ADBIS2019 Conference Trip
ADBIS2019

ADBIS2019 Conference Trip

2019, Oct 18    

ADBIS is an abbreviation for (East-) European Conference on Advances in Databases and Information Systems, which, while not a high-level conference, is one of the oldest conferences in the field of databases and information systems in Central and Eastern Europe and throughout Europe. The conference was first held in Moscow, Russia, in 1994, and has a history of nearly 25 years, which can be described as witnessing the development of databases and information technology in Central and Eastern Europe and even the entire European region from the end of the 20th century to the present.

1.Acquaintance with ADBIS confernece

The first acquaintance with ADBIS dates back to the 2018 Summer, when I had already admitted to the school I was applying to, so I took advantage of the opening of the school to understand the specific situation of the college I was going to study. When I learned through the internet, there was a conference called 22nd ADBIS that would be held in Budapest from September 2 to 5, 2018. Moreover, I was also pleasantly surprised to find that the theme of the conference was very close to my research, especially since the organizer of the year was the department of information systems that he was about to study, so I looked forward to having the opportunity to participate in the conference in early September.

However, due to visas, I was not able to get a visa until the end of the meeting, and thus did not travel to Budapest as expected, so the 22nd ADBIS meeting was missed perfectly. In particular, when I arrived in Budapest, I learned through the exchange with the supervisor that the conference was indeed more consistent with the research direction of his team, so I thought that I must attend the next year’s ADBIS 2019 conference if it is posibile.

Fast forward to the beginning of 2019, and the organzation information of ADBIS 2019 has been released, and the conference will be held in Bled, Slovenia in early September 2019. With only 3 months left before the deadline for the meeting, I began to prepare the manuscript. Because my current research direction is slightly different from the research direction of my master programme, there are still certain difficulties in the process of starting to write this manuscript, watching the number of days from the deadline decreasing every day, and I have also fallen into anxiety, and even has the idea of giving up. But whenever the thought of giving up comes up, I can’t help but think of the promise that I made in my heart.

After a short period of dicussion and communication with the tutor,

The tutor said that as a first-year student, you can try to contribute to the Doctoral Consortium (DC), so that you can not only attend the meeting but also get the advice and feedback of your “peers” on their research plans.

So I also changed his previous strategy, after which everything became smoother, I successfully submitted the manuscript before the deadline, and the manuscript was finally lucky to be accepted by ADBIS2019 DC, which means that I can participate in the ADBIS 2019 conference as he wishes.

2.Participation of ADBIS2019 in Solvenia

I finally embarked on the ADBIS2019 conference tour, although the school travel management department only booked a bus ticket from Budapest to Ljubljana, considering that Slovenia and Hungary are relatively close neighbors. However, when I got the ticket, I found that the bus from Budapest to Ljubljana took 6 hours, because this was the first time to take a 6-hour bus, which was more or less incredible at the time. However, when I inquired about the plane and train, I found that because there was no direct flight, I needed to take a detour to other countries to transit, so that the plane also needed 6 hours to get down, and it took at least 10 hours to take the train, and finally found that it was indeed more convenient for the bus, and he couldn’t help but want to praise the domestic high-speed rail and train. In this way, I departed from 7:00 a.m., after a 6-hour bus journey, arrived in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, at noon, stayed here for 2 hours, and finally arrived in Bled, the meeting place, at 4:00 p.m., and thus began the first encounter with the ADBIS meeting.

The agenda on the first day of the conference was Workshop and DC, and after a brief opening and Keynote presentation, the various Jobs and DC began in parallel. According to the conference agenda, I had oral exchanges on their topics during the morning DC and received suggestions and feedback from other “peers”. At lunchtime, I supervisely found a “similar” face, so I went to talk, and then found that he did meet the small partner at the meeting in Crete, Greece, in early May, although there was no excessive communication at the first meeting in Greece, but after the second encounter, it seemed more familiar, so after in-depth exchanges, it was found that this little friend had just started the second year of Ph.D., and its supervisor was the chairman of DC today.

When the main conference and presentation of the next day’s meeting began, in addition to participating in the Session that interested me, I also recognized another professor from BME University in Hungary, who had been to Shanghai and Hangzhou through exchanges with the teacher, and was very interested in oriental culture. In the evening, I also participated in the welcome reception of the conference and tasted Slovenian wine and national music.

On the third day of the meeting, in addition to attending the meeting, I also met doctoral students from Germany and Slovakia in between the meetings, and walked with them for nearly 1 hour around Lake Bled after the afternoon session. In particular, it is mentioned here that there was originally a dinner party on the agenda of the third day of the conference, but since the type of junior conference registration is a student, the conference dinner is not included. However, at noon on the same day, I received an email from the organizer of the conference, saying that because individual participants gave up the opportunity to participate in the dinner, and now the participants who registered as students can participate in the conference dinner for free, so I was also very lucky to participate in the conference dinner.

At the dinner of the conference, I recognized a professor from a different department at the same faculty, although at the time of submitting the travel application, I received news from the staff of the travel management department that another professor was also attending the meeting, but because he was in a different department, there was no specific information. In particular, I also register this professor’s course during this semester, so I tried to talk with professor more, and tried to make a good impression and “mix his eyes” in advance. During the break, the professor ask about my supervisor and research directions, then asked me how my Hungarian language was, and I replied busily: absolute beginner.

He then said that he thought it would be easier for Chinese to learn Hungarian (the Hungarian nation has some origins with the East), because he was German, so I also needed to learn Hungarian.

At the same time, the dinner was also enjoyed and watched with authentic Slovenian wine, food and local folk dances.

On the last day of the meeting, there were fewer and fewer people in the venue, and I still insisted until the end of the closing ceremony of the last Session of the meeting, it time to say goodbye to the friends and left. In the evening, I walked around Lake Bled alone, admired the sunset over Lake Bled, and fulfilled the my small wish when my first travel to Bled. In this way, the 4-day trip to ADBIS2019 is about to come to a complete end.

3.Brief summary

This trip to the ADBIS conference can be regarded as a meeting with ADBIS from acquaintance to encounter. By participating in this conference, I not only received suggestions and feedback from DC tutors on their own topics, but also got to know some “peers”, especially to make up for the regret of not being able to participate in ADBIS2018 organized by his department due to visa reasons. ADBIS2020 will be held in Lyon, France in mid-September 20, I wonder if I will have the opportunity to continue to meet with ADBIS in Lyon, France, from meeting and knowing each other?