The IEEE Photonics Italy Chapter has been awarded with the “IEEE Photonics Society Chapter of the Year 2014.”

In the photo the past Chair Tiziana Tambosso is receiving the award by the President of the IEEE Photonics Society, Dalma Novak.

The Italy Chapter achieved this highest honor through the quality of programming, innovative membership development techniques, original workshops/conferences and community involvement. The chapter has 132 society members who help organize over 65 technical meetings a year and 5 major conferences, i.e. FONTONICA 2014, Mediterranean Photonics Conference, European Conference on Networks and Optical Communications, Bio-photonics Conference and international Workshop on Spatio-temporal Complexity in Optical Fibers.
The chapter also featured and supported progressive lectures on innovative topics, like “Fiber Based Platform for Biosensing”, “The Long March of Silicon Photonics”, “Evolution of Access and Transport Networks” and “Nano-motors and Sensors Realized with Plasmonic Particles”.

Best practices of the Italy Chapter when organizing major conferences are:
• Choosing cutting edge topics that don’t conflict with existing events.
• Budget attentively, targeting a 20% surplus.
• Vital collaborations with local institutions and adoption of an Executive Committee within the chapter that oversees the strategic direction of the chapter’s activities.
• Choosing attractive venues, but within a reasonable expense.
• Expand your reach in the community and design talks for multiple audiences, i.e. researchers, academics, manufactures, analysts and investors in the sector.
• Encourage participation of students; don’t be afraid to seek help from your constituents