Albrecht Haefner, IASA Secretary-General, writes: "the Muscat conference is approaching - may I encourage all of you to book your participation now, as our Omani hosts are waiting to make the hotel reservations.
Those who have not received registration forms or have encountered difficulties with the registration date of 1st July, please contact me e-mail: haefner swf.
Perhaps your superiors are presupposing that you intend to take a week's holiday week in a nights country: Oman is certainly oriental but our programme is as comprehensive as ever and - what is most important - the costs are very moderate! There is a change to the provisional programme: the session of the Technical Committee on Sunday 5 October, , will, for the sake of better programme balance, be replaced by a session dealing with archiving and preservation of AV culture all around the world.
There will be contributions from three continents - three ways, one goal. If you have any doubts about the proposed way to obtain your visa you are, of course, free to make your own arrangements at the appropriate embassy, but at your own expense. However, if you are choosing the arrangement offered, then you will not be charged for your visa. The original visa will be handed over to you at Muscat Airport, where somebody from the Organising Committee will be waiting to meet conference delegates and to assist them through Customs.
Finally, a request to all speakers: please let me have an abstract in English of about lines of your paper not later than end of August. It will be translated into Arabic and will be published, as is customary at the most international conferences, before the sessions for the audience's benefit. Make your booking - I will be glad to welcome you in Muscat and am looking forward to meeting you at a most interesting conference".
