THANK YOU to everyone who made the ISPR 2012 conference in Philadelphia last week a success. The combination of well-delivered presentations of diverse, interesting projects, extended constructive discussion, and social activities was only possible because of the authors, presenters, participants and an outstanding organizing committee (Angela Cirucci, Maria Cipollone, Darren Bau-Madsen, Gino Canella, Julia Czaja, Justin Dowdall, and Patrick Nugent). Special thanks to Howard Lichtman of the Human Productivity Lab and  Telepresence Options, David Dando of the Interactive Multimedia & Collaborative Communications Alliance (IMCCA), and Tim Downs of Interwork Media, Inc.

Congratulations to the top paper winners:

1. ($100 award)

Considerations for Social Presence Theory, Research, and Application in the 21st Century (PANEL)
Paul Skalski, David Westerman, Brian Blake, Kimberly Neuendorf and Stephanie Kelly

2. ($50 awards)

Is Virtual Reality made for Men only? Exploring Gender Differences in the Sense of Presence
Anna Felnhofer, Oswald D. Kothgassner, Leon Beutl, Helmut Hlavacs and Ilse Kryspin-Exner

and

Avatar self-identification as a cognitive metric of self-presence
Andrea Stevenson Won and Jeremy Bailenson

Stay tuned for information about the ISPR 2013 conference and other upcoming ISPR events!

–Matthew Lombard (President, ISPR)