Code of Conduct and Attendance Policy

A primary goal of PROFES Conferences is to promote the open exchange of ideas and the freedom of thought and expression among researchers. These require an environment that recognizes the inherent worth of every person and group; fosters dignity, understanding, and mutual respect; and embraces diversity.

For these reasons, PROFES Conferences are dedicated to providing an inclusive harassment-free experience for participants at our events and in official communications channels, including social media. We want every participant to feel welcome, included, respected, and safe. There is no tolerance for unwelcome or hostile behavior or speech that intimidates, creates discomfort, or interferes with a person’s participation or opportunity for participation at our conference and events.

Expected Behaviour

We expect all PROFES conference participants to behave professionally and to help create a safe and welcoming environment for all attendees, volunteers, sponsors, organizers, speakers, venue staff, and exhibitors in all conference venues, including ancillary events and unofficial social gatherings:

• Exercise consideration and respect in your speech and actions;
• Be mindful of cultural differences in engagement - attendees come from all over the world and may have a different level of comfort with respect to language and personal space;
• Refrain from demeaning, discriminatory, or harassing behavior and speech;
• Discuss and critique ideas, not people;

Unacceptable Behaviour includes: abusive or degrading language, sustained disruption of a talk or other activity, discrimination, deliberate intimidation, stalking, harassing photography or recording, inappropriate physical contact, sexual imagery and unwelcome sexual attention.

Harassment includes: comments, writings, or actions including jokes that discriminate or denigrate an individual on the bases of race, color, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, marital status, religion, national origin, disability, pregnancy, medical conditions, veteran status, or any other status protected by laws in which the conference is being held.

Sexual Harassment includes: unwelcome advances or propositions; inappropriate touching of an individual’s body; degrading or humiliating comments about an individual’s appearance; displaying or distributing sexually explicit images or messages.

Alert community leaders if you notice a dangerous situation, someone in distress, or violations of this policy, even if they seem inconsequential.

How to Report Unacceptable Behaviour

Anyone witnessing or subject to unacceptable behavior should notify anyone on the venue staff or security, or report the incident to any member of the Steering Committee. If you feel that you or someone around you is in immediate danger, please dial 112 on your phone (police, fire, ambulance).

Any individual violating these standards may be sanctioned or excluded from further participation at the current conference, without refund, at the discretion of the event organizers. Violations that are reported to ACM or IEEE will be investigated and may result in further sanctions (ACM Policy Against Harassment at ACM Activities, IEEE Policy Against Discrimination and Harassment).

Code of Conduct

PROFES Conferences Committees believe that science, technology, and engineering are fundamental human activities, for which openness, international collaboration, and the free flow of talent and ideas are essential. Its meetings, conferences, and other events seek to enable engaging, thought provoking conversations that support research’s core mission of advancing technology for humanity. Accordingly, PROFES conferences are committed to providing a safe, productive, and welcoming environment to all participants, including staff and vendors.

PROFES Conferences Committees have no tolerance for discrimination, harassment, or bullying in any form. All participants have the right to pursue shared interests without harassment or discrimination in an environment that supports diversity and inclusion. Participants are expected to adhere to these principles and respect the rights of others.

PROFES Conferences Committees seek to provide a secure environment at its events. Participants should report any behavior inconsistent with the principles outlined here, to on site staff, security or venue personnel, or to any member of the PROFES Steering Committee.

Conference organizers are requested to report incidents to any member of the PROFES Steering Committee. If you hear an inappropriate remark, intended or misjudged, this list of comebacks may prove useful in the moment. A useful resource is the Geek Feminism Wiki, which includes models for public announcements and guidance for conference staff.

Attendance policy

Presentations must be given on-site by a co-author of the paper to ensure that questions can be adequately answered at the end of the presentation and at the poster. A presentation given by a non-author is not acceptable, also a remote presentation via Skype or video conferencing will not be accepted. Failure to comply with this policy may result in the paper being deleted from the conference proceedings. Please ensure that you make timely arrangements for visas, travel arrangements, etc., as it is the authors’ responsibility to ensure the presentation is made by one of them. Non-refundable registration fees must be paid together with the submission of the camera-ready version of the paper.