[R-sig-eco] Announcing vISEC2020, June 22-26 Sydney - and a new call for abstracts!

[David Warton]

Dear researchers at the interface between ecology and statistics,
The International Statistical Ecology Conference, scheduled for June 22-26 2020, **will go ahead as a virtual conference**, with a **call for new abstracts now open** (for those who did not submit an abstract previously because of travel constraints).

vISEC2020 will capture all the main features we had originally planned, but in a way that ensures anyone, anywhere can access and participate in the whole program (with internet access). In particular, we can confirm that vISEC2020 will include
- Plenary speakers: Christl Donnelly (Imperial College, London), David Borchers (St Andrews), Di Cook (Monash), Kiona Ogle (Northern Arizona), Mark Bravington (CSIRO)
- A Skills Showcase with introductory computer-based tutorials on high-dimensional data visualisation, acoustics, multivariate analysis, hidden Markov models, and more.
- Invited sessions on Reproducible Science (Shinichi Nakagawa, Hannah Fraser) and Methods for high throughput community data
- Contributed talks
- Poster session
- "Round table" discussions (Building towards a Special Issue proposal to Methods in Ecology and Evolution)
- a platform for free-form and pre-scheduled discussions with other conference participants
- a social program, including trivia night!  And whale-watching.  Maybe karaoke.
- support for those from developing countries and with significant family responsibilities (primarily by waiving registration and broadcasting to your lounge room!)

The timing of most vISEC2020 activities will be shifted towards afternoons/evenings Sydney time, to better align with international timezones (mostly likely between 3am and 12pm GMT). 

Registration costs will be minimal - if there are any, they can be waived on request.

We recognise that many chose not to come to ISEC2020 because of travel or family constraints. Now that these have been relaxed, we have reopened abstract submission atL
http://www.isec2020.org/submit-your-abstract
for two weeks - please submit an abstract by **Friday April 3rd, 5pm GMT** and it will be double-blind reviewed, for presentation at vISEC2020.  All previously accepted abstracts do not need to be resubmitted.

We are excited by the opportunity to bring the statistical ecology community together remotely for the first time, and will work to make this an ISEC to remember.

To find out more go to the conference website: http://www.isec2020.org
If you have any questions please send them to: isec2020 using unsw.edu.au

See you in virtually in June,
The vISEC2020 Local Organizing Committee

http://www.isec2020.org/
Twitter: @isec2020