Invited Sessions at WSC 2021

Proposals due: 7 December 2020 via the Submission System

The 63rd ISI WSC 2021 will be held 11-16 July as a virtual conference. The WSC theme “Statistics and Data Science for a Better World” highlights the developments and contributions of statistics and data science in various domains of application that impact all aspects of life.

The WSC will host talks and presentations on a wide variety of topics, with the overall goal of presenting a balanced programme that provides a sense of the current state and future direction of statistics, data science and their applications. The programme will span sectors of practice including academia, business, industry, government and official statistics along with the breadth of ISI and Associations affiliated with ISI. Topics include, but are not limited to official statistics, survey statistics, environmental statistics, business and industrial applications of statistics, mathematical statistics, probability, statistics and data science education, statistical literacy and statistical computing and data visualization.

The ISI reviewed different models for virtual conferences. It is of course possible to use the standard approach for invited sessions with three 25-minutes talks and a brief time for questions. However, the talks will be recorded and available in advance, since the time zone for a session may not suit all of the speakers.

Organisers may consider a different approach: have pre-recorded talks available in advance of the WSC, then the session during the WSC will consist of brief (5-10 minutes) summaries of the talks, followed by discussion with speakers, session chair and audience. With this approach, the audience should feel more involved in the session. The idea comes from the pedagogic approach of the inverted classroom.

The sessions will last 2.5 hours from 14:00 to 16:30 in different time zones each day in order to make it possible for as many participants as possible to be involved in the WSC:

We leave the format (full length talks or short summaries and discussion) of each session up to the organiser. If an invited session has speakers that are unable to participate at the allotted time zone, it may be possible to repeat the session at a time where other session participants can discuss. This is particularly useful for the “inverted” invited sessions.

The SPC will select IPS to ensure that the WSC programme:

• is interesting, of high quality, with sessions that emphasize innovative ideas, approaches and/or applications to problems of importance;
• reflects a balance of Organisers / Presenters / Discussants from around the world and a diversity of participants with respect to age, gender and statistical interests.

Invited Papers historically have been and will continue to be a key feature of a successful WSC. The SPC is currently reviewing the IPS proposals and expect to have the IPS programme by March.

Please refer to the Guidelines for Session Organisers for more details.