VLDB 2003 - Newsletter #6: Arrival in Berlin, On-site Registration and more ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents - Arrival in Berlin - Conference office - On-site Registration - Speakers Breakfast - Proceedings - Telephone - Weather - Daily newsletter Dear VLDB participants, we, the organizers, are eager to meet you in person, a good week from now. And if you did not register so far, remember you just have a few days to register online, but another opportunity in Berlin to register on-site. Arrival in Berlin ----------------- Since we offer a large number of hotels all across the city it simply is too cumbersome to provide you with all the details about how to get to each and every hotel from your point of arrival in Berlin. But at least we give you a few useful though general hints. There are three airports. Berlin Tegel (aviation code TXL) is the busiest with arrivals from Western Europe and America. Berlin Schoenefeld (SXF), the former East Berlin airport, is mostly served by Eastern European airlines. Small airplanes (propeller and turboprop) arrive at Berlin Tempelhof (THF). The easiest way to downtown is the JetExpressBus TXL from Tegel or the SXF-Airport-Shuttle from Schönefeld. Taxis are rather expensive, 15 - 20 Euro from the Tegel airport to Berlin-Mitte (downtown). Once you are downtown, or if you arrive at one of the three major railway stations, Zoologischer Garten, Lichtenberg and Ostbahnhof, the dense network of public transportation is your best bet. For details on all matters of public transportation see http://www.bvg.de/e_index.html . You can plan your individual route using the online route planner http://www.fahrinfo-berlin.de/bin/query.exe/e?L= . Paying the fare is actually rather simple. You can buy a ticket from a counter, a vending machine or from the bus conductor. The price is 2,20 Euro from the airport. All tickets are valid for a maximum of two hours, no matter which route you travel, what the means of transportation (bus, U-Bahn, S-Bahn), and how often you change from one line to another. Don't try to economize for the rest of the week, because after you checked in at the VLDB registration desk, you can ask for a ticket good from Monday, Sept. 8th until Saturday, September 13th. For those of you arriving one or more days earlier, day tickets are a good choice. Conference office ----------------- The conference office is located on the first floor in the Senatssaal (see http://www.vldb.informatik.hu-berlin.de/overview_hu_level1.htm ). Office and registration desk already open on Monday, September 8th, 9 a.m. . Fees may be paid cash or charged to your credit card. The conference office can be reached during the conference as follows: Phone: +49-30-2093 2126 Fax: +49-30-2093 2375 Email: vldb2003@bwo-berlin.de On-site Registration -------------------- As mentioned before, on-site registration at the conference is possible. Ask at the registration desk or proceed directly to the conference office. Day tickets are also available as an attractive alternative for those unable to attend all the time. Speaker's Breakfast ------------------- We encourage the session chairs and the speakers of all research and industrial sessions to meet at the "speaker's breakfast" on the day of their session (including the first day, Tuesday) . A gratuitous breakfast buffet is being prepared in the "Cum laude" restaurant on the ground floor in the west wing of the lecture building (8 a.m. - 8.55 a.m.). Session chairs and speakers should discuss all issues of their sessions on this occasion. Proceedings ----------- The proceedings, published by Morgan Kaufmann, contain about one thousand pages. So be sure to leave some space in your luggage. Each participant (except day ticket holders) will receive a copy together with a CD-ROM. Telephone --------- You can buy pre-paid telephone cards at any post office and at most news stands. They work for national and international numbers. Public phones are (almost) all provided by Deutsche Telekom. Just slide in the card and dial your number. No provider-numbers or PINs to dial! For cell phones, Europe (and more or less the rest of the world) uses GSM 900 or 1800. Visitors from the US will need tri-band cell phones. Check the Website of your provider for roaming charges. By the way, cell phones are called "handies" in Germany and Germans tend to use this term when speaking English. Weather ------- The summer in Berlin was dry and hot this year. According to the weather forecast it can be chilly in the next few days. So be prepared. We suggest to have a look at http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/10384.html before leaving for Berlin. Daily Newsletter ---------------- This is the last pre-conference newsletter. We plan a daily newsletter during the conference. In addition to the electronic version paper copies will be made available. If you intend to publish something that seems relevant to all conference participants, please send a note to vldb2003@inf.fu-berlin.de. Best wishes and bon voyage, 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------