• ChemAxon are considering around 10 presentations (this would replace the workshops)

Other issues

• Invited lecturesDue to travel budget issues we have recieved requests to invite speakers (2 currently). What do we feel about this? I have no problem using this mechanism to increase the liklihood that people turn up and present. I would not draw attention to invited speakers (in the program or elsewhere). Note: suggested invit'ees will have demonstrated that they have something' impressive to show and a good reason as to why they cannot register and attend in the usual manner.
  
  
  Action proposal. I will issue invitations to those 2 requesting invitation on Friday 28th if the consensus is not against this. I will issue invitations to other possible presenters if they meet this criteria
  
  
  
  
  
  
• ChemAxon WorkshopsAs mentioned above we are thinking to replace the afternoon ChemAxon workshops with extended topic presentations (spaced throughout the meeting).
  
  
  The solution I propose here is to have CXN presentations by those working with it which focus on functionality groups or industry activity, the presentation would introduce functionalities, how they can be used and finish with examples. These presenters would also be available (and encourage) attendees to ask further or work through more examples in the other room. What do you think?
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Additional break out/hacker roomAny comments here - I think it could be useful. I have a soft booking for a suitable space in the conference hotel

FYI

Announcing ChemAxon presentations ASAP


To help potential attendees identify interest and convince management I hope to publicise the ChemAxon presentation topic areas in the UGM forum as soon as possible. I hope to provide the organising committee with presentation descriptions for your comments. Expect over the next week or so

Hi Guys,





I write to thank you for your efforts and forward the event questionnaire and attendee listing.





In short the event went fine (no unexpected features) and the feedback was most enthusiastic. We are debating currently when to hold the next event and will come back to you to see if you will assist in the organisation of that.





In the meantime thanks again for helping make a most useful and memorable event





Best regards





Alex





PS for those of you who could not attend please let me know if you wish to access the pictures which are in a hidden area of the forum (I will need your forum username to enable)





PPS The Archive - including links to all presentations - is available here