VLDB 2003 - Newsletter #5: Registration, Internet, Sightseeing and more ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Contents - Online Registration ASAP - Internet access - Events in Berlin - Sightseeing: Museums, history and the new Berlin Dear colleagues, three more weeks to go, and many of you reading this letter will be sitting in the Auditorium Maxmimum of the Humboldt University in Berlin listening to the keynotes of the Opening Ceremony of VLDB 2003! Registration ASAP ----------------- If you are one of the few who are still pondering participation of VLDB, but have not yet decided - now is the time to take quick action and use the last opportunity to register on-line at http://www.vldb.informatik.hu-berlin.de/ - you just have until August 30. It really should be worth to attend VLDB because you will have the unique chance to meet the more than 500 colleagues from 42 countries who registered until now. Of course, if you still want to think it over a while longer, there will be another opportunity to register right at the conference. Just contact the registration desk in the entrance hall of the main building of Humboldt University, where the conference takes place. Internet access --------------- As is customary we provide an Email room, and SUN will offer an internet café. But to go with the times, there will also be access points to the Wireless LAN. There will be no encryption of the wireless traffic during the conference, so everyone with a wireless card can connect immediately. So we give you no good reason to leave your machine at home! In case of any technical trouble please contact the help desk next to the conference office. Events in Berlin before / after the conference ----------------------------------------------- Some of you may arrive already on the weekend before the VLDB 2003 conference. Congratulations because you have two unique opportunities if you are interested in classical music! On Sept 7th the opera house offers Verdi's La Traviata, conducted by the famous pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, the director of the opera house. Daniel Barenboim is also the conductor and pianist of a concert on Sept 8th in the Philharmonic Hall. It features, among others, Beethoven's piano concerto no. 5. You may purchase tickets for both through http://www.staatsoper-berlin.org/en/fs_c1.htm . Of course there are plenty of other events during the conference week, such as Jazz in the garden, an open air play by Shakespeare, a soccer Match, or the European Volleyball championships (the weekend after the conference). You find a large variety of events on the VLDB 2003 server: http://www.vldb.informatik.hu-berlin.de/travel_sightseeing.html#Events . Sightseeing ----------- Berlin was a city divided between East and West when it hosted VLDB in 1978. It has again become a metropolis over the past 10 years. If you arrive a few days early, there are ample opportunities to sample life in Berlin. Just visit the museum island right behind the Humboldt University, the glass dome on top of the parliament building (the Reichstag) in the middle of the new government district or the shopping areas at Friedrichstraße, Potsdamer Platz, Kurfürstendamm or Tauentzien. A superb piece of modern architecture is the Jewish museum built by Daniel Libeskind who recently won the competition on rebuilding Ground Zero. Look at http://www.vldb.informatik.hu-berlin.de/travel_sightseeing.html#Top when planning your Berlin tour. If you are of the less adventurous kind and prefer professional help, there are lots of professional city tours just waiting for paying customers. You will find flyers at the registration desk and the conference office. See also the tourist information on tours by bus, boat or - yes! - bicycle at http://www.btm.de/english/unterwegs/index.html In all modesty, we recommend that you extend your Berlin visit by one or two more days before or after the conference and take your time to explore the city and its surroundings. See you soon, Peter C. Lockemann, Johann-Christoph Freytag, Heinz Schweppe, Alfons Kemper, Bernhard Mitschang P.S. You can find an online archive of the newsletters at http://www.vldb.informatik.hu-berlin.de/news_newsletter_main.html. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To subscribe or unsubscribe yourself from vldb_members, send a msg to majordomo@db.fmi.uni-passau.de with one of these lines: subscribe vldb_members OR unsubscribe vldb_members ------------------------------------------------------------------------