Planning a Meeting or Workshop

Key Contacts

Ancillary Meetings

The Association for Information Systems (AIS) wishes to attract and encourage groups from the larger I/S Community to hold their annual meetings at either AMCIS or ICIS. To this end, AIS has developed a package of benefits that will make it attractive for all groups to consider a future AIS conference as the home for their next meeting. The Ancillary Meeting Package (AMP) includes the following:

• Meeting coordination
• Discounted audiovisual equipment charges
• Discounted food & beverage charges
• Promotion/marketing via the AIS Web site, broadcast e-mail, etc.
• Complimentary meeting space at the official conference hotels (based on availability)

For groups that are part of AIS (SIGs and chapters), the AMP is a benefit of membership in the Association and there is no charge. For all other groups a modest event coordination fee will be charged.

Meeting Guidelines

• Food, beverages, audiovisual equipment, and other services from the conference hotel(s) will be available to all ancillary groups at the same rates as the rates charged to the AIS conferences themselves. All ancillary meetings for AMCIS 2008 will take place in the Sheraton Centre Toronto.

• The services of AIS staff and Experient, AIS’s conference management firm, will be available to all ancillary groups.

• Meeting room space will be available to all ancillary groups at no charge, assuming that there is no separate charge to AIS for meeting rooms. If a separate room charge is made to AIS, that charge will be passed on to the ancillary groups without markup. In return, ancillary groups are expected to encourage their attendees to stay at the conference hotel(s). CSR Solutions will be the official audiovisual equipment provider for the AMCIS 2008 conference and ancillary meetings.

• The current cost of processing an AIS conference attendee or an ancillary meeting attendee registration is $15.00 each. For an ancillary meeting attendee – who also attends the accompanying AIS conference – only one processing fee will be charged for both events, and this will be paid by the AIS conference (in this case the AMCIS 2008 conference). The ancillary group will pay a processing fee only for those of their attendees who do not also attend the accompanying AIS conference.

• The event coordination fee for groups that are not part of AIS for AMCIS 2008 will be $250 for a one-day event, $400 for a two-day (or part there of) event; and $500 for events lasting three or more days. All fees are quoted in US dollars.
Procedures for Ancillary Groups.

The first step in arranging for meeting space is for the authorized party for each ancillary group to fill out the Ancillary Meeting Request Form, which includes information about your group, your meeting plans, and information related to registration. Banquet menus and audio-visual equipment/pricing will be posted to the site for review. Lise Fitzpatrick, Meeting and Event Manager, will confirm receipt of the form and will give guidance for the next steps.

Conference Hotels

The ability of AMCIS 2008 to provide this free space and discounted service is directly related to the anticipated booking of rooms at the conference hotels. The financial success of AMCIS 2008 and the ability of AMCIS to continue to offer these meeting subsidies in the future are clearly tied to room night utilized in the conference hotels. Please encourage your members to stay at the conference hotel (Sheraton Centre Toronto) while attending your ancillary meetings as well as AMCIS.
Thank you.