The policy of identifying conference venues for the two following years was agreed upon in the interests of efficient planning.
The situation for the next two years based on candidates proposals to date (some of which date from last year) were considered as follows:
1. The IMP-conference in 2006 will be held at Bocconi (Francesca Golfetto) in co-operation with Lyon (Robert Salle).
2. The IMP-conference in 2007 will be decided at the IMP-conference in Rotterdam in 2005. Two candidates that already now have indicated interest are Jönköping (Helén Anderson) and Budapest (Tibor Mandjak)
3. Invitation to Debbie Harrison, Catherine Pardo and Alexandra Waluszewski to become members of the committee when it next meets (scheduled for the 2005 conference)
4. Important aspects to consider when deciding on new conference locations.
Aside from the obvious consideration of the quality of organization of the conference, one important aspect is the cost of the conference for participants. The conference fee should be reduced as far as possible and low cost accommodation should be available. Another aspect regards the need to support diffusion of IMP ideas and research to areas/regions where there are few researchers aware of them at present.
5. As has already been informally the case for several conferences now, future IMP Conference organizers will be expected to contribute 5000 Euros to the Foundation presently hosted by BI. The main purpose of this contribution is to fund the running and development of the IMP webpage in the interests of the research community at large.