›The Early Phase of Star Formation EPoS 2016

EPoS Concept
Research about the early phase of star formation from the formation of a molecular cloud to the formation of a pre-stellar object shows two distinct features:

There is no accepted paradigm.
The many open questions require an intense discussion.
The star formation process seems to be an interplay of many competing physical processes.
This requires to discuss a number of relevant processes to understand the nature of early star formation.

While intense discussions call for a workshop atmosphere with a group of a few ten scientists, the many topics are better covered in a large conference with dedicated sessions.
The EPoS work-convent style combines the two needs:
A small conference room is filled to its maximal capacity with 70 scientists.
The number 70 is a compromise between variety in fields and still enabling discussions.
The small room supports the workshop atmosphere bringing the speakers close to their audience.
The talk time in contributed talks and reviews is reduced to enable more discussions.
Each oral contribution is followed by 10 minutes of discussion, each session by a larger discussion block.
Rather than smooth "Our instrument/code/model works perfectly" talks, highlighting the open questions, the obstacles, and potential solution methods is the main presentation mode.
From Monday morning to Friday noon, about 9 half-day sessions are available to touch all relevant aspects.
To compensate for this intense schedule, the meeting takes place at a decent location to relax during the breaks and the evening.
As important as the discussions in the meeting are discussions in smaller groups or between two scientists.
Focus groups discuss specific topics in a smaller circle.
The participants stay together for the entire meeting and share the social events in the evening.
EPoS 2016 Timeline

Time: Event/Action/Deadline
18 May 2015 SAC established
19 May 2015 Requesting list of topics and review speakers from SAC
21 Sep 2015 SAC vote on topics and review speakers started
22 Sep 2015 1st Announcement
15 Oct 2015 Contacting suggested review speakers
15 Nov 2015 Start of registration 2nd Announcement
15 Jan 2016 3rd Announcement
31 Jan 2016 End of registration
01 Feb 2016 Collecting votes on participation and oral presentations
15 Feb 2016 Announcing participant list and oral presentation list
01 April 2016 Deadline for applying for a focus group
20 April 2016 Deadline for applying for a short contribution in a focus group
26 Jun 2016 Start of EPoS 2016