The Director likes to meet with each set of coordinators as soon as possible after arrival to go over several organizational matters, and he will discuss your seminar schedule with you at that time. This meeting and an organizational meeting with your program participants should be set up prior to your arrival. You may also rough out a talk schedule for your first week, but we will not formalize seminar room assignments or times until you are here and have met with the KITP leadership and with your participants. Please consult with the Deputy Director before planning for any outside speakers or pedagogical sessions for the first week of your program even if this concept was included in your original proposal.
What follows is some preliminary information to assist you with your planning:
- A traditional structure has been to have one "formal" seminar and one informal (possibly a lunch) talk each week plus some organized discussions, although this does vary based upon the nature of the field (bio programs in particular usually require more times). This is not a rule -- but you do not want to over schedule or your participants will vote with their feet! Talks, with time for discussion included, tend to run between 1-2 hours.
- We have one large seminar room that is divided by an acoustic panel into two rooms of uneven size--one of these we refer to as the main seminar room, and it has seminar-style seating with a capacity of about 80 people. The other is the small seminar room, and it has tables joined in a U shape surrounded by chairs with additional chairs in the back and on the sides. This can handle about 40 people, but it gets crowded at that point. These rooms can be used simultaneously if necessary, although, as much as possible, we try to avoid scheduling the talks for one program at the same time as the other as there are sometimes people who are interested in participating in both. We also have a 50-seat auditorium that has become very popular.
- During the academic year, we have a few times each week when we do not schedule talks. The main ones are: 1) Monday lunch--this is traditionally taken by the Director's (or black board) lunch; 2) Tuesday, late afternoon--this is the Physics Dept. colloquia time; 3) Wednesday at 2pm--this is the KITP colloquia time.
- It is your responsibility to review the conference schedule for the time of your program. When one program is having a conference, the other programs will not be able to use either the main or the small seminar rooms for regular weekly seminars. It is best if fewer talks are planned for these weeks as only one other space will be available and all other programs will have to share it.
- A speaker form is available for you to arrange for experimentalists/observers, etc. coming for stays of 5 workdays or fewer. Check here for further information regarding this process and a link to the form. N.B. You may invite one speaker a week without it counting against your space quota. if you invite one speaker for Mon-Tues and another for Wed-Thurs. that counts as two speakers!
If you have any questions, please contact the KITP Administrator.