Hosting CoV

Call to host Cities on Volcanoes 13 (~2026)

Key application dates (HST):

• STEP 1 – 3 March 2023: Deadline for notification of intention to submit proposal to host Cites on Volcanoes 13 (COV13)
• STEP 2 – March – April 2023: Required informal meeting between each Proposal Committee and Executive Committee of the IAVCEI Cities and Volcanoes Commission (CAV), organized by CAV
• STEP 3 – 29 September 2023: Deadline for written proposals for hosting COV13

Requirements:

• Conference mission:
  • The mission of Cities on Volcanoes (COV) conferences is creating connections between volcanologists, city authorities, sociologists, psychologists, emergency managers, economists and city planners to evaluate volcanic crises preparedness and management in cities and populated areas
  • Community and disaster/emergency management participants must be proactively encouraged to participate, and supported where possible
  • The conference should promote active engagement rather than passive listening, and with prioritization of plenary and oral sessions, and other high visibility activities, aligned with the COV mission
  • The conference should promote diverse and inclusive participation, including role, discipline, gender, geographic balance, career stage, and disability
• Venue, timing, and selection:
  • COV conferences are to be evenly spaced between the IAVCEI General Assembly (likely 2025) and IUGG meetings (likely 2027)
  • Venues for COV conferences will change for each successive meeting
  • The venue for the COV13 conference will be selected by the Executive Committee of the IAVCEI Cities and Volcanoes Commission at least two months prior to the COV12 conference

Evaluation Criteria

• Feasibility of proposal (logistics, financial, location, agenda)
• Alignment with mission of COV conferences: creating connections between volcanologists, city authorities, sociologists, psychologists, emergency managers, economists and city planners to evaluate volcanic crises preparedness and management in cities and populated areas
• Benefits for local and regional community
• Safety of all participants, considering national and/or ethnic origin, race, gender, sexual orientation, parental and/or marital status, religion, and disability
• Promotion of diverse and inclusive participation, including local community, disciplines and roles (e.g. emergency management), gender, geographic balance, career stage, care-giving responsibilities, disability
• Sustainability
• Satisfactory discussion of all topics and elements provided in instructions for written proposal

Instructions for Notification of Intent to Submit Proposal (Deadline: Friday 3 March 2023, 5 pm HST) – STEP 1

Email COV Secretary, providing information on:

• Host city and country
• Tentative month or dates of proposed conference
• Contact information for chair of proposing committee
• Availability of chair and known members of proposing committee in March and April 2023

Required informal meeting with Cities on Volcanoes Commission Executive Committee (March – April 2023) – STEP 2

• Virtual meeting of chair and available members of proposing committee and the CAV Executive Committee, organized by CAV Executive Committee
• Scheduled for 1 hour, although if desired by either party, further meetings can be arranged
• Review of scope and expectations for COV conference
• Opportunity to ask questions of CAV Executive Committee

Important: this meeting(s) is required, but does not factor into the formal selection vote.

Instructions for Proposal (Deadline: Friday 29 September 2023, 5 pm HST) – STEP 3

Email COV Secretary with PDF proposal covering:

Topic	Element	CAV Commission Expectations
1. Leadership	Official inviting entities	Note: Civil and academic and/or scientific entities. Expectation: Civil entities may include local and/or regional government, and/or local and/or regional emergency management. At the very least, there should be enthusiastic support from the local government. Academic and/or scientific entities may include universities and/or geological survey or similar government agency.
	Leadership of the Local Organizing Committee and Programming Committee	Note: Includes representatives from inviting entities, and representation from local emergency management. Expectation: Although only identification of leadership required for the proposal, these two committees should be diverse in terms of profession, discipline, gender, and career stage. The composition of the Programming Committee (specifically not called the Scientific Organizing Committee) should include diverse disciplines and roles aligned with the COV conference mission. A physical science-dominated Programming Committee should be avoided, rather, multi-, inter-, and trans-disciplinary, applied sciences, and non-scientist members are encouraged.
2. Locality	Relevance of volcanism to local community, with exposed vulnerable population	Expectation: Held within a community that lives with the risk of consequences of volcanic activity.
	Safety of participants given national and/or ethnic origin, socio-economic status, race, gender, sexual orientation, parental and/or marital status, religion, and disability	Note: Of particular concern are laws and practices that discriminate on the bases of gender, sexual orientation, and religion, and risk of violence towards international and domestic travelers (including civil conflict).
	Safety of participants with relation to natural and biological hazards	Expectation: Participants should not be placed in unreasonable risk from natural hazards (venue in path of lahar, hurricane season, etc.), and provisions should be made for pandemic risk management
3. Benefits to local and regional community		Expectation: The conference should benefit the local community. Note: Could include community engagement and participation, outreach program.
4. Dates	Equally spaced between IAVCEI General Assembly and IUGG General Assembly	Expectation: Opening Ceremony will be on Sunday evening or Monday morning, the Closing Ceremony will be on Friday evening, and there will be a mid-week field trip on Wednesday (preferred), Tuesday, or Thursday
	Avoid conflicts that would likely limit participation pool	Note: Consider other conferences, major holidays and local emergency management and community factors
5. Alignment with mission of COV conferences	Strategy to focus on mission of COV conferences: creating connections between volcanologists, city authorities, sociologists, psychologists, emergency managers, economists and city planners to evaluate volcanic crises preparedness and management in cities and populated areas	This is critical. Expectation: COV is not a science conference, but rather an inter-and trans-disciplinary and sector gathering that builds and strengthens the community, partnerships and collaborations. CAV encourages proposers to be creative. Prompts: Consider how to ensure participation from emergency management, government and local partners, and diverse disciplines. What will make it an attractive, inviting and inclusive conference for non-scientists and local partners? Further, there may be enthusiasm from the scientific community to propose sessions that are better suited for another conference – how will this enthusiasm be managed?
6. Vision of program and sessions	Daily conference activity timing	Expectation: Conference activities, from start to end of official programming (including lunch), will be no more than 10 hours per day, with 8 or 9 hours preferable. There needs to be time for participants to rest, network, and socialize outside of conference hours.
	Frequency and duration of plenary/keynote presentations and panel discussions	Expectation: Plenary and keynote presentations should be aligned with the mission of COV conferences. Local and regional emergency management, government, and community inclusion is strongly encouraged. Beyond that, speakers should be diverse, particular with regards to gender, career stage, discipline or sector, and geographic origin. Earth-science dominated plenaries should be avoided, while multi-, inter-, and trans-disciplinary plenaries are encouraged.
	Number of parallel sessions	Note: Past experience suggests that there should be no more than 3-4 parallel sessions.
	Poster session arrangements	Note: Poster sessions are critical, especially for early career scientists, and provide important networking opportunities. New innovations for poster-type sessions are encouraged by only if they have a high chance of increasing poster engagement. Expectation: Dedicated poster sessions that are at least 90 minutes long on at least three conference days. Poster sessions should not at same time as oral or plenary/keynote presentations. Ideally posters can be up the entire conference. If there is virtual attendance, both in person and virtual participants need to be able to engage.
	Oral session arrangements	Expectation: Sessions (including Plenaries) should not total more than 6 hours per day (less is better). A single session should be no more than 2 hours long. Approaches that enhance interactions with locals or officials are encouraged. Note: Generally talks are 12 minutes with 3 minutes for questions. Consideration of other formats are encouraged (e.g., pop-up sessions, panel discussions, group discussions, other), especially if these will support the overall mission of COV. Sessions that aim to answer a question or solve a problem are encouraged.
	Other conference activities	Note: Organizers are encouraged to include local and creative elements as appropriate.
7. Venue	Venue description	Overarching principle: The venue should facilitate a pleasant and safe experience for all participants. Expectation: Participants should be able to go from one conference room to another without having to cross a large or busy street or otherwise travel for more than a couple of minutes to go between parallel sessions.
	Room use and capacity	Expectation: Venue must be able to host all participants (seated) attending on site in one room for opening and closing ceremonies and plenary presentations. Venue must have space for poster hall and parallel sessions. The smallest session room should be able to accommodate 70 seated participants. Sessions that are more closely aligned with the mission of COV conferences should be allocated larger and more central rooms.
	Maximum number of participants	Expectation: The conference should be sufficiently intimate to promote meaningful participant interaction and idea exchange. Note: Previous organizers have found a minimum of 400 participants is needed for financial viability. Recent events have been closer to 600. A formal minimum or maximum is not required, but the venue may place constraints on on-site participant numbers.
	Workshop facilities	Expectation: Facilities for pre and post conference workshops do not need to be at main conference venue, but should be within walking distance. Note: There are often 10-20 workshops (including both before and after the conference) and may have 30 or more participants.
	Virtual attendance options	Note: Virtual attendance options contribute to diverse participation, accessibility, and sustainability, and are encouraged
	Catering	Expectation: CAV conferences generally provide lunch and coffee/tea (supplied) breaks, and often morning and afternoon refreshments. This should be factored into registration cost.
8. Mid-conference field trip	Draft itinerary (or itineraries)	Note: Field trip(s) cannot adversely impact local population, including psychologically. Expectation: Most stops should relate to volcano crisis preparedness, experience, response, and management. Meals should be included.
	Physical effort	Expectation: Participants should be able to participate with normal shoes and without special equipment. While some walking can be expected, participants with limited mobility should have a field trip option they will enjoy.
	Estimated number of participants in each group	Note: A common approach is to have groups of 1 or 2 busloads visiting stops in a staggered itinerary. Stationary experts at different stops that are meeting all the groups has been used to good effect before. Expectation: Each bus (or group) should have at least one host with them the entire field trip.
	Duration	Expectation: Generally field trips leave between 8 and 10 am, and return between 4 and 6 pm.
9. Pre and post conference activities	Venue options for workshops	Note: If workshop organizers or participants will need to pay additional costs, include cost estimate.
	Field trips and estimated costs	Expectation: At least one pre- and one post-conference field trip, with capacity for > 50 participants each. These field trips are generally 2-4 days long. A total of 4-6 field trips is encouraged. The focus of the field trips should relate to the mission of COV conferences (i.e., not be a volcano stratigraphy field trip). Note: At least one pre- and one post-conference field trip each must require the same level of physical effort as the mid-week conference field trip. However, further field trips may require higher levels of physical activity.
10. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility	Initiatives to ensure diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility	This is critical. Expectation: Diversity includes consideration of local community, disciplines and roles (e.g. emergency management), gender, geographic balance, career stage, care-giving responsibilities, disability. This includes conference leadership, conference participants, plenary and keynote speakers.
11. Sustainability	Initiatives to reduce greenhouse emissions, minimize waste, and recycle and/or compost	Note: Having a remote attendance option can be a major contributor, as it will reduce air travel. Expectation: The conference should also benefit local sustainability and environment.
12. Transportation and accommodation options for domestic and international participants	Transport (air, rail, marine, bus) to get to host locality	Note: Detail options, including frequency and cost.
	Sufficient accommodation to cater for full range of requirements	Note: Low price options very important, as well as reasonable options for families.
	Distance from venue, dining options, and entertainment	Expectation: It should not take participants more than 30 minutes to get from their accommodation to the venue. Walking and/or affordable and convenient public transportation is expected.
13. Arrangements for logistics and handling of these by the host country		Expectation: A professional conference organizer must be used.
14. Potential sponsorships		Note: Sponsorships are strongly encouraged.
15. Preliminary estimates of the registration fees		Note: Ideally have reduced rates for students, emergency managers/practitioners, and local community members

Timeline (all deadlines 5 pm, HST):

• Monday 21 November 2022: Formal call for Notification of Intention to develop proposal to host COV13
• Friday 3 March 2023: Deadline for Notification of Intention to develop proposal to host COV13
• March – April 2023: Required informal meeting with CAV Executive Committee
• Friday September 29 2023: Deadline for written Proposal to host COV13
• Monday October 16 2023: Deadline for further information requests by CAV Executive Committee
• Friday November 17 2023: Deadline for further information submissions
• By Friday 1 December 2023: CAV Executive Committee meets to decide COV13 venue, informs candidates whether proposal accepted
• February 2024: COV13 venue announced at COV12 closing ceremony