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we would have said that there’s no
way we can do something like that.
The field has advanced tremendously
in that respect.
When did you start organizing ICCV?
It was four years ago. I have an
interesting story to tell you. There
were two competing proposals. One
was for Paris, and one was for Venice.
The first presentation was for Paris.
This was a very good presentation.
Then I came up, a Frenchman, and
said, “You must be wondering why
your Frenchman is here trying to
convince you to go to Venice instead of
Paris.” I said, “Paris is a wonderful city.
I think the proposal for Paris is
excellent. I think we should go to Paris
at some point. However, I’m here to
tell you we should go to Venice
because Venice is sinking. If we don’t
go to Venice then we might never be
able to go.” [
both laugh
]
It’s a sad and funny story at the same
time.
Absolutely. I don’t know whether this
had an influence or not, but basically
that was my selling point. From a
scientific point of view, those proposals
were outstanding. There was very little
difference between them, but I felt
that coming to Venice was a unique
opportunity that was time bound, and
therefore, that’s possibly what made
the difference. There wasn’t much of a
difference between the votes,
probably 10-20 votes between the two
proposals. Venice won.
Four years later, can you tell us what
challenges you faced that you did not
expect in organizing a conference like
this?
I normally organize CVPR conferences
which are in the US. With a non-US
company, doing it remotely, we have to
rely very heavily on the local organizer
such as Rita and Marcello, who did an
outstanding job. But there is a cultural
difference. For example, we signed the
contract with the venue only a couple
of months ago. This is something that
wouldn’t be possible in the US. In the
US, either you have the contract signed
or you don’t have it. In Italy, it is
understood that we have it. The fact
that we didn’t sign it isn’t as important.
There is this cultural difference.
It was nearly a miracle this year that
CVPR could move from Puerto Rico to
Hawaii with a very short notice.
Right, and that was okay. It was very
nicely done. The better example is the
one in Las Vegas. It was originally
scheduled for Seattle. The reason we
didn’t go to Seattle is because we
didn’t sign on time, and we lost the
venue. That’s why here, I was very
worried that we didn’t sign! My Italian
colleagues kept saying, “
Don’t worry!
Don’t worry! It’s okay.
” [
both laugh
]
This is how we do it!
6
Friday
Gérard Medioni