Home

ERSA 2009 Lodz Congress Survey follow up

Dear Delegates,

We received a high level of responses to the Evaluation Survey that was sent out following the ERSA 2009 Lodz Congress. Thank you for your participation and precious feedback!

Now, it is our turn to keep you informed. Below you will find a summary of what came out from the survey and the improvements we wish to make for future congresses.

Yours Sincerely,

Marie Hervo
ERSA Office

Answers to the main comments from delegates

In general, the delegates were satisfied with the Lodz congress and a high majority have confirmed that they want to participate in next year’s ERSA congress to be held in Jonkoping, Sweden.

Nevertheless, we wish to point out the items that were most often mentioned in the delegates’ comments regarding the ways to improve ERSA congresses:

* quality of food: we are doing our utmost to improve the food at each ERSA congress and to ensure a standardised label of quality without mentioning the importance of each region’s culinary heritage.

* high fee levels: we have some good news! The Local Organising Committee for the ERSA 2010 Congress has decided to introduce a Lower Fee policy. More details....

* sustainability: the 2010 Local Organising Committee will be taking this into account in order to avoid exagerated waste.

* quality of papers/presentations: we are aware of the varying levels of quality, that is why we have refereed and non-refereed sessions to give many researchers the opportunity to present their research and to get feedbacks on their results as well as to give them the chance to meet and interact with leading scientists in the field. We believe that this is a good practice in order to increase over time the quality of regional science research in Europe.

* reduce no shows: for the ERSA 2009 Congress, quite a large number of no shows were avoided by asking delegates to register & make their payment for a certain date in order to have their abstract/paper included on the USB stick. Of course, it is our aim to keep these numbers as low as possible.

* scientific programme: next year, the scientific programme will be posted at an earlier date to facilitate delegates’ travel arrangements.

In the answers we received, other interesting topics or suggestions were raised. Naturally, we won’t be able to give an exhaustive list here, but do mention the following: a more central location for the venue, comments to the papers submitted before presentation, organize more invited sessions,

For further information on the ERSA 2010 Congress.

17 December 2009