20 × 6 × 25 × 3 × 3 [President’s Message]

The way we have structured our conferences for as long as I have been an active participant in the IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS) is some variation of the formula of each talk being 20 min long; each session consisting of six presentations, with around 25 (this fluctuates a bit) parallel sessions; and three such blocks per day, with the conferences lasting three days. This translates to 1,350 presentations (not counting plenaries, workshops, and some special presentations) or a total of 18 days and 18 h of effective speaking time. Apart from the mysticism surrounding the number 18, one can (and probably should) ask if this is really the best use of the meeting space, the nontrivial carbon footprint the participants incur when traveling to the meetings, the evolving technological tools out there to help facilitate presentations, and our time.