Conference report by Zhigang (Zeke) Fan, Xerox Corp, US Program Co-chair for ICIS 2010

The 31st International Congress on Imaging Science (ICIS 2010) was held from May 13 to 15, 2010 in Beijing, China . The conference was sponsored by ICIS and Chinese Society for Imaging Science and Technology (CSIST), co-sponsored by the Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication (BIGC), China Lucky Film Corporation and the Chinese Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry (TIPC). IS&T was one of the cooperation organizations, together with the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain (RPS), the Imaging Society of Japan (ISJ), the Society of Photographic Science and Technology of Japan (SPSTJ), the Korean Society for Imaging Science and Technology (KSIST) and German Society for Photography (DGPh). I have attended the conference and served as the program co-chair for North America. The following summarizes some of my observations and impressions.

1. The conference was well attended. There are more than 240 papers with 308 attendees, among which, about 80 international (non-Chinese). All these figures are much higher than the comparable conferences, and well beyond my expectation, particularly given the current worldwide economic difficulties.
2. The content of the conference was solid. A strong set of plenary and keynote presentations composed of eleven talks were given by leaders and experts from both industry and academic institutes, covering latest development and trends of various aspects of imaging s sciences and technology. The presentations were of very high quality and were very well received. The conference was organized in four parallel tracks of oral presentations, and an interactive poster session. Significant progresses could also be observed for local papers, both in technical content and presentation, compared to a couple of years ago in similar conferences. The 15 minutes assigned to general oral presentations seemed to be a little bit short for most speakers, often leaving little time for Q&A. The session assignment could be further improved. Several papers would be more suitable if they appeared in other tracks
3. The conference clearly demonstrated the trend of going towards digital. This was not only shown in the conference's sub-title, "Imaging Science and Technology in the Digital Era", but also reflected in its plenary and keynote talks and general presentations. Among the four oral presentation tracks, two were dedicated to digital and color imaging technologies, and one to digital and on-demand printing / publishing. A significant portion of papers of the fourth track ("Novel Imaging and Related Functional Materials") also dealt with digital devices. Another hot topic was sustainability. One of the plenary talks dedicated entirely to green. In addition, almost all other plenary talks touched this topic.
4. The conference was in general well organized. The conference venue was new and modern, and can compete with any world class convention centers. Its location has a good balance between convenience and quietness (not too close to the business centers). The conference volunteers performed professionally. The banquet with excellent food and live performance was certainly memorable. The weather was cooperative, not cold and not warm. The sky was almost always blue.

Overall, it was a successful conference. This was due to the tremendous efforts made by the conference organizers, particularly the local organizers.