Welcome to SMPC 2007 at Concordia!

The 2007 conference of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition will be held July 30 - August 3, 2007 at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. We are eager to welcome you to yet another exciting, cutting-edge scientific research experience.

CONFERENCE ADDRESS:

HALL Building, 1455 DeMaisonneuve Blvd
On the north side, between Bishop & Mackay
1 block east of Guy.

This centrally located venue is on the Sir George Williams campus of Concordia University, about 15 minutes west of McGill on foot, and close to the heart of downtown Montreal.

To come in from the airport, take a cab, or an airport shuttle bus. A short taxi ride away from the train and bus stations. By public transit, METRO station Guy-Concordia.


Within the Hall building: H 765 is Registration

H 763 (beside registration) is Poster/snack area.

H 435 and H 415/411 are other talk rooms.

A LUGGAGE Check-room will be provided on the morning of Fri Aug 3, 8:30 - 12 noon. While SMPC can not take responsibility for theft or loss of personal effects left unsupervised (keep all your things with you at all times), on this last morning of the conference we realize some participants may have to leave directly to travel. A team of volunteer workers will keep watch over your luggage in the Coat Check Room beside H 765. All items must be reclaimed by 12:15 p.m. or they will be taken to the Security Office, NE corner of the ground floor lobby of the Hall building.

Lab visits on Monday July 30: Palmer, Levitin, and Ichiro Fujinaga:
(also CIRMMT, see below after Workshop)

Palmer Performance Lab at McGill:
7:30 - 9 p.m. in Stewart Biology Building N6/3
1205 Dr. Penfield Ave at NE corner of Drummond, a 12 - 15 minute walk from Hall building. Enter courtyard at NE corner and walk toward double doors. There will be greeters at the 1205 Penfield door to let you into the building, and people upstairs to show you around Dr. Caroline Palmer's dynamic Sequence Production Lab.
An opportunity not to be missed! Lab: (514) 398-5270

Levitin Laboratory for Music Cognition, Perception & Expertise:
7:30 - 9 p.m. right beside Palmer's lab, in N6/8.

Fujinaga: See below immediately after CIRMMT lab info.

Satellite Workshop Mon Jul 30 at McGill will be followed by late-afternoon lab visit (see below):

Title: MoCap Data Exchange and the Establishment of a Preliminary Database of Music Performances is a separate workshop, 30 participants maximum, offered by Isabelle Cossette and Marcelo Wanderley. 9:30 - 4 in Schulich School of Music, 555 Sherbrooke W. Once inside the building make your way to the New Music Building and go to ROOM A - 832

http://www.cirmmt.mcgill.ca/activities/workshops/mocap-data-exchange/ or

http://www.music.mcgill.ca/musictech/idmil/projects/mocap

and also mocap_workshop@cirmmt.mcgill.ca

isabelle[dot]cossette1[at]mcgill[dot]ca and
marcelo[dot]wanderley[at]mcgill[dot]ca

CIRMMT lab info: After the workshop there will be a visit open to all who attend SMPC 2007. 4:30 p.m. on.

AT the SAME TIME: To visit Ichiro Fujinaga's lab, meet at 4:30 p.m. in CIRMMT lobby outside A-832. Ichiro will be there in person as well as his grad student John Ashley Burgoyne.

Tour of the Distributed Digital Music Archives and Libraries Laboratory (DDMALL)

16.30 - 17.00 Digitisation projects
Rare books room
Marvin Duchow Music Library

If you wish to join the visit half-way through, be at the entrance of 550 Sherbrooke Street West by 4:50 p.m. (on the south side, facing the New Music Building).

17.00 - 17.30 Software projects
DDMALL
McGill Music Technology Area
550 Sherbrooke Street West, Suite 500

Limited space, please register for THIS LAB ONLY:

ashley[at]music[dot]mcgill[dot]ca

Please do NOT contact Ashley if you want to visit Palmer, Levitin, EV events.

ICMPC 8, Evanston, IL, 2004. Photo courtesy of Scott Lipscomb.

A word about Schedule of Progam from Science Progam Chair Dr. Michael Hall:

With apologies for duplication to those who have already received this:

Thank you again for your recent abstracts that have been accepted for presentation at the upcoming meeting of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC 2007) at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. A particularly large volume of submissions was received for this summer’s conference, which contributed to unexpected delays in sending notification of scheduled times and formats for presentations. I apologize for any inconvenience regarding travel arrangements that this delay may have caused you. Please know that the presentation schedule is now complete, and is posted on the Schedule of Program page of this website. 

If you have been assigned to deliver an oral presentation, please note that the allotted time of 20 minutes for each oral presentation includes time for introduction of speakers, as well as for fielding questions. Presenters will be expected to adhere to the assigned schedule so that coordinated timing across concurrent sessions can be maintained. If you have instead been assigned to deliver poster presentations, posters slated for a particular day will be expected to be on display from 9 am through the scheduled poster session at the end of the day. The duration of each poster session is 90 minutes. Posters in these sessions will be assigned a number. Presenters for odd-numbered posters will be expected to be standing by their posters throughout the first half of the poster session (i.e., the first 45 minutes), and presenters for even-numbered posters will be expected to be standing by their posters throughout the second half of the session. Additional details, including recommendations for necessary materials for oral presentations, as well as the dimensions of poster displays, are available in the right-hand column of this page, under NEWS. Any updates to planned events that will accompany the scientific program will be posted online as information becomes available. 

If you have not yet registered for the conference, registration remains open. Should any clarification be required regarding the program schedule, please do not hesitate to contact me. Questions about travel, lodging, and registration, as well as additional events surrounding the conference schedule, can be directed to the Chair of the Local Arrangements Committee, Christine Beckett.

We look forward to seeing you in Montreal.

Suggestions for Presenters

Even if you have presented many times before, please read the following suggestions.  Any further suggestions are also welcome. 

Bring CD or memory stick backup in case you have to use the talk room resident PCs.  Mac users bring adapter cables.

Giving a TALK:

Practice your talk out loud to check your timing. Practice in front of a group. If you are just starting out, consider taking a course on presentation skills at your home institution.

If possible, stand up. If seated, lookup. Make visual contact with all listeners.

Calculate your time wisely. The allotted 20 minutes includes the moderator’s introduction of you, set-up, the talk, questions, discussion, and leaving the podium to make way for the next speaker.  Plan to speak for only 14 to 15 min maximum. One rule of thumb is: somewhat UNDER 100 words/min. 1200 to 1400 words should be enough for an average talk, to leave time for questions.

State right at the start the main point of your talk. Say what you did. Less is more. If you give too much intro your time will end before you say what you did.

Presenters will not be allowed to exceed 20 min.

At the conference:

Do a tech check in your talk room.  Tech-check times are a half hour before each session (i.e., early morning and the last half hour of the lunch period) and during 20 min breaks. Make sure sound examples play well, and at a high enough volume level for the room; check videos and use of the internet. Technicians will be there to help.

When it is your turn to speak: Ask the talk-room secretary to hand out anything you wish given to your listeners.  Alternatively, place abstracts or reprints near entrances; people can take them when arriving or leaving.

Keep your voice volume and pitch up all the time.
Speak slower than you practiced.
Pause between phrases.
Use the mike.

What you see on your laptop and what is seen on screen might not be the same. Glance at the screen now and then to be sure; then look back at listeners. Don’t talk to/at the screen.

Use very sharp visual contrasts.  Some colours don’t show well on screen (red, pale blue... pale anything). Check your slide show before you leave home, from the back of a large, not-too-dark room.

Put less per slide; make it big. Don’t cram lots of info on one slide.

If you use a laser beam to point out something on the screen, move the pointer smoothly to where you want it, then leave it on the spot.  Don’t circle/jiggle it around constantly—this makes it harder for people to see what you are pointing to.

If sudden tech problems occur, ask the technician for help & keep talking!

Showing a POSTER:

Please put posters up, on correctly numbered boards, early in the morning. Push-pins will be available in the room. Helpers will be available. A floor plan will be on a board near the door.

Bring reprints and abstracts so people can take a copy of your work. Please place them in a plastic envelope (like an assignment hand-in envelope) pinned to your poster board. Please don’t litter the floor.

Be present at your poster during the 45 minute time scheduled for you, according to the directions from Program Chair Michael Hall posted above. (A numbered schedule is coming soon on Schedule page!)

Take the poster down at 6 p.m. when the session ends. Please return our push-pins!

Moderators of Sessions: TIME!! Do what it takes, but keep the talks to time. You can be as fierce as you want.

Whether you give a talk or a poster: if you have an emergency, phone the Registration Desk  number which will be on your name tag.  Thank you.

NEWS!!

CONCERT WED AUG 1, 12 - 12:30, H 415
Soloist CHIH-LIN -- Music of the GU-ZHENG
(don't know what it is? come find out!)

Abstracts are on the Abstract page.

New download on Schedule of Program page.

HEXAGRAM Sound Studio Visits c/o Mark Corwin will take place 11 - 3, T-W- TH, in room EV 10.724 during the conference. Limited space.
mcorwin[at]alcor[dot]concordia[dot]ca.

INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA PLAYROOM
will be up and chuckling in EV 10.515 too. Come visit Rosemary Mountain's project.

BRAMS Open House Tue Jul 31 7:30 - 9
Info and maps will be in registration packs.
Some info and directions already on Schedule of Program page.

LAB VISIT ATTENDEES: Interactive Multimedia Playroom (IMP) EV 10.515 will be open Wed evening Aug 1, 5 - 8 p.m. Rosemary Mountain and Annabel Cohen are running an ongoing study there,come on over and visit.

If you want to see Concordia's Hexagram Protools Sound Studio at lunch times T-W-TH, over in EV building, contact: cbeckett[at]alcor[dot]concordia[dot]ca
Or sign up at the conference Registration Desk during conference week.

PBS will be filming during the conference: 13WNET from upstate NY is making a documentary, current working title "The Music Instinct". Release forms will be available at the Registration Desk. Poster Session A presenters (Wed Aug 1), PBS plans to visit posters: please be VERY sure to see to your release forms. There will be reserved sections of D. B. CLarke Theatre during the Plenary, and in all talk rooms, where the camera will NOT film listeners. These areas will be marked visibly.

The REGISTRATION DESK at the conference will accept NO CASH TRANSACTIONS. Online payments via PayPal will continue to be possible. But the best thing is to REGISTER NOW!! Registration remains open right up to and including conference days. Student rates apply for Post-docs. Guest passes are $50 Cdn per day.

SUGGESTIONS for PRESENTERS at bottom of column to left, on this page. Please read.

New items on Important Info page...

New "extras" on Schedule of Program page.

Some specific information about presenting:

ALL PRESENTERS: Please read A Word about Schedule of Program from Michael Hall, to left. Poster presenters are also encouraged to consider being present at their poster throughout the entire session, if space permits.

BESIDES YOUR LAPTOPS, BRING BACKUP OF SOME SORT--YOUR SLIDES ON CD OR MEMORY STICK/USB key. In case of difficulty connecting your laptop to the session rooms' projectors, there are resident PCs available.

BOTH PRESENTATION ROOMS DO HAVE INTERNET ACCESS VIA THEIR RESIDENT COMPUTERS.

MAC USERS PLEASE NOTE: BRING ADAPTERS TO CONNECT TO VGA CABLES.

POSTER BOARD DIMENSIONS:
6 feet wide by 4 feet tall. One poster per side.

BANQUET: VINTAGE WINE, renowned Montreal retro-rock group led by beloved Concordia Music Professor Craig Morrison, hired for banquet dancing!!

ICMPC 8, Evanston, IL, 2004. Photo courtesy of Scott Lipscomb.

Our apologies for the length of time it is taking to get the Abstracts onto their page. There has been a huge response for this conference, and the sheer bulk of text is taking a long time to proof read. But we are nearly there and will post abstracts soon.

Blocks of rooms at Le Nouvel Hotel (50 rooms) and at the Maritime Plaza (25 rooms) will be held at Concordia corporate rates until June 11. BOOK EARLY! After early June, you will not get the low rate for the conference. STUDENT RESIDENCE INFO on Accommodations page now.

PLEASE READ THIS IMPORTANT INFO ABOUT PAYPAL

As usual , we offer the convenience of registering online using credit card, bank account, or other funding source via PayPal. If you follow the steps below, you are ensured a secure connection to PayPal:

1. Click on the "Registration" link.
3. Click on the "Add to Cart" button next to any item for which you wish to submit payment
4. You will be taken directly to the PayPal site where you are given two options:

a. Continue Shopping - this will return you to the registration page where you can select additional items to add to your "cart" (Banquet, guest/spouse pass, etc.)

b. Proceed to Checkout - select this option after you have added all the items you for which wish to pay.

5. Follow instructions at the PayPal web site to complete the transaction.
6. You will receive an email confirmation directly from PayPal to tell you payment has been successfully submitted; SMPC will also get notice that a payment has been issued and will send you an email telling you that payment has been safely received in the SMPC account.

There are internet scams to get personal information from unsuspecting individuals. Following the steps above will minimize your chance of being scammed.

Only provide information, when you take the initiative to access the official PayPal web site. The web address for that site should ALWAYS begin with: http://www.paypal.com. 

Never provide personal information in response to an email that does not start as above, or you might give away private information to someone who would use it without your authorization. 

PayPal frequently sends out messages to those who use its service explaining that they will never request your personal information via email. Any other incoming email to the contrary is not to be trusted.

This information is given to assure you that PayPal is secure. We encourage you to make your SMPC registration payments using the steps provided above. If you receive any email claiming to be from PayPal requesting that you send private personal information, do not do so.

Please don't hesitate to communicate with SMPC Treasurer Scott Lipscomb should you have questions or require clarification. lipscomb [at] umn [ dot] edu