SC17 Attendee Guide

Preparing for SC17

SC17 will be a rich and exciting experience for both new and old attendees.  To start planning your agenda, begin at the SC17 website.  Here you will find descriptions of the activities and a detailed SC17 schedule that can be used to build your own personalized agenda.

Online Program for SC17

A fully responsive online program provides schedules and other information about SC17.  Some of the features include filters for specific event types and tags, day-specific links, a presenter index, organization index, detailed search capability, a “Happening Now” area for current and near-future sessions, the ability to add sessions to your personal calendar and the ability to flag sessions. Flagging will allow you to add sessions to the flagged page, and from there add your entire flagged agenda into your calendar, all without having to setup a login and password.

When viewing the online SC17 schedule, select an event you want to add it to your personal schedule.  Click on one of the calendar icons, and that event will be stored.

Safety Notes

We value the safety of all SC17 attendees.  We want you to focus on enjoying your stay and making the most of your conference experience.  To assist you, here are a few common conference reminders and safety pointers to help make sure you have a safe and productive conference.

• Use the buddy system, multiple persons are better–don’t walk alone at night.
• Have a phone in case of emergencies and have at least one other attendee’s contact information.
• Do not wear your conference badge outside of the convention center. This is often a targeting mechanism for scammers and criminals.
• Ask hotel staff if certain areas are safe/not safe before going out.
• Do not leave belongings unattended.
• Stay on well-lit or major streets at night.

Registration

Pick up your SC17 badge at Registration in Lobby A of the Colorado Convention Center.  Wear your badge at all times while in the Convention Center.

We encourage Workshop and Tutorials attendees to pick up badges on the day before the session to avoid long registration lines.

Registration will be open:

How SC17 Is Organized

There are four main components of the SC Conference: Technical Program, Exhibits, Students@SC, and SCinet:

Technical Program:  The Technical Program is the heart of the conference providing multiple opportunities for sharing research, development, and applications in high performance computing, networking, storage, and analysis.

• HPC Connects Plenary
• Invited Talks
• Panels
• Technical Papers
• Tutorials
• Workshops
• Posters
• Birds of a Feather
• Awards
• Emerging Technologies
• Scientific Visualization Showcase

Technical Program badges are needed for attending most of these sessions.  Tutorials and Workshops require separate registrations.

An attendee with any SC17 badge can attend the Monday Evening Plenary, Birds-of-a-Feather sessions, the Awards session on Thursday, and Exhibitor Forum sessions.

Exhibits:  Our exhibit halls are filled with booths featuring the latest technologies and discoveries by vendors and research organizations from around the world. To visit the Exhibition Floor on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, you will need a Technical Program, Exhibits Only, or Exhibitor badge.

Students@SC: The SC17 conference is broadening its mission to build a strong and diverse HPC student community at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, through professional development programs, opportunities to learn from mentors, and engagement with SC17 technical sessions:
Most of the Students@SC activities are for students who have been selected for participation prior to the conference.

• Student Cluster Competition
• Student Volunteers
• ACM Student Poster Competition
• Doctoral Showcase
• HPC for Undergraduates
• Mentor-Protégé Program
• Student-Postdoc Job Fair

SCinet:  SC17 operates a commodity network for attendees and an experimental network that showcases the latest and most sophisticated technology currently available.  SCinet brings greater bandwidth into the conference than any other facility in the world, and more capacity than many cities and countries. SCinet supports high-speed network connections linking the Convention Center to outside networks and provides wired and wireless connections for SC17 attendees and exhibitors.

Social Events

There are three major social events scheduled by the SC17 Conference.  And vendors often hold their own events.

Opening Gala:  Monday, November 13, from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm on the Exhibition Floor.  This will be your first opportunity to see the latest HPC systems, networking, storage, analysis, research, services, other innovations, and meet exhibitor staff. This event is open to all with Technical Program, Exhibitor, or Students@SC badges.  Those with Exhibits-Only badges will not be admitted.

Poster Reception:  Tuesday, November 14, from 5:15 pm – 7:00 pm in the Four Seasons Ballroom.  Appetizers will be available for those with Technical Program badges.  This will be a time to interact with poster authors.  The posters will continue to be displayed on Wednesday and Thursday.  A full list of posters is available.

Technical Program Reception:  HPC Connects You to an Out of This World Experience!
The Technical Program Reception is Thursday, November 16 from 6 pm to 9 pm.  Location is the EXDO Event Center at 1399 35th St, Denver, CO  80205

To thank our Technical Program attendees and to encourage continued global and inter-galactic interactions, SC17 is hosting a conference reception for all Technical Program attendees at the  EXDO Event Center, Denver’s most versatile event space in the heart of the city’s vibrant River North Art District.  This year’s event features a sci-fi theme, with a virtual reality lounge, a green-screen photo booth, an Emulator Screen DJ, a live painting demonstration, and much more.  Even the food will be out of this world – with a “Mad Scientist” salad station, “Fire-in-the-Sky” flame wall, “Close Encounters of the Third” kind pasta station, “Lost-in-the-Pacific” station and of course “Alien Pod” s’mores. Guests are encouraged to come dressed as their favorite sci-fi character! So plan ahead.

A Technical Program badge, event ticket, and government-issued photo ID are required to attend this event.  Busing will be provided to/from the Convention Center starting in Lobby F from 5:40 pm until 9 pm.   Note, you will need your badge and your event ticket to get on the bus.

SC17 Conference-at-a-Glance
Exhibitor List and Floorplan

When you pick up your SC17 registration badge at the Colorado Convention Center, you will receive two printed publications to help navigate through SC17. The Conference Program-at-a-Glance is provided to Technical Program attendees and is available for download by all attendees. This provides the schedule of all sessions and activities for the week. The Exhibitor List and Floorplan provides a list of all exhibitors and a floorplan of the show floor. Information is also available with the SC17 schedule.

Family Day is Wednesday afternoon from 4-6 pm. Family members can accompany a registered attendee, visit the Exhibit Floor for free, and experience SC17 for themselves. Attendees must check in their family members at the Registration Booth in Lobby A.

Information Booths

There are two SC17 Information Booths to help answer any questions you may have about SC17. The main booth is located in Lobby F near the front of the Colorado Convention Center near the SC17 Store.  A second Info Booth is between the D and E concourses.

Wireless Access

All of the SC17 networking resources are provided free of charge via SCinet. The wireless network will extend to meeting rooms, exhibit halls, and all common areas of the Colorado Convention Center occupied by SC17. The network can be accessed via SSIDs “SC17” or “eduroam.”

The “SC17” SSID is the general, unencrypted wireless access SSID that the majority of attendees and exhibitors will use to connect to the Internet.

The “eduroam” SSID is an encrypted wireless connection that is authenticated with pre-configured users’ credentials from their participating home institution.  If you do not have an account previously setup before coming to SC17 by your institution (or if your institution does not participate in eduroam), you will not be able to join the eduroam server at the SC17 conference.  For more information, visit: www.eduroam.us.

Get Connected with SC17 Social Media

SC17 is on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn! Connect with colleagues, discuss the technical program, get the latest news from exhibitors, post videos and images about your experience and share tips about Denver attractions!

• Follow @supercomputing and use #SC17, #HPCConnects and #SCinet on Twitter.
• “Like” the SC Conference on Facebook.
• Connect on LinkedIn via the “SC Conference” groups.
• Follow us on Instagram @sc_conference (https://www.instagram.com/sc_conference )

We want to hear from you!

Conference Store

The SC17 Conference Store sells SC17 clothing and souvenirs.  It is located in Lobby F.

Conference Store hours are:

Convention and Local Services

Coat and Bag Check is in Lobby A.

There is a UPS store in the Colorado Convention Center for shipping.  Open:

• Saturday – 9 am – 3 pm
• Monday thru Friday – 8 am – 6 pm

In the main lobby of the Colorado Convention Center across from the Blue Bear, VISIT DENVER offers a complimentary staffed city information and restaurant reservation service. Information specialists can assist with providing information on attractions, dining, transportation options, maps, brochures and a myriad of other helpful hints for navigating Denver.  This booth will be staffed during the daytime hours of the conference.

Bringing a Child to SC17 and Other Resources for Parents

Bringing a Child to SC?

To ensure the safety of our young attendees we ask that parents adhere to the SC17 policy on bringing a child to the conference.  If you are planning to bring your child to SC17, please note that, all children (of any age) must be registered at the Special Assistance desk in the registration area.  Access policies differ according to the age of the child and the particular conference venue involved.

Resources for parents

• We have a range of resources available for parents from childcare (registration now closed) to provision of a Parents’ Room, providing a quiet place for you and your child, including private areas for feeding.
• On the afternoon of Wednesday, November 15 from 4 pm th 6 pm, parents with children of all ages are invited to walk through the exhibit hall during the family day session. All family members must be registered and badged, and be accompanied by a fee-paying relative, but no fee is charged during that period.
• Full details of all of the facilities to parents and families are available.