The responsibilities of being a conference chair, program committee member, or session chair are crucial to the success of SPIE events, and it is you, our incredible volunteers, who are the true engine of the Society. On behalf of the Board of Directors and the entire staff at SPIE, thank you for volunteering your time and dedication. We truly could not do this without you.
Below you'll find links for event policies and information specific to each of these roles. All volunteer leadership roles with SPIE are tasked with furthering and promoting a culture of inclusion and pushing diversity of ideas. If you have any questions or concerns at any point, please don't hesitate to contact your conference program coordinator.
Abstracts due | 15 November 2023 |
Registration opens | March 2024 |
Authors notified and program posts online | 28 February 2024 |
Submission system opens for manuscripts and poster PDFs* | 15 April 2024 |
Poster PDFs due for spie.org preview and publication | 22 May 2024 |
Manuscripts due | 29 May 2024 |
Advance upload deadline for oral presentation slides** | 14 June 2024 |
*The contact author or speaker must register prior to uploading
**After this date, slides must be uploaded on site at Speaker Check-in
Download the #SPIEastro social media toolkit!
Use this toolkit and the included images when posting about your conference and the overall event on social media.
Visit the resources page to find more information about the following responsibilities :
And reference this useful information to help clarify SPIE processes and procedures:
The Program Committee is integral to building a diverse program and is formed by the conference chair(s). A well-structured program committee will have a range of expertise to span the subject areas, including acquaintance with well-established and recognized leaders in the field from academia, government, and industry. To remain on a conference program committee, one must be consistently engaged. Below is a list of tasks and responsibilities for a role on the SPIE Conference Program Committee:
In the interests of efficiency, and to make space for new active committee members, program committee members who are essentially inactive will be rotated off after two or three successive occasions exhibiting negligible involvement.
A session chair plays a key role in ensuring a smooth SPIE conference. Attendees will be more engaged if the session chair proactively leads, and has done homework in advance, about the speakers and their expertise. Below is a list of tasks and responsibilities for the role of an SPIE session chair:
For more information about preparing for and chairing a session, see the Guidelines on Chairing a Session. If you have questions or need more information contact your Conference Program Coordinator.