SC15 Attendee Guide

Important Information for SC15 Attendees

Pack your Bags! Get Ready for SC15 and Austin!

We look forward to seeing you in Austin in a few weeks for SC15. To help make your conference experience that much more enjoyable, below are a few reminders and tips to help you prepare for your arrival.

Preparing for SC15
SC15 Mobile App Now Available!
Safety Notes
Registration Information
How SC Is Organized
Social Events
SC15 Conference Program & Exhibit Directory
Information Booths
Wireless Access
Get Connected With SC15 Social Media
SC15 Shuttle Service
Conference Store
Conference Services/Facilities
 

Preparing for SC15

SC15 will be a rich and exciting experience for both new and old attendees. To start planning your agenda, begin at the SC15 website. Here you will find descriptions of the activities and a detailed Technical Program Schedule that can be used to build your own personalized agenda.

When viewing the online Technical Program Schedule, once you select an event and want to add it to your personal schedule, just click on one of the calendar icons (Outlook, iCal or Google calendar) and that event will be stored there.

Get the SC15 Mobile App Now Available!

The SC15 App, developed by DoubleDutch, is now available. You can download it from the Apple and Android app stores by searching for SC15. An HTML5 version is available here: http://ddut.ch/sc15

The SC15 app will include the standard components from years past, but with new features for improved attendee experience. Features in the new app include:

• Searchable event schedule for easy-to-find sessions and events
• Attendee personalization, scheduling and notes within the app
• SC15 updates to keep attendees informed and involved
• Exhibitor directory with map
• Ability for attendees to easily share their SC experience through Live Activity Feed and Social Media
• QR Code reader to quickly find SC15 information
• In-app access to session surveys for sessions you’ve bookmarked in your schedule
• Integration with ACM Digital Library so that finding session speaker papers and abstracts during the conference is a cinch

You will need to log in to the app and establish an account with your email address and a self-selected password.  This account will allow you to access your calendar, notes, and other in-app data to sync across multiple devices.

Safety Notes

We value the safety of all SC attendees and want you to focus on enjoying your stay and experience at the conference. To assist you, here are a few common conference reminders and safety pointers to help make sure you have a safe and productive trip.

• Please make sure to use the buddy system, multiple persons are better--don’t ever walk alone at night.
• Make sure you have a phone on you in case of emergencies and you have at least one other attendee’s contact information.
• Please DO NOT WEAR YOUR CONFERENCE BADGE outside of the convention center. This is often a targeting mechanism for scammers and criminals.
• Ask your hotel staff if certain areas are safe/not safe before going out.
• Don’t leave your belongings unattended.
• If you are driving, take a second to double check that your car doors are locked.
• Stay on well lit or major streets at night.

Registration

Upon arrival at the Austin Convention Center, please proceed to the registration in the Atrium to register and pick up your badge, which you need to wear at all times. We strongly encourage Workshop and Tutorials participants to register the day before the event to avoid long registration lines, or you can register online.   The registration desk will be open as follows:

Saturday - Nov 14: 1:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Sunday - Nov 15: 7:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Monday - Nov 16: 7:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Tuesday - Nov 17: 7:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday - Nov 18: 7:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Thursday - Nov 19: 7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Friday - Nov 20: 8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Please note: anyone attending the HPC Matters Plenary will need to have a badge, but there is no fee to get one.

How SC is Organized

SCinet operates a commodity network for attendees and an experimental network that showcases the latest, most sophisticated technology currently available, has more bandwidth into the Conference than any other facility in the world, and more capacity than many cities and countries. SCinet supports the high-speed network connections linking the Convention Center to outside networks and provides wired and wireless connections for SC attendees and exhibitors.

Social Events

There are four major social events scheduled by the SC15 Conference, however vendors are also known to hold additional events.

The Exhibitor Reception, Sunday November 15, from 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. CT, will be held for registered exhibitors at Austin City Limits at the Moody Theater. The party will feature a popular local band, The Spazmatics, access to all the memorabilia from 40 years of recording the Austin City Limits program at the theater, and a showcase of local food and drinks throughout the facility. Transportation will be provided from the bus loading area of the convention center starting at 5:45 p.m. An Exhibitor badge and government-issued photo ID are required to attend this event.

The Opening Gala, Monday, November 16, from 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. CT will be held in Exhibit Halls A-E and Ballrooms ABC.  This will be your first opportunity to see the latest high performance computing, networking, storage, analysis, and research products, services, and innovations. This event is open to all Technical Program, Exhibitors and Students@SC registrants.

The Poster Exhibit Reception, Tuesday, November 17, from 5:15 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. CT, will be held in the Lobby of Level 4 with complimentary refreshments and appetizers. With the opening of the posters, this will be a key time to interact with poster authors and socialize other topics.

The Technical Program Reception, Thursday, November 19, from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. CT, is a conference reception for all Technical Program attendees and will be held at the Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium at UT Austin. Enjoy a warm welcome from the UT Spirit Team and Bevo, the school Mascot, a tour of the facility, delicious food and drink, music and much more. A Tech Program badge, event ticket, and government-issued photo ID are required to attend this event. Attendees are required to wear technical program badges throughout the reception, and badges may be checked during the event. Shuttle transportation to and from the event will run starting at 5:30 p.m. from the convention center.

SC15 Conference Program & Exhibit Directory

When you pick up your registration badge at the Austin Convention Center, you will receive two printed publications to help navigate through the Conference. The Conference Program-at-a-Glance (provided to Technical Program attendees and available for download for all registrants) provides the schedule of all sessions and activities for the week. The Exhibit Directory provides a list of all exhibitors, and the sessions offered through the Exhibitor Forum. Information is also available on the SC15 program schedule page.
 

Information Booths

There are two SC Information Booths this year to help answer any questions you may have about SC15. The main booth will be located in the Austin Convention Center North Lobby across the street from the Hilton; the secondary booth will be located in the West Lobby, near the bus drop-off.  The information booths are open as follows:

Wireless Access

SCinet provides free wireless network access throughout the Austin Convention Center for all sessions (including the Exhibit Hall), and the Hilton Hotel. The network can be accessed via SSIDs “SC15,” “eduroam,” or "SC15-Hilton." The “SC15” and “SC15-Hilton” SSIDs are the general, unencrypted wireless access SSIDs that the majority of attendees and exhibitors will connect to the Internet. The “eduroam” SSID is an encrypted wireless connection that is authenticated with a pre-configured users’ credentials from their participating home institution.

SC15’s SCinet team has deployed the eduroam service (education roaming) to allow eduroam-enabled users to connect to the wireless network. Eduroam is a secure, worldwide roaming access service developed for the international research and education community. Every institution (i.e., university or equivalent) that participates in eduroam connects its institution's identity authentication and authorization server (called RADIUS) to a national, top-level RADIUS server of the country where the institution is located to validate the user’s identity credentials.

If you do not have an account previously setup before coming to SC15 by your institution (or your institution does NOT participate in eduroam), you will NOT be able to join the eduroam server at the SC conference.  For more information, visit: https://www.eduroam.org/

Get Connected with SC15 Social Media

SC is on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and Duckling! Connect with colleagues, discuss the technical program, get the latest news from exhibitors, post videos and images about your experience and share tips about Austin attractions!

• Follow @supercomputing and use #SC15, #hpctransforms, #hpcmatters and #SCinet on Twitter.
• “Like” the SC Conference on Facebook.
• Connect on Google+ and LinkedIn via the “SC Conference” groups.
• Want to gather with other attendees to experience Austin? Connect with like-minded attendees by going to the Duckling site and add an outing – and use our Duckling banner as a meet-up spot.

We want to hear from you!

SC15 Shuttle Service

A shuttle service will be provided to and from hotels that are not near the Convention Center. There will be four bus loops providing transportation from the farther hotels to the Convention Center. Operational hours will be as follows:

Saturday-Nov 14: 12:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Sunday-Nov 15: 7:00 a.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Monday-Nov 16: 7:00 a.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Tuesday–Nov 17: 7:00 a.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday–Nov 18: 7:00 a.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Thursday–Nov 19: 7:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Friday–Nov 20: 7:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Please see the SC15 busing page for more information about routes, times, and stops.

Conference Store

One of the busiest places at the SC conference is the Conference Store, where you can pick up shirts, hats and other souvenirs.
The Conference Store is located in the Atrium.

Conference Store hours:

Saturday - Nov 14: 1:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Sunday - Nov 15: 7:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Monday - Nov 16: 7:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Tuesday - Nov 17: 7:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday - Nov 18: 7:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Thursday - Nov 19: 7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Friday - Nov 20: 8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
 

Convention Services/Facilities

Austin Convention Center has a number of guest services available for attendees, including a business center that can assist you with light shipping.  The business center is open on November 15-19 from 7:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., and November 20 from 7:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.  and can be reached via phone at 512-404-4439.

Coat and Bag Check will be located outside of Exhibit Hall 4.

The hours are:
Saturday-Nov 14: 7:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Sunday-Nov 15: 7:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Monday-Nov 16: 7:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Tuesday-Nov 17: 7:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Wednesday-Nov 18: 7:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Thursday-Nov 19: 7:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Friday-Nov 20: 7:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.