Dear GECCO Colleague, As we've talked to GECCO attendees around the world, a few have expressed reservations about flying to New York for GECCO. Indeed, the events of and following September 11th have made the public reluctant to travel, in general, and New York, in particular, has taken a tourist hit because of its close association with terrorism and the subsequent plane crash.
The decision to hold GECCO-2002 in New York was made long before September 11, 2001. The conference leadership revisited the decision following the terrorist attack and decided to continue with our plans to hold GECCO-2002 in NYC. New York is open and eager for business, and the remarkable transformation of the city under the leadership of Mayor Giuliani is still on display. If you haven't traveled by plane since the 11th, the airports are open and more security conscious than ever. New York was chosen because it is one of the world's most accessible cities and has always had plenty of competitively-priced airline seats available. In short, I am looking forward to seeing our regular GECCO attendees and newcomers alike at GECCO-2002 in New York City. We are assembling a stimulating program with a superb collection of free tutorials, workshops, and keynote speakers that are the hallmark of GECCO, together with a new forum to share experiences on real life EC projects, and an exciting technical program carefully selected from the best of work in the field of genetic and evolutionary computation. Please join me and the rest of the GEC community at GECCO-2002 in New York City, July 9-13 (Tuesday-Saturday), 2002. The deadline for paper submissions is January 23, 2002 (Wednesday), which gives you approximately nine weeks to prepare your contributions. None of our world-class tutorials presenters, workshop organizers, or other key organizers of GECCO will be missing GECCO-2002, and we hope you won't, either! For more information about the conference and paper submissions go to www.isgec.org/GECCO-2002. See you in NYC, Erick Cantu-Paz GECCO-2002 Chairman
