Conferences

The influential congressman Ellen Tauscher arrives to Prague today, being the fright of Czech and American government as well.

The opponents of the Radar base in the Czech Republic see an ally in her person, even when it is not completely true. And she is basically a vixen for the backers of the anti-missile shield in the middle Europe, denying everything. But that is not completely true, too.

Ellen Tauscher initiated partial cuts of finances that administrative of G.W. Bush proposed this May. The U.S. Government. wanted to invest 310 millions of dollars, but E. Tauscher cut 160 millions off it. Another 85 millions were cut by the senate during the approval.

Since may, both governments have assured us about money coming back to the project after approved. The approval is still a hot topic in the Czech Republic, the radar system being criticised as unnecessary. However, according to specialists, the anti-missile system at military vessels is not sufficient for inside the continent.

Tens of significant intellectuals and politicians from all corners of the world will come to Prague in October to attend the conference Forum 2000 that is tightly linked with the former president of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel.

The main stars of this year’s conference organized under the title ‘Freedom and Responsibility in Politics, International Law, Media, and Business’ will be former U.S. Ministry of Foreign Affairs Madeleine Albright, journalist legend Christianne Amanpour, famous French philosopher Andre Glucksmann or the leader of Belorussian opposition Alexander Milinkevich.

The invitations were sent also to the former president of Iran Muhammad Chatami and the British ex- Prime Minister Tony Blair, however their attendance is not probable.

The 11th Forum 2000 Conference will be held in Prague Crossroads, formerly St. Anne’s Church in Prague’s Old Town and Zofin Palace on 7th – 9th October 2007. At the last year’s conference the media paid attention mainly to Tibet Dalai Lama.

Prague will host an international conference on “Democracy and Security: Core Values and Sound Policies” attended by leading dissidents, human rights activists, academics and world leaders. Its aim is to discuss the importance of democracy and to find the ways how to promote it in totalitarian regimes.

The conference is an initiative of three people concentrating on human rights and democracy – human right activist and political leader Natan Sharansky, former president of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel and former Prime Minister of Spain Jose Maria Aznar.

The conference, scheduled for 4th – 6th June 2007 in Prague, is hosted by the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies at the Jerusalem-based Shalem Center, the Prague Security Studies Institute and the Foundation for Social Analysis and Studies in Madrid. One of the speakers at the conference will be the U.S. President George W. Bush.

As we informed you yesterday, Prague hosts very eminent people from the world at the conference Forum 2000 that ends tonight. One of them is also Dalai Lama, the head of Buddhism and Tibet spiritual leader. He is visiting Prague for the sixth time.

Dalai Lama arrived in Prague yesterday and he is apart from Vaclav Havel and American writer Elie Wiesel the most outstanding person of the conference. Dalai Lama discussed the perception of human rights in developing countries and the global enterprise.

Dalai Lama’s public talk that takes place in the basketball hall of Sparta Praha tomorrow was immediately sold out a long time ago. Dalai Lama’s lecture is called The Course of the Open Mind.

Nobel prize holders, scientists, politicians and artists arrived in Prague to discuss Dilemmas of Global Coexistence in the international conference Forum 2000.

The conference was open yesterday by ex President Vaclav Havel who is according to British magazine Prospect and American Foreign Policy the fourth most powerful intellectual in the world.

Among the famous people being concerned are Nobel Prize holders Dalai Lama and American writer Elie Wiesel, Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Belorussian opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich, Jordan Prince Hassan bin Talal and former President of Ireland Mary Robinson.

The conference participants will talk about variety of cultures, ideology, religion, democracy and human rights. Forum 2000 takes place in Prague Zofin until Tuesday.

Prague hosts International Astronomical Union in these days. As you can read in our recent article, two and a half thousands astronomers from 75 countries discuss about important things in sphere of the universe. Whole world now awaits one of most important decisions for a century with hold breath.

Is ninth planet of Solar system Pluto a real full-value planet? This problem appeared in year 2003 when another relatively small object was found in distant orbit. This object is bigger than Pluto and has a name 2003 UB313 or Xena. Shortly after another six objects bigger than Pluto was found. Pluto is very similar to them and different from other large planets like eighth Neptune.

Astronomers must decide what the term “a planet” means. This will mostly bring changes in schoolbooks. Planets will be re-count and this can bring number eight or even sixteen. Some astronomers want to specify Xena as a planet, but strong opinion is that this “small objects” (Pluto has only fifth weight of our Moon) should be termed as a planetoid – a small planet, something between a planet and an asteroid.

The astronomical conference in Prague ends 25th August and world media hope that the fate of Pluto will be decided here.

Next Monday is the starting day of the 26th General Assembly of the IAU that will last till the 25th August. The IAU was founded in 1919 and Czechoslovakia entered three years later on. The conference returns to Prague after 39 years and the Czech metropolis is only one of the three cities (with Rome and Sydney) to host the astronomers twice.

The event takes place in the Congress Centre where around three thousand astronomers will meet to discuss the important discoveries of the last three years in their field as well as to deepen the international cooperation. The event will be ceremonially opened by the President of the Czech Republic Mr Klaus and Prague Mayor Mr Bem.

There will be a special newspaper issued every day of the assembly and the scientists can also look forward to having a very interesting programme including trips around the special places of interest related to astronomy. One of the evenings should also be devoted to a special dinner in the Industrial Palace of Prague Exhibition Grounds which should be in a style of the thirties.

Prague’s town-council is the sole shareholder of the Congress Centre. A decision was met to sell most of the shares to another investor. The council wants to retain only minimum of shares that would entitle it to have some decision-making power. Three per cent of shares should be sufficient for convening a general meeting.

Even though the centre is currently prosperous, it is deeply indebted due to the reconstruction from the year 2000, which cost three bn Czech crowns. Prague was aiding the centre to meet its financial obligations with an annual subsidy of almost one hundred million crowns till 2004. Town-council does not want to continue with this any longer. The decision for privatisation was also influenced by the apprehensions about the cost of future renovation works.

The investor should enhance the prestige of the centre and attract thus to Prague more “congress tourists”. These visitors stay on average in the capital city longer and also spend here higher sums of money.

Modernization and reconstruction of the building should be accompanied by brushing up the surroundings. All of these alternations are necessary for the Congress Centre to offer services and environment required by the organizers and participants of top international conferences.

The twenty-sixth General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) will be held in Prague in August. The importance of this assembly must be stressed because of one particular item on its agenda – this event may change the way we know our Solar System.

To be more precise, the assembly will discuss the possibility of adding the tenth planet. The object is for the time being called Xena. Even though it is hundred times further away form the Sun than the Earth, its diameter exceeds that of Pluto. Xena is thus bigger and the tiniest and most far-away planet and may thus arguably deserve planetary status.

The expansion of the Solar System is controversial since some astronomers disagree even with Pluto being called a planet. It earned this classification because of misjudgement of its size by the astronomer who discovered it.

International conference made by International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education is now in Prague Charles University. It started yesterday and the Annual Meeting ends 21st July. Now the conference has 30th jubilee.

The conference has this year over 800 members and it is located in Teachers’ College of Charles University and in ABC Theatre. The idea is that pedagogy and psychology has very important in teaching of mathematics.

The conference is under the auspices of Rector of Charles University Vaclav Hampl and City Major of Prague Pavel Bem.

Official pages of the PME 30 conference is here.

Congresses and conferences are very popular and Prague can offer many places where this meetings can happen. Statistics says that a number of accommodation facilities offering service of creating a conference is raising. It is for 40 percent more than in 2004.

Though the number of conferences is still same and count of large congresses is even lower. Forty-seven conferences was in Prague last year, in year 2004 it was 38. A half of five-star hotels in Prague can offer service for conference, the number of four-star hotels offering the same is one fifth.

The largest and as a favourite is Prague Congress Centre. Last year offered their service for 110 000 people.

There is some invitation for conference in Prague.

It is 10th- 14th September in hotel Pyramida. So if you are interested in bees, please continue here.

Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics is organizing a two-week series of workshops and invited lectures which include the Fifth Workshop on Treebanks and Linguistic Theories (TLT 2006), the Vilem Mathesius Courses (VMC 2006), and the Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) group meeting.

The proposed TAPA 2006 workshop should open this series of events on November 30, 2006. More info here.

XML 2006 Conference 17th-18th June 2006 is held in the heart of Prague. More information you can find at Ablog or at XML Prague.

A regular conference on XML for developers, web designers, information managers, and students, focusing this year on XML Native Databases and Querying XML. A full day of experts speaking has been extended with an additional day dedicated for participants to hold related BoF sessions and workshops.