KITP requires the lead conference coordinator to inform us of all conference committee decisions. The lead coordinator will liaise with Claudia Gutierrez, the Conference Assistant (CA), on speaker selection, schedule, and budgetary matters.
Budget
We offer up to six nights at Best Western South Coast Inn (BWSCI) for each of up to 20 invited speakers and conference coordinators. In addition, we budget $5,000 for speaker and conference coordinator travel reimbursements. Speakers and coordinators must call the hotel and reserve a room with a credit card number (in case of incidental charges). The CA will track your travel budget. KITP offers no travel or lodging support for program participants that are already in residence at KITP at the time of the conference. The conference budget cannot be used to reimburse speakers for the required registration fee.
Registration Fees
The conference registration fee is $390.00 per participant. Program participants in-house during the conference week must register for the conference and pay the registration fee. Graduate student affiliates in-house for the program during conference week must register, but pay a discounted rate of $260.00. These amounts cover the cost for refreshments, lunches, dinners and additional expenses (e.g. copying, mailing costs, rentals, media needs and transportation of participants between the motel and campus). Conference coordinators pay a reduced registration fee of $150.00. We accept online credit card payments starting 90 days prior to the start of the conference. Program affiliates and conference coordinators will use a coupon code to receive their discounted fee. There is a late charge of $50 for paying the registration fee fewer than 30 days before the conference begins.
Refund policy
Participants who cancel more than ten days before the conference receive a full refund of fees paid. Cancellations Those who cancel less than ten days before the conference will be refunded fees paid, less the Special Events fee of $90.
Limiting Registrants
KITP conferences comfortably accommodate 120 participants. We stop accepting registrations at 130 participants. You can monitor conference registration, as well as the status of speaker invitations and confirmations, on the conference coordinators’ data site: there is a link to the conference data site in the upper right-hand corner of the associated program’s data site.
Poster Session
Notify KITP in advance if you want to provide a poster session. Each poster board is 4' high x 6' long mounted on two vertical uprights, making available a space of 44” high and 34” wide for each poster.
Reimbursement of Expenses for Invited Speakers
The KITP Director will make financial commitments to speakers in writing. Verbal commitments by the coordinators are not considered final. Conference participants who are in residence at the KITP for at least one week besides the conference week are considered program participants. Their financial support will come from the program budget.
The Director’s letter of invitation will initially offer to pay speakers six nights of lodging and will query the speaker regarding the need for travel support. As the resulting travel requests come to the CA, he/she will help you track your $5,000 travel budget allocation. The lead coordinator should recommend these amounts after looking at our current airfare guidelines at https://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/coordinators/kitp-airfare-guidelines. These commitments must be finalized and will be reported to the Director two weeks in advance of the conference.
Talks online
When contacting speakers, please advise them that KITP posts audio, video, and slides from all talks on its website. These online records greatly enlarge the audience for your talks and accelerate scientific communication.
Schedule
KITP conferences provide a unique atmosphere that fosters interaction and discussion. We strongly encourage you to allot at least 50% of the speaker’s formal presentation time for discussion. Refreshment breaks of at least 30 minutes each and a lunch period of at least 90 minutes are needed, preferably at the same time each day. This provides maximum scientific benefit for the audience, allows adequate break periods for a large number of people, and is flexible enough to accommodate shorter/longer talks. Before planning your schedule, please review https://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/conferences/past. The KITP Director will have final approval of your schedule before it is made public.
Logistics
The KITP is located 2.5 miles from the nearest hotel. Because of this, participants can’t retreat to their hotel room for a mental break, although there are several lounges where visitors may read, relax, and enjoy refreshments. We advise leaving an entire afternoon and evening free. Participants can explore Santa Barbara and environs without missing any sessions. It is also advisable to end early in the afternoon on the last day so the staff is still available to help.
Staff support
If you have any questions, please direct them to your Conference Assistant.
We look forward to working with you for a successful meeting.