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The conference program is now available as a PDF for download. At the conference, it will be available as a printed booklet.

We have now included all presentation titles in the agenda of SilviLaser 2021 (click the sessions to see the presentation titles).

It is now also your last chance to register for the conference as a participant, either for on-site or remote participation. Please find all details here!

Dear SilviLaser Community, we can finally provide you the link with which you can book your hotel room in the conference venue (Hotel InterContinental) for a special conference rate.

Click here to book your hotel room.

We are looking forward to welcoming you at the Silvilaser2021 in Vienna!

Besides the SilviLaser there are a lot of gems to discover in this beautiful city. If you want to visit a concert or you are looking for a nice restaurant or bar – this digital tour guide lists the latest events, exhibitions and must-sees of the city of Vienna. It also provides you with the latest updates on the Covid19-regulations and offers much more information about Vienna: https://www.wien.info/en

Enjoy your stay!

Dear SilviLaser community!

One month to go until the SilviLaser conference will take place in Austria. With this newsletter, we would like to inform you about the latest news of the SilviLaser conference in Vienna.

Conference venue
As some of you have already heard, the original conference hotel has cancelled our contract because their parent company has decided not to open the hotel until later this year for economic reasons. Unfortunately, the hotel sent a confusing email to some of you, which was not agreed with us and does not correspond to reality.
However, we have found a great alternative conference hotel and are happy to announce that the SilviLaser 2021 conference will be held at the InterContinental Vienna. The link link to book discounted rooms will be available soon.

Conference format
The conference will be held as a hybrid conference, i.e. presentations can be given on-site as well as remotely. As several colleagues are in different time zones, all presentations will be recorded and as registered conference participants, you will have the possibility to stream these presentations until the end of October 2021 via the conference platform. This platform also allows you to communicate with all conference participants and sponsors, whether they are virtually or physically present. Hence, we can guarantee the best possible interaction of on-site and virtual participants.
Regarding the programme, we will schedule the keynote presentations in the middle of the day so that all conference participants in the different time zones can follow and discuss the presentations live. For those presenting remotely, we will do our best to take their local time zone into account when preparing the programme.

Benchmark
As already announced in previous newsletters, the SilviLaser conference will include a benchmark where different sensors will be used to measure forest parameters. The resulting data set will be freely available to the community after the SilviLaser. More details on the benchmark can be found on our website. Here you will also soon find an overview of the exhibiting companies.
From today’s point of view, ~15 companies/institutions will demonstrate their latest instruments or recording methods live. During the two planned benchmark excursion days, you will have the opportunity to see these instruments in action and to discuss details directly with the manufacturers. You can still register for the excursions to the benchmark as well as for the active participation in the benchmark.

Conference dinner
The conference dinner will take place in the historic Vienna City Hall. In addition to the historical flair of Vienna and the excellent food, we have prepared a musical surprise for you. Registration for the conference dinner is still possible.

Registrations
Many of you have already registered for the conference, with about 60% choosing to attend on-site so far. If you are unable to come to Vienna for whatever reason, we would be very happy to have you attend remotely. I would like to remind all presenting authors that they have to register at least for the remote conference participation. Register here!

Presentation formats
The guidelines for both oral and pico presentations are being finalised and will be available on the Silvilaser homepage very soon. We will also send an email to all corresponding authors.

Special issue
I would also like to announce that the special issue in the International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation (JAG) is open for submissions. Details can be found here.
The special issue primarily aims to publish extended versions of selected papers presented at the SilviLaser 2021 conference, but also new submissions on the related topics may also be considered.
Covid19 update
As Covid19 is still a world-wide issue we want to assure you that all possible safety and hygienic measurements will be carried out during the whole conference duration and might be adapted if governmental restrictions will be changed.
Please note that for almost all public indoor and some outdoor spaces (hotels, restaurants, events etc.), you will need to show either a negative COVID test or proof of vaccination/past infection and that face masks are required on public transport and in other public indoor spaces.
You can find more information regarding Austrian regulations here.
For detailed travel information and potential restrictions of your home country please visit the local governmental pages.

The organizing committee is looking forward to welcoming you in Vienna, or at least virtually.

Kind regards,
Markus Hollaus
(Chair of the organizing committee)

This is just a quick reminder about our early bird registration deadline, which is on 15 August 2021 (extended from 8 August 2021). To get the early bird rate, please register in time, details can be found here.

To get the early bird rate, the date of registration is relevant, not the date of payment.

Dear SilviLaser community!

The organizing of the conference is making great progress and we are pleased to announce that the registration is now open! For all the registration details and the registration form, please click here.
For the organizing team it would be very helpful if you could register as soon as possible, so that we can concretize the planning also with regard to the Covid pandemic safety requirements.
During registration, you can choose to register for the conference dinner, which will take place in the historic city hall of Vienna and you can also register for one or both of the benchmark excursion days.

High quality abstracts and keynotes
In total, 125 abstracts were submitted to the SilviLaser conference. The review process will be finished soon and the authors will be informed in the next days. In addition, we have fixed 7 keynote speakers covering a wide range of the SilviLaser topics.
When creating the programme, we try to take into account the different time zones of the remote participants as much as possible. On the registration platform you can find a preliminary programme of the SilviLaser conference.
Additionally, the first sponsors are fixed. They will demonstrate their equipment/sensors during the benchmark excursions but also during the conference.

Hybrid conference
The Silvilaser 2021 will be held as hybrid conference allowing physical and remote participations. To connect the physical participants with the remote ones we use B2Match as communication platform. The platform will contain the detailed program with all the streaming links for the sessions. Additionally, it will allow all participates to present themselves with a personal profile and to get in contact with each other via 1:1 video meetings that can be freely arranged.

Benchmark
As already mentioned in previous newsletters and on the SilviLaser website, we organize a benchmark where different companies/institutions can test their sensors/equipment. In-situ reference data will be acquired in September 2021. The acquired data will be openly accessible for the community. For preparing UAV flights, we will provide a high precision ALS data set covering the study areas. The ALS data set was created by Riegl using a VQ-1560 II-S. Further details about the benchmark and about possible contributions can be found here.

Special issue
I would also like to announce that the special issue in the International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation (JAG) is open for submissions already. Details can be found on this page of the publisher.
The special issue primarily aims to publish extended versions of selected papers presented at the SilviLaser 2021 conference, but also new submissions also be considered.

The organizing committee is looking forward to welcoming you in Vienna, or at least virtually.

• Prof. Juha Hyyppä: Recent developments with mobile laser scanning for forestry applications
• Prof. Håkan Olsson: Nationwide ALS-forest products supported by NFIs, current status and future trends
• Dr. Gottfried Mandlburger: The benefits of different LiDAR systems – Full waveform vs. single-photon LiDAR
• Prof. Guo Qinghua: Developing multiple platform LiDAR systems for scaling forest parameters from plot levels to global levels
• Dr. Amy Neuenschwander: IceSat-2 for forestry applications

To give you a bit more time to write your extended abstracts, we have extended the deadline to June 14th, 2021.

Find all details about abstract submission in our Call for Abstracts.

Dear SilviLaser community!

First of all, I would like to thank all those who have accepted our invitation to be part of the scientific committee and have registered for supporting the reviewing process. The high number of registrations shows the exceeding interest in the SilviLaser 2021.

I would also like to remind you about the deadline for submitting extended abstracts. The deadline is June 14th (extended from May 28th).

We also want to draw your attention to a Special Issue about selected SilviLaser contributions in the International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation (JAG), published by Elsevier. We will get a reduced paper fee for open access papers.

Furthermore, we would like to give you important updates about the SilviLaser 2021:

1) Change of venue:
Due to Covid19-regulations, the conference venue was changed from TU Wien to
Marriott Imperial Riding School Renaissance Hotel Vienna.
Conference rooms are already blocked.
The hotel offers a special room price for participants and is prepared to accept room bookings.
Compared to the previously planned venue at TU Wien we now have more flexibility in case of changing Covid19 restrictions and you can fully enjoy the hotel convenience.

2) Shifted date:
New conference date: September 28th to 30th, 2021
Pre-conference excursion: September 27th, 2021
Post-conference excursion: October 1st, 2021
UAV LIDAR benchmark either on September 27th or October 1st, depending on weather conditions.
TLS and PLS benchmark data acquisition will take place on both excursion days.

3) Corona situation
The current situation in Europe – decreasing cases of Covid19 infections and increasing percentage of people vaccinated – makes us very confident that we can host a hybrid SilviLaser 2021 in Vienna. So we would like to invite you to take the chance to visit Vienna and meet the community physically.

4) Hybrid conference
The conference is planned to be fully hybrid. Virtual participation will be possible in any case.
Presentations, workshops and meetings with participants and exhibitors will be enabled online as well as on site.

Looking forward to read your abstracts and to welcome you at the SilviLaser 2021!
Kind regards,
Markus Hollaus
(Chair of the Organizing Committee)