Registration and abstract submission are now open!

Please visit the registration website here to register for the Symposium and to submit your abstract before the deadline listed below. Unfortunately, at this moment, we cannot process the membership renewal and registration payment. Therefore, we suggest that you pay the registration fee after obtaining the decision letter of whether your abstract has been accepted for the Symposium.

Important dates and deadlines

• Abstract submission deadline: 20 June

• IAVS attendance grant applications deadline: 20 June

• Decision letters on abstracts: 18 July (at latest)

• IAVS attendance grant decision announced: 18 July (at latest)

• Late-breaking registrations with immediate payment will be possible until the very beginning of the Symposium

Plenary speakers (confirmed)

• Michelle Greve (University of Pretoria, South Africa)

• Jitka Klimešová (Botanical Insitute, Třeboň, Czech Republic)

• Mahesh Sankaran (National Center of Biological Science, India)

Special sessions (preliminary list)

• Special Session on river vegetation, the challenges of management and conservation and their values and ecosystem services (Francisca Aguiar & Rui Rivaes)

• Community ecology belowground (Tomáš Herben, Jitka Klimešová et al.)

• Big Data and Big Classifications – using vegetation databases for large-scale, plot-based classifications and future challenges (IAVS Vegetation Classification Working Group, Chair Scott Franklin)

Workshops (preliminary list)

• Photographic Vegetation Databases – assessing types, research and teaching use, and a potential inventory (IAVS Vegetation Classification Working Group, chaired by Scott Franklin)

• CWM approach in functional trait ecology (R workshop; organized by David Zelený)

Note: we are still open to considering further suggestions for Special Sessions or Workshops organized during the Symposium. If you would like to propose one, please contact the Symposium organizers at iavs2021@mci-group.com. For details about the structure of Sessions/Workshops and the required format of the proposal, please check the information in the First Circular.

Format of the Symposium

The meeting will be held entirely online, using a dedicated online conference platform. The Symposium will include both live and on-demand events. During each of the four main conference days, we will have three live events: a plenary talk, an organized Special Session and a workshop. We will also have a number of contributed oral talks, posters with an option for lightning talks, and (a new feature) also virtual excursions. These contributions will be pre-recorded and offered on-demand during the main Symposium days and will remain accessible for the following month.

The Symposium will also include traditional activities. We will organize Young Scientists' Awards for excellent oral or poster presentations. During the final day of the Symposium, we will host a General Assembly, which will be live and open to all symposium participants, with announcements of Award winners and plans for future symposia.

Recording of the oral talks and lightning talks (accompanying poster presentation) will be done by the organizing hosts in a week or two before the Symposium. You will be offered an online appointment with the person responsible for the recording, who will also guide you through the whole process. There is nothing to worry about – we hired a professional company, hoping this will guarantee a smooth and pleasant presentation experience.

Contribution formats

We offer the following four types of contributions:

• oral presentation (15 minutes, pre-recorded)

• poster presentation (pdf format) with lightning talk (2 minutes, pre-recorded)

• poster presentation without lightning talk (posters delivered in pdf format)

• virtual excursions (short pre-recorded video introducing vegetation of given region; details of this format will be provided soon)

Each participant can be the presenting author on up to one oral and up to one poster presentation. In addition to these, she/he can be proposing up to one virtual excursion.

Discussions during the Symposium

The possibility to discuss scientific progress or simply to chat with other participants is a crucial part of our meeting. Although we will not be able to meet in person, there will be online mechanisms to interact. During the live events, participants will be able to ask questions by chat, and the meeting host will interpret them to the speaker. In on-demand talks and poster presentations, participants will be able to post their question in the chat, and presenters will be encouraged to stop by at least once each day to answer them. There will also be several additional virtual meetings organized by Working Groups or Regional Sections to allow for interaction. We also suggest that each participant provides contact information (email, Twitter, website), allowing others to contact them for further discussion.

Registration fees

• Student: Defined as an undergraduate or graduate student. Evidence of enrollment must be provided.

• Low-income countries: GDP per capita (PPP) less then $10.000, based on the world factbook. Click here for the list

• Due to low IAVS membership rates, it is always less expensive to first register as IAVS Member, and then register for the Symposium. Click here for more information on the IAVS membership rates.

Financial support (registration grants)

As is our tradition, IAVS has allocated substantial funding to support the participation of IAVS members in financial need through our Global Sponsorship Committee. This support will cover all or a part of the registration fee for eligible students and researchers. For further details, please visit the registration website.

Local Organizing Committee

• Susan Wiser (IAVS President)

• Javier Loidi (Chair of the IAVS Meetings Committee)

• Martin Diekmann (past IAVS President, a current member of the IAVS Awards Committee)

• David Zelený (IAVS Secretary)

Scientific Committee