LS² Annual Meeting 2024

General Terms and Conditions

The LS² Annual Meeting 2024 is organized by Life Sciences Switzerland (LS²) at the University of Lausanne.

The billing address is located at the University of Zurich, Department of Molecular Life Sciences, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zurich.

The conference and the preceding Young Scientists' Satellite will take place at the University of Lausanne, UNIL - Amphimax (Rte de la Sorge 9, 1015 Lausanne), 13-15^th of February, 2024. Participants can register from August 31^th, 2023 onwards via the LS² website. Upon registration each participant will receive an electronic confirmation and details of payment. On-site registration will be possible, but at higher costs. If a participant has not received the official registration confirmation within 3 days after his/her registration and after the payment, he/she must contact the conference organization office at info[@]ls2.ch.

Registration fees are indicated on: https://annual-meeting.ls2.ch/2024/registration. Upon receipt of the registration confirmation, the participant is considered officially registered and agrees to pay the registration fees (cancellation conditions are described below).  Final registration will be effective only after full payment by the participant. The prices indicated are per person and are only applicable if the registration form and the payment are received before the mentioned deadlines. Registration and payment are possible until January 10^th, 2024. After that date, on-site registration fees will be applied. In case the registration deadline is extended, the regular fees will be effective until the new deadline.

The conference fees comprise exclusively:
Attendance to all plenary sessions, oral sessions and visual presentations, as well as special sessions, award sessions, poster exhibition and industry fair. The conference fees include access to the conference, poster sessions, all coffee breaks, lunch breaks, the Get-Together Apéro and conference documentation with all information about the event. The fees do not comprise travelling and accommodation costs.

Other Provisions

Payments for registration have to be settled and all prices are quoted in Swiss Francs (CHF). Payment in any other currency will not be accepted. Registrations received without payment will not be processed and confirmed. Registration will be confirmed by means of the confirmation of payment, which will be sent upon receipt of the registration fee by e-mail. In order to benefit from the early registration fee, all payments must be received within the mentioned deadlines. Submission of the registration form without payment within deadlines does not entitle to benefit of the reduced fee at a later date. For all payments received on-site at the registration desk at the conference site, the on-site registration fee applies. Admittance to the conference without full registration including payment of the registration fee cannot be granted.

Payment Options

Upon registration on the conference website, the participant can select one of the following payment options:
1. Online via the LS² Annual Meeting website:
Registration on the website will allow participants to pay via the online payment system Stripe using a credit card (Master Card, Visa Card). Advance payment is highly recommended since this will considerably accelerate your registration procedure upon your arrival.
2. By payment slip or bank transfer:
The bank transfer must clearly state the name of the participant and “LS² AM 2024”.
Unidentified bank transfers cannot be processed. Bank charges have to be paid at the source by the participant, in addition to the registration fee. The bank transfer option will not be available anymore after January 30^th, 2024 (bank transfer and confirmation of payment might not arrive on time). 

Conference payments should be transferred to:

Account holder: 
Life Sciences Switzerland
Universität Zürich
DMLS
Winterthurerstrasse 190
8057 Zürich

Account details:
UBS Zürich
IBAN: CH85 0027 9279 C056 4732 1
BIC: UBSWCHZH80A

3. At the on-site registration desk
:
On-site payment upon arrival is subjected to a 25CHF additional fee. Only cash payment is possible with the on-site registration fees.

Conference Attendance
Upon arrival at the Venue all participants have to register at the Conference Registration Desk. The desk will be open on 14^th of February from 8:00 a.m. (13^th of February from 12:00 p.m. for participants of the Young Scientists' Satellite). Upon registration at the registration desk, the conference team will provide participants with detailed information about the event and a badge, which should be worn visibly at all times. The personalized badge authorizes participants to attend all conference sessions, lunch, coffee breaks, and to the Apéro.

Cancellation Conditions
LS² reserves the right to cancel any registration forthwith and without liability on its part in the event of any damage to, or destruction of the venue by fire, shortage of labour, strikes, industrial unrest, or any other cause beyond the control of LS², which shall prevent it from performing its obligations. In these circumstances, every effort will be made to find an alternative venue or propose a new date for the conference. Should the conference be cancelled for any reason, airfares, hotels or other costs incurred by the participants are not reimbursed by LS².

Any participant is allowed to cancel his/her registration, but must notify to the conference organizers by e-mail: info[@]ls2.ch.

Should the participant cancel the participation at the conference, a cancellation fee of the initial invoice will be applied as follows:
7 weeks until 30 days before the event (from 25.12.2023 until 14.01.2024): 25%. 
Between 30 and 14 days before the event (from 15.01.2024 until 30.01.2024): 50%. 
Less than 14 days before the event (from 31.01.2024): 100%.

Please note: cancellations where the Meet&Greet was included, between 15.01.2024 and 30.01.2024 will have an extra cost of 25 CHF to the general cancelation conditions defined in our terms & conditions. Cancellations after the 31 January 2024 where the Meet&Greet was included will be based on our term & conditions

Name Change

All registrations are only valid for the respective person mentioned in the form. A registered participant unable to attend the conference may nominate (free of charge) a substitute participant by notifying in writing the conference organizers by email at info[@]ls2.ch before 25.12.2023. The procedure allows changing the last name, first name, and email address for the new participant. However, we cannot change the invoice or make any other changes.

Personal Data
Upon registration, the participant authorizes LS² to use his/her personal data stated above to inform the participant of any further conferences, events, or information concerning the conference. Personal data such as Name, Affiliation, Function and Membership will be used for statistical analyses. These data will be treated confidentially and will not be transferred to any third parties. The conference booklet online and in print will only contain authors, titles and affiliations of submitted abstracts, but no full abstract texts. Conference certificates will be sent to all participants (not to sponsors/exhibitors) at once as one PDF document. Only the name & affiliation will be stated in this confirmation, not the email addresses of the participants.

Information is collected by an automated computer system which permits to manage registrations and will not be used for commercial purposes. Personal information is exclusively used by LS² for registration management. Security and confidentiality are guaranteed by state-of-the-art technical tools. However, LS² declines any responsibility concerning data security transmitted through the internet. In accordance with the Swiss law, LS² does not collect any bank details such as the identity number of the credit/debit card, bank address and any other information. The online payment system is managed by Bexio (bexio.com) and Stripe (stripe.com). 

To enhance our user’s privacy, we decided to end the collaboration with Google Analytics per 15 June 2018.

We started using Matomo instead and will from 16 June 2018 only use this platform to analyze traffic and help us to improve your user experience. Since we use a self-hosted Matomo setup on our webserver, no usage information is forwarded to any third party. We have configured Matomo to anonymize IP addresses and respect the "Do Not Track" setting of visitor's browsers. From their website: "Matomo (formerly Piwik) is an open analytics platform currently used by individuals, companies and governments all over the world. With Matomo, your data will always be yours."

Photography
The conference is held in public, therefore we do not ban participants, exhibitors, partners and other companies from taking photographs of conference activities and participants. By participating in the conference, you approve that general pictures will be taken and used for our Social Media output and our websites. You hereby waive any right to oppose, and expressly authorize the organizer make them available on the Internet or as it may seem fit. Taking pictures of posters is only allowed with the permission of the first author and otherwise strictly forbidden!

Disclaimer

The conference organizer cannot be held responsible for any loss, injury or damage to any property, whatever the cause may be. Liability of persons and enterprises providing means of transportation or other services, however, remains unaffected. Should, for any reason outside the organizer’s control (e.g. political or economic circumstances or a case of ‘force majeure’), the venue or speakers change, or the event be cancelled, the organizer will endeavor to reschedule, but shall not be held responsible for any costs, damages or expenses incurred by the participants. If for any reason the organizer decides to make material changes to this conference, the organizer is not responsible for airfares, hotels or other costs incurred by the participants. The participant takes part in the conference, all tours and trips at his own risk.

Copyright

The participant is allowed to use the conference documentation exclusively for his/her personal needs.

LS² Meetings Code of Conduct
LS² is committed to providing a safe, productive, and welcoming environment for all meeting participants, including, but not limited to, attendees, speakers, volunteers, exhibitors, LS² staff members or service providers. LS² has zero-tolerance for any form of discrimination or harassment, including but not limited to (sexual) harassment, intimidation, discrimination or verbal / written abuse. If you experience or hear of any incidents of unacceptable behavior, we ask that you inform either the Managing Office at info[@]ls2.ch so that we can take the appropriate action.
LS² reserves the right to take any action deemed necessary and appropriate, including immediate removal from the meeting without warning or refund, in response to any incident of unacceptable behavior, and LS² reserves the right to prohibit attendance at any future meeting, virtually or in person.