Text: General Chairs and Publicity Chairs of RecSys2021
Dear RecSys people,
The preparations for RecSys 2021 are going well and we cannot wait to get started. You can find all accepted contributions on our website, including 49 research papers, 3 reproducibility papers, 10 demos, 24 Late Breaking Results, 8 doctoral symposium papers, 12 industry talks and 11 industry posters. Our keynotes will be revealed soon! We are also happy to host 18 workshops that will be held virtually before and after the conference and some physically (with online attendance possible) at the venue during the conference.
Update: The RecSys Program is now final and available in the RecSys 2021 Site.
COVID-19
The COVID-19 situation in the Netherlands is improving. The country has already reached a high vaccination rate: 85% of people aged 18 or older have received at least one jab, while about two-thirds are fully vaccinated. In July, we had a relatively brief peak of infections among younger adults, many of whom were still waiting for their vaccines, which was addressed by closing the nightclubs again. The current infection rates are declining and we have high hopes that they will continue to do so, due to the successful vaccination campaign. The current numbers can be inspected on the official government website.
To accomodate for social distancing measures, we are happy to have a large, well-ventilated venue. The conference will adhere to the Dutch covid measures that are legally in place at the time of the conference. Naturally, we are closely monitoring the situation and will offer updates about possible measures that will apply at the conference. We hope that many of you will be able to attend the conference physically / in-person, for whom we will offer an exciting program in a great venue with excellent food in the beautiful city centre of Amsterdam.
Accomodation
We have also secured a (limited) block of hotel rooms in several hotels close to the venue, at a strongly discounted conference rate. These hotel rooms can be booked here and we advise you to book as soon as possible.
Registration update
We realize that the decision to attend RecSys physically is hard to make given the current situation and travel restrictions that might apply for the Netherlands. We have therefore decided to extend our early-bird registration deadline until September 1. However, if you plan to attend physically, we encourage you to register as soon as possible to secure your physical spot and for us to start planning the physical part in relation to the venue’s capacity. If you need more information about entering the Netherlands, please check the official government website.
Please note that paper authors are still required to register by August 15, the original deadline.
Remember that the registration Terms and Conditions (T&Cs) allow you to change the registration type at a very low cost (10€ or 20€ depending on the registration type) before 1 September. After 1 September, changes are possible if the general COVID-19 rules and regulations at your date of departure prevent you from traveling. This also includes the case that you yourself would be exposed and would not be able to travel because you need to self-isolate. (We really hope no one will face this issue, but we mention it for completeness.)
For the virtual part, we will provide an excellent virtual experience in our dedicated virtual Hub, which is currently under development. The kickoff of the conference will be fully virtual, which will allow everyone to interact online. This way, we hope to offer you the best virtual experience possible. For the virtual registration we also ask you to register ASAP, as we need to plan the capacity to run the virtual part as well.
Best regards from the General Chairs,
Martha, Humberto and Martijn
