I3D is a symposium (fancy word for “small conference”) that is a great way to spend three days with academics and industry people in the fields of interactive 3D graphics and games. The program is a single track, consisting primarily of original research papers, but with other events such as keynotes, posters, roundtables, etc. See 2008’s program for an example.

I’m papers cochair this year with Morgan McGuire, so I’m biased, but I love the venue. Instead of the 28,000+ people of SIGGRAPH, you have around 100 or so people at a hotel or campus (2008’s was at EA’s headquarters). The best part is that you are likely to have a good conversation with anyone you meet, since they’re all there for the same reason. There is also plenty of time in the evening to socialize. I thoroughly enjoyed organizing the pub quiz for 2008.

If a paper is too daunting a task, consider submitting a poster or demo; it’s an easy way to get your idea out there and get feedback from others in the field.

The call for participation (CFP) is at http://i3dsymposium.org.

The quick summary:

Conference Feb. 27 – March 1, 2009
Location: Radisson Hotel Boston, Boston, MA

Paper submissions: October 24, 2008
Poster and demo submissions: December 19, 2008

A cool stat I learned of recently is that I3D is #25 of all computer science journals in its impact; the only graphics publication of more impact is SIGGRAPH itself, at #9: http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/impact.html (study’s from 2003, I’d love to find a newer one if anyone knows).

Hope to see you there.