Call for Expression of Interest - ICEDEG Venue

Background 

Due to the pandemic Covid-19, we canceled our scheduled conference: "ICEDEG 2020 - Seventh International Conference on eDemocracy & eGovernment - April 2021 (online)."

Instead, we are adapting to a new way of conducting our annual conference until this health threat is eliminated globally. This is based on the concept of blended conferencing. 

We intend to hold our 2022 international conference with a combination of physical and virtual modes. We believe that the topics and issues we are calling for this conference are critical and have to be selected in such a way as to provide expert and scientific answers to the issues about these important factors:

1. Technology platforms of Information about what is happening regarding the health of the global developing situation due to the appearance of the COVID-19 pandemic.
2. Methods and strategies of e-democratic sharing of such information, identifying resources and practices that could have helped decision-makers from simple clinics to governmental bodies 
3. Global governance recommended strategies suggested by lessons learned for future human risk mitigation (not limited to health only).

The Organizing Committee will issue detailed suggested themes; however, we welcome suggestions on particular themes that belong or contribute one way or another to understanding any of these factors.

ICEDEG Organization 

The Organizing Committee (OC) of the annual professional conference on electronic democracy and the electronic government is intending to organize the 2021 conference as follows:

1. Plenary Virtual Sessions 

• Opening: A virtual plenary session is open to all participants from any country.
• Interim: A virtual plenary session is open to all participants from any country.
• Closing: A virtual plenary session is open to all participants from any country.

2. Conference-specialized blended sessions 

• This is a set of up to ten sessions.
• Each session is dedicated to a theme and subthemes
• Each session's organizers will be called BSO (Blended Session Organizer). 
• A BSO is a small group in a country that would organize a physical session of a limited number of attendants (according to the regulations and practicality of each organizer) where experts and researchers lead this session, and opening up the session virtually to anyone who registers for attendance online. 
• The BSO will provide a summary report of the session in time after the conference. 
• Accepted papers will be processed by the ICEDEG organizing committee as planned, regardless of whether the presenter is attending the session in person or online.

Call for Expression of Interest 

ICEDEG is inviting interested academicians, professional groups, and societies who may be interested in becoming a BSO to organize a session of ten sessions. The BSO is expected to assume the following tasks:

• The selection of a limited audience is according to the organizers' discretion. 
• The selection of the panel to invite for presentation. This will be done in coordination with the ICEDEG program committee.
• The ICEDEG will provide the technical platform for online meetings.
• The organizers can organize a side offline discussion of the session if they wish.
• A report after a week from the conference session, about details of the session, as well as all papers and comments, photos, or videos were taken. It also provides a summary of the results and recommendations, if any.
• The ICEDEG committee will provide the cost of the session expenses such as any hospitality, media and photos and video recording, brochures and announcements, hard copy printing, etc. This is decided mutually between the ICEDEG organizing committee, and each accepted BSO committee before the session based on the financial suggestions of each BSO.

Expressions of interest should provide brief information as follows:

1. A one-page summary of the session theme or focus the organizers wish to focus on.
2. A brief description of the interested BSO, such as the name, scope, and contact person of the organization or group interested in organizing a session.
3. The interested party would like to share any other information with the organizing committee.

We welcome any inquiry about the idea of the session and its organization. Please get in touch with the Communications Chair at Saleem.gz@gmail.com.

The Expression of Interest should be addressed to:

Dr. Saleem Zoughbi, Communication Chair,
Email: saleem.zoughbi@edem-egov.org | Saleem.gz@gmail.com

PD Dr. Luis Terán, Founder and Program Chair – ICEDEG

Email: luis.teran@unifr.ch