IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN)

The IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks (LCN) gathered over 130 attendees from 1-4 October 2018 in Chicago, Illinois. Recently celebrating its 44th year, LCN is the longest continuously running computer networking conference in the world. The conference has a global presence with previous locations including Europe, Canada, Australia, Dubai, and Singapore.

Sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society, LCN brings together researchers from around the world to engage with leading-edge theoretical and practical aspects of computer networking. This highly interactive conference enables an effective interchange of results and ideas among researchers, users, and product developers.

The strong leadership of the LCN Organizing and Steering Committees has been vital to the success of the conference. Operational changes implemented by the committees have helped the conference series thrive. Finance Chair, Dr. Frank Huebner, cites the following as key cost-efficiency measures: “reigning in unnecessary spending and using a hands-on approach for running the conference (rather than outsourcing all kind of tasks).”

Succession planning is another useful strategy employed by the LCN Organizing Committee. By rotating new members for several years before considering them for critical positions, the committee facilitates leadership continuity, longevity, and teamwork. Dr. Huebner says, “The Organizing Committee has intimate knowledge of how the conference is run due to already being part of the LCN OC for a number of years. This results in the OC members knowing each other for many years, which makes working as a real team much more effective.”

The knowledge and dedication of organizers like Dr. Huebner have also helped LCN achieve impressive results. LCN conferences have made substantial surplus for all but one of the last 15 years. The conference has always closed on time due to the diligence and experience of the Finance Chairs over the past 44 years.

The LCN Organizing committee uses a variety of organizational strategies to maximize efficiency. Dr. Huebner shares, “LCN OC members also follow, maintain, and update to-do lists/checklists for every position. This way knowledge is preserved, repeat mistakes are minimized, and upcoming tasks can be anticipated, which leads to a smoother conference operation.”

The 2019 and 2020 LCN conferences are taking place in Osnabrueck, Germany and Sydney, Australia, respectively.