International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

The IPY Oslo Science Conference, 8–12 June, 2010
Olav Orheim
The initial process
Following the JC-3 meeting in April 2006, the
Joint Committee for IPY issued a call in August 2006,
asking for proposals to host a global conference that
would present the science results from IPY 2007–2008
(Chapter 1.5). Norway had already a Secretariat for IPY
established at the Research Council of Norway (RCN)
led by Olav Orheim, which quickly took the initiative
to develop such a proposal. The elements of the plan
to hold the main IPY Science Conference in Oslo were
pieced together and presented to the JC at the JC-4
meeting on 27-28 September 2006 in Longyearbyen,
Svalbard. In its proposal the RCN took as a given
premise that the Conference might be attended by at
least 3000 participants, and that it should take place
in the summer of 2010. The venue location would be
the Norway Trade Fair Centre at Lillestrøm, outside
Oslo (Fig.5.6-2). This proposal was enthusiastically
approved by the JC.
In September 2007, Olav Orheim met with Michel
Béland (Co-Chair of JC) and prepared a detailed
outline for the organization of the conference. It was
discussed at the JC-6 meeting the following month
in Québec. Planning for the conference started in full
in January 2008, following the approval by the JC of
overarching plans and organising structure for the
conference.
An international Steering Committee (SC) was
established with representatives from relevant
organisations. It was led by Orheim, and had its
first meeting on 16 May 2008, and its sixteenth
and final meeting on 11 June 2010. SC established
the programme, appointed scientific committees,
selected plenary speakers, and considered all other
matters related to the content of the conference. RCN
had the economic and organisational responsibility,
but SC was updated on and discussed major decisions
related to RCN’s responsibility, such as inspection of
localities, determination of registration fees, etc
The committee had the following composition:
• Susan Barr, Oslo, nominated by Norwegian National
Committee for Polar Research
• David Carlson, Cambridge, head of IPO
• Paul Cutler, Paris, JC Member nominated by ICSU
• Øystein Hov, Oslo, nominated by Norwegian IPY
Committee
• Kriss Rokkan Iversen, Tromsø, nominated by APECS
• Jerónimo López-Martínez, Madrid, JC Member
• Olav Orheim, Oslo, representing RCN
• Margarete Pauls, Bremerhaven, representing IPY
EOC subcommittee
• Volker Rachold, Potsdam, JC Member, nominated
by IASC
• Eduard Sarukhanian, Geneva, JC Member, nominated
by WMO
• Colin Summerhayes, Cambridge, JC Member, nominated
by SCAR
The SC had unchanged composition through the
period, with the exception of APECS’ representative,
who was later replaced by Hugues Lantuit, Potsdam.
APECS Executive Director Jenny Baeseman attended
regularly as an observer. It turned out to be difficult
to obtain a nomination of a representative from
Arctic indigenous communities, as no single person
could represent all these. It was resolved that IPS (Indigenous
Peoples’ Secretariat) in Copenhagen sent an
observer, from SC fifth meeting onward. At that meeting
Kathleen Fischer, Executive Director, Government
of Canada Program for IPY, also joined the SC, to ensure
the link to the next major IPY-related conference
to be held in Montreal in 2012. The SC had an executive
group which made decisions between meetings
on items requiring a more immediate response; it consisted
of Carlson, Orheim, Rachold and Summerhayes.
In parallel with the international work, RCN established
a project Secretariat, consisting of Olav Orheim
as project leader, Asgeir Knudsen, project coordinator,
and Kristen Ulstein, responsible for communications.
All of these members took part in the SC meetings, as
did others from RCN at times. Congress Conference,
Oslo, was also hired at an early stage as PCO (Professional
Conference Organiser).
Information on the conference was distributed by
electronic means, which included three circulars. Nevertheless,
the main conference website www.ipy-osc.
no was the most important communication channel
both before and during the conference. Up to August
2010, the web page has had 42,000 unique visitors.
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