Newsletter August 2021

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)