INSTRUCTIONS FOR SPEAKERS AND SESSION CHAIRS (Complete by June 15th):

• Make Travel Arrangements
• Check Visa Status
• Confirm with yaelrice@gmail.com or smcfadde@gmail.com that you are (are not) planning on staying at Club Quarters.

Travel to the Conference:

The HIAA Symposium is prepared to cover the cost of an airline ticket for speakers and session chairs but please be aware that our budget is very limited. If you are coming from a North American institution, we ask that you please apply to your institution for travel funds first. Please keep us informed as to the status of your funding applications. Email smcfadde@gmail.com if you have been able to obtain funding of any kind, or if you know definitively that you will require us to cover your ticket.

If you know for sure that you will need HIAA to cover the cost of your airline ticket, we require you to make your travel arrangements through the University of Pennsylvania’s travel office (American Express). Please do not make the reservations yourself unless you intend to pay for the ticket through other means as we will not be processing travel reimbursements.

You can contact the American Express travel office at 1-800-796-7573 (US) or 001-215-898-9439 (Internationally). Their hours are 9-5, Eastern Standard Time.

To keep costs down, please make these arrangements as soon as possible.

Visa Information:

Participants with passports from the following countries can travel to the United States without a Visa
due to the Visa Waiver Program (VWP):

For more information on the Visa Waiver Program, and to confirm that you are indeed eligible to enter the US under this program, please see: http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/without/without_1990.html

Participants who do not hold passports from one of the above countries will need to obtain a visa for travel to the HIAA conference (most likely a B-1 business related visitor’s visa). For information about this process please go to: http://travel.state.gov/visa/visa_1750.html

A letter of invitation from the conference organizer is available should such a document prove necessary for obtaining a visa. Please contact smcfadde@sas.upenn.edu to obtain this document.

Accommodations:

For the nights of October 15-18 (4 nights) HIAA has booked a block of rooms for conference participants at the Club Quarters Hotel, located at 1628 Chestnut Street (At 17th street), Philadelphia PA 19103.

The conference will cover speakers’ room fee for these four nights. We need to provide Club Quarters with a list of guests, so please let us know if you intend to stay there, or will make your own accommodation arrangements.

If you would like to extend your stay at Club Quarters beyond October 15-18 (at your own expense), please contact the hotel directly at 001-215-282-5000.

For those speakers who wish to make private arrangements at their own expense (HIAA will only cover the costs for those who choose to stay at Club Quarters), we suggest the Hilton Inn at Penn.
A special conference rate is available.

Additional Expenses:

We are planning one gala dinner for conference participants, on Friday, October 17th at the Inn at Penn. Unfortunately however, as our budget is limited, the HIAA conference will not be able to reimburse participants for meals and/or other incidental expenses such as airport transfers, or taxis/bus fair to and from the hotel and the conference site.

Information on economical options for transportation and dining in Philadelphia will be made available closer to the conference date.

For any questions or concerns related to the above information, please feel free to contact Susanna McFadden or Yael Rice.