General Information

This page provides general information about the conference. See also the full conference booklet.

Venue

The 2011 regional conference nicknamed "Biometrics by the Blowholes" will be held at the Sebel Harbourside Hotel in Kiama, New South Wales, from Sunday to Thursday 4-8th of December 2011. Special accommodation rates for members and other recommended accommodation places can be found under the Accommodation link on the sidebar. All registrants need to organise their own accommodation directly with the hotel/motel. See GoogleMap of Sebel.

Pre-conference workshops

Two pre-conference workshops have been organised. The first is on Friday December 2, 2011 in Sydney (Port Jackson Room, Citigate Central Sydney Hotel). The second is on Saturday December 3, 2011 in Wollongong (Innovation Campus, University of Wollongong). Full details are in workshop1 and workshop2 files respectively.

Transport to Kiama

Kiama is about 120 kilometres south of Sydney on the coast. The city of Wollongong is about 40 kilometres north of Kiama. The best way for visitors from outside the Kiama region or NSW/ACT to travel to Kiama is to use the electric train from Sydney. There is a train link from Sydney airport to Sydney Central Station and then a train to Kiama. The train station is walking distance to the Sebel Harbourside Hotel and other nearby accommodation places. Full details, estimated costs and timetables are available in train document. UPDATE: If you are planning to take the train on the weekend of December 3-4, we understand from the NSW train website http://www.cityrail.info/ that the train to Kiama will stop at Wollongong and then you will be transferred to a bus and taken to Kiama Train Station.

There is a special conference bus to Kiama on Sunday 4 December which departs Sydney domestic airport at 2pm. The meeting point is at Terminal 2 bus bay (Kiama Scenic Tours Bus Company). A representative from IBS will be outside waiting with an IBS placard. If you have not already selected this coach in your registration or have not arranged other transport and would like to take the coach to Kiama, please try to email the treasurer@biometrics.org.au, or failing that, just turn up! You can make payment (credit card, cash or cheque) when you arrive at Kiama.

International visitors

All international visitors need to make sure they have the appropriate passport/visa requirements to enter Australia. It is your responsibility. Please check with your travel agents when booking your airline tickets to Australia.

Telephone Area and Country Code Australia uses 8-digit local phone numbers preceded by a 2-digit STD area code. The Australian country code is 61. When calling from outside Australia, leave out the leading "0" from the STD area code or from the mobile telephone number. For example, if you are calling Kiama from outside Australia, first dial your country's international access prefix number, then dial 61, then dial 2, then dial the local phone number. To call out internationally from within Australia the prefix is 0011.

Social programme

The LOC has organised a selected number of tours for you to choose from and enjoy the afternoon of Tuesday December 6, 2011. See the social programme for more information. There are many other attractions which you can explore by looking at the Kiama Visitors Centre website.

NOTE: EMERGENCY MOBILE numbers have been emailed to all conference/workshop delegates. As the conference approaches any emails sent to the committee may not be answered in time. So you will need to try our emergency mobile numbers or leave a note at the Sebel Harbourside Hotel reception after Friday 2nd December

Last updated 2 December 2011