25th International Conference on  Very Large Databases Edinburgh - Scotland - UK 7th - 10th September 1999

Worldwide Nature of VLDB

The annual conference on Very Large Data Bases (VLDB) has a long and distinguished history. The first VLDB took place in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1975. From it's beginnings to the present day it has been regarded as the premier academic conference devoted to the topic of data base systems. The international nature of the conference can be demonstrated by reviewing the locations chosen for the conference throughout its history:

1998: New York City,USA

1997: Athens, Greece

1996: Bombay, India

1995: Zurich, Switzerland

1994: Santiago de Chile, Chile

1993: Dublin, Ireland

1992: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

1991: Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

1990: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

1989: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

1988: Los Angeles, California, USA

1987: Brighton, England

1986: Kyoto, Japan

1985: Stockholm, Sweden

1984: Singapore

1983: Florence, Italy

1982: Mexico City, Mexico

1981: Cannes, France

1980: Montreal, Canada

1979: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

1978: West Berlin, Germany

1977: Tokyo, Japan

1976: Brussels, Belgium

1975: Framingham, Massachusetts

• VLDB has only visited the United Kingdom once before and has never been held in Scotland. The significance of the conference is also reflected in the number of people submitting work for inclusion in the programme. The 1994 VLDB attracted two hundred and ninety three submissions of which only fifty four were selected. The high degree of selectivity helps to ensure that the conference maintains a consistently high standard of content. Delegate numbers range between five hundred and six hundred. The conference is truly international in flavour and attendees come from all over the world. An analysis of countries of origin of delegates attending the conference between 1984 and 1991 showed the following representation on a country by country basis:

• Australia 243
• Korea 18
• Austria 21
• Luxembourg 7
• Belgium 47
• Malaysia 13
• Brazil 4
• Mexico 13
• Bulgaria 8
• Netherlands 258
• Canada 81
• Norway 211
• China 34
• Philippines 1
• Colombia 5
• Poland 9
• Czechoslovakia 4
• Portugal 18
• Denmark 64
• Romania 1
• Finland 76
• Singapore 134
• France 321
• Spain 141
• Germany 298
• South Africa 2
• Greece 9
• Sweden 343
• Hong Kong 2
• Switzerland 53
• Hungary 6
• Taiwan 3
• Ireland 20
• Thailand 5
• India 3
• Tunisia 2
• Indonesia 11
• Turkey 2
• Israel 12
• United Kingdom 399
• Italy 103
• USA 918
• Japan 320
• USSR 11
• Yugoslavia 4

As VLDB is recognised as a meeting place for scientists researching the application of database techniques, the conference is often accompanied by international workshops and seminars on specialised areas of database technology. These take place either before or after the main conference and often attract additional visitors to the location hosting the conference. It is fitting that VLDB should be visiting Edinburgh in 1999. Scotland possesses a number of Universities who are active in Computer Science research as well as a thriving information technology industrial base. Within the United Kingdom the contribution of Scottish Universities to the data base research arena is particularly significant. Heriot Watt University, Napier University and the University of Edinburgh all possess extremely active groups whose main area of research centres on data base technology. The visit of VLDB to Edinburgh is a significant event for Scotland and indeed for the rest of the United Kingdom. The conference was originally devoted to academic and research issues concerning data base systems. In recent years, however, it has broadened its scope and now includes streams which deal with industrial applications. These sessions attract speakers from the leading edge companies such as Microsoft and IBM. The Edinburgh conference will continue this trend of including sessions which are directly relevant to industry and commerce.In addition, a commercial exhibition of data base related hardware and software will be staged alongside the conference. Data base systems are strategic pieces of software in most commercial organisations and therefore an exhibition of this type could generate a considerable amount of interest.

Due to VLDB 1999 being located in Edinburgh there are now a number of other workshops being co-located in Edinburgh either before or after VLDB to benefit from delegates attending this conference.

In New York there were approx. 575 delegates and Edinburgh hopes to attract at least 500.