Annual Meeting Welcome to San Francisco - The City by the Bay By Anthony D. Andre, Host Committee Chair, & James P. Beno, Host Committee Vice-Chair

     The 2010 Annual Meeting Host Committee welcomes you back to San Francisco and the Northern California Bay Area. This year's venue is the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, located in the Embarcadero Center. San Francisco is such a geographically compact city that the hotel is but a short cable car ride or moderate walk to almost any of the city's amazing sites and attractions, such as Chinatown, Pier 39, Lombard Street, Union Square, Fisherman's Wharf, and more!

Technical Sessions
     The Technical Program Committee, headed by Cheryl A. Bolstad, has put together a fantastic schedule of technical sessions, panels, symposia, and poster presentations. The technical content is influenced by the Society's 23 technical groups and thus represents a broad variety of topics.

Given that our meeting is taking place in the backyard of Silicon Valley, one of the world's leading high-tech centers, we have arranged a special set of sessions for "Usability and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Day" on Wednesday, September 29. Three unique sessions are devoted to various HCI topics, in addition to a reception hosted by the Computer Systems and Internet Technical Groups. Another unique session at this year's conference will feature several HFES pioneers who were involved in the development of the original NIOSH lifting equation. Finally, the annual President's Forum, hosted by Past President Paul A. Green, will feature two prominent speakers, who will provide overviews of developments and trends in medical human factors/ergonomics and human performance modeling.      This is but a sample of the many unique session formats and topics that this year's Annual Meeting comprises.

Tours
     We have arranged for tours of several top industries and research institutions in the Bay Area:

• Autodesk Gallery - San Francisco. Visit the Autodesk Gallery, which celebrates the design process of taking a great idea and turning it into reality. With more than 20 exhibits showcasing the innovative work of Autodesk customers, the gallery illustrates the role that technology plays in great design and engineering. The visit will include a guided tour of the exhibits, many of them interactive, as well a tour of the San Francisco Autodesk user research lab.

• Walt Disney Family Museum - San Francisco. The visually exciting design of the Walt Disney Family Museum illuminates Disney's groundbreaking technological innovations. He revolutionized animation by enhancing story, character development, and color and by using dimensionality and original music to improve his storytelling. Visitors move chronologically through the exhibits, which include artifacts, listening stations, interactive displays, and more.

• Google, Inc. - Mountain View. This tour will showcase some of the facilities and culture that make Google unique, from the high-density work clusters to the massage rooms, replica spaceship, mass transportation system, and one of Google's 21 usability labs. The tour will be followed by short presentations and new product demos from the User Experience Research team. After the walking tour, enjoy lively discussions and an included all-you-can-eat lunch at Google's flagship café.

• NASA Ames Research Center - Mountain View. Internationally known for its expertise in crew resource management, vision, fatigue countermeasures, human performance modeling, virtual environments, human-computer interaction, display design, and automation, Ames Research Center is the largest human factors research lab within NASA. In addition to the research labs in the Human Systems Integration Division, the tour is expected to include a visit to the FutureFlight Central air traffic control tower simulator, flight simulators in the Crew-Vehicle Systems Research Facility, the Vertical Motion Simulator, and the 20-G Centrifuge.

• IDEO Product Development - Palo Alto. IDEO's multidisciplinary teams include specialists in human factors research, business strategy, communications design, industrial design, interaction design, environments design, and engineering. The tour will include a visit to the design labs, a description of IDEO's processes, and a conversation about innovation methods and practices.

These tours offer a variety of experiences, including glimpses of some of the most modern labs in the HF/E and HCI fields. The tours will also provide opportunities to exchange views and network with HF/E professionals at these organizations.

Student Community
     Once again we welcome all students to the Student Lounge. The lounge, a concept originally implemented at the 2006 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, is designed to help students network and socialize throughout the event. The lounge will be furnished with comfortable couches, coffee tables, and bulletin boards and there will be music and light refreshments. Students are welcome to stop by to relax, meet other students, and discuss research activities. The bulletin boards can be used to post information such as social outings and carpooling arrangements. The lounge will also host a number of planned discussions, provide a forum for students to present their research ideas, and showcase HFES student chapter information.

     Other regular events for students are Student Career and Professional Development Day, which takes place on Monday, September 27, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and the Student Reception on Tuesday, September 28, at 5:00 p.m. In addition, the technical program includes five Student Forum sessions featuring student work.

Experience San Francisco and the Bay Area
     Tourist information is available at the Hyatt Regency, throughout the city, and on the Web. A good place to begin is the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau Web site. Other good online sources include SanFrancisco.com and San Francisco Guide.

     San Francisco is not the only part of the Bay Area that's worth your time to visit. To the immediate north, via a memorable drive over the Golden Gate Bridge, is the beautiful and serene wine country, which includes the Sonoma and Napa Valley wine regions. To the south is Silicon Valley, home of many well-known high-tech companies, and San Jose, the country's tenth-largest city. To the west is the Pacific Ocean and the many famous beach towns that adorn it, such as Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz, and Monterey/Carmel Valley. And to the east you'll find Oakland, Sacramento (our state's capital), and the stunning natural grandeur of the Lake Tahoe Area. Consider extending your stay beyond the Annual Meeting and making a vacation out of your trip. Special rates at the Hyatt Regency are available from September 24 through October 2.

Staying Connected
     Annual Meeting news and events will be presented each day in the daily newsletter, The Cable Car Post. Consider this your daily guide to interesting activities and people at the meeting. In addition, you can read late-breaking news and share your experiences through Twitter and Facebook. Follow the meeting on Twitter by searching for "hfes2010," and feel free to tweet using the hashtag "#hfes2010." By following the "#hfes2010" tag on your mobile Twitter client, you can have a real-time dialogue with other attendees and organizers. A Facebook page has also been created - "HFES 2010" - and is linked to the Twitter account. Become a fan of HFES 2010 to stay informed, ask questions, or share your photos and videos from the event.

Join Us!
     The real value of attending the HFES Annual Meeting is the unique face-to-face social interaction you will enjoy with your HFES friends, colleagues, and peers. In this era of Web conferences, distance learning, virtual social networking, and avatars, there is simply no replacement for the kind of interpersonal interaction that takes place when we are all gathered together. The HF/E discipline puts great emphasis on the uniquely human aspects of our interaction with the artifacts we use, but perhaps equally important is our interaction with one another (at least once a year!).

     We look forward to seeing you at the HFES 54th Annual Meeting and hope your stay is enjoyable, memorable, and educational.

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