The program

You can find the schedule of all activities in the conference here. Please check your registered attendance for each part of the program and change ‘not sure’ into ‘yes’ or ‘no’ as much as you can. We will confirm your attendance towards our suppliers in the coming weeks.

Welcome reception – Tuesday evening

We will start this conference at the Welcome Reception on Tuesday July 3rd from 17.00h to 21.00h in the Railwaymuseum in Utrecht. You can register there and you will receive the detailed program on paper, some beautiful local goodies and a city map of Utrecht. Good to know: you can enter the museum for free that day, until it closes for visitors at 17.00h.

Conference – Wednesday till Friday

The conference is organized in the Muntgebouw in Utrecht (see attached route by car or by public transportation). The address is Leidseweg 90, 3531BG Utrecht. We will start here at Wednesday July 4th at 8.30h sharp with the opening remarks. You can come in for registration and a cup of coffee or tea between 8.00 and 8.30h. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday the coffee breaks and lunch are provided in the Muntgebouw, so you do not need to bring anything. The gala dinner on Thursday is also included in your conference fee.

Papers & Posters

If your paper is approved for oral presentation, you can start preparing a presentation of 20 minutes. Shortly before the conference you will be notified in which paper session your presentation takes place, via the Whoova app and the schedule online. Also, your session chair will approach you to collect the pdf or ppt of your presentation. You do not need to bring your own laptop; we will provide a laptop in the room. If you submitted an approved poster, the posters chair will reach out to you with instructions.

Cultural program – Wednesday evening

During registration (Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning) you can collect a ticket for a cultural activity on Wednesday evening. You can choose between a tour in the Dom tower, a tour through the Oudaen brewery or a boat trip along the canals in Utrecht.

Gala dinner – Thursday evening

Although the name suggests otherwise, the dress code for the gala dinner is ‘festive’, not ‘gala’. Please consider it as a guideline and not as an obligation. Also, check again if you still agree with your previously registered diet wishes, because we will confirm those wishes towards our suppliers on short notice. The gala dinner is hosted at Thursday July 5th in the Academiegebouw, next to the Dom tower. We start at 18.30h with an aperitif in the garden next to the Academiegebouw, where we will take a group photo shortly after 19.00h. At 19.30h the dinner is being served inside.

Industry visit – Friday afternoon

There are more interested people than available seats for the industry visit to the depot of AirFrance-KLM on Friday afternoon from 13.00h to 17.00h. We suggest you check your registered attendance for this visit and only state ‘yes’ if you are sure that you are willing and able to attend the visit. Please do so before June 25th. We will make the final list of participants then, with the principle ‘first come, first serve’. You will hear from us on June 25th if you can attend the visit. Details that you might need in order to decide:

• We will leave with a take-away lunch in a bus at 13.00h
• We will be back at the Muntgebouw around 17.00h
• The depot is obviously close to Schiphol Airport, so the bus could drop you off at the airport if you’d like, shortly before 17h

Transportation

On the websites above you can find directions for reaching each of the venues. In general we advise you to do everything by foot, public transport or taxi, because the city center is small and not easily accessible by car. All venues are in 20 minutes walking distance from each other, except for the walk from Muntgebouw (conference) to Academiegebouw (gala dinner), which is 30 minutes.

You can reach Utrecht from Schiphol Airport every 15 minutes by train, which will take you 30 minutes. Here you find information on how to buy train tickets in the Netherlands and here is the train schedule. You can by bus tickets inside the busses, or use the OV chip card that you can also use for traveling by train. Note that it can be a bit rainy, so bring an umbrella when you plan to walk.

Do not hesitate to reach out to us in the coming weeks or during the conference in case of practical questions or suggestions:
Logistics Chair: Tryntsje Boersma, tryntsje.boersma@ns.nl, 0031613641476
Local Chair: Margot Peters, margot.peters@ns.nl, 0031630027536