International Supercomputing Conference moves to Frankfurt

Next year will also mark the 30th anniversary of ISC, which was founded in 1986 by Prof. Dr. Hans Werner Meuer. ISC began as a small event at Mannheim University, but soon had to move from the campus to a local conference center. As the program and exhibition continued to grow, ISC moved first to Heidelberg, then in 2006 to Dresden. After three years of continued growth, the conference headed to Hamburg in 2009, followed by Leipzig in 2013. The final conference in Leipzig - ISC’14 ended Thursday, June 26. Over 2,400 attendees participated in this conference and exhibition.

The organizers decided to relocate the conference in 2015 to Frankfurt, one of the best locations in Europe for hosting commercial events. Known as the leading financial center of continental Europe, Frankfurt is home to the European Central Bank and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The city is served by the Frankfurt International Airport, which is the second largest and busiest airport in Europe and in the top 10 in the world.

“We are very excited about the move as Frankfurt is a very modern city and it is within easy reach for regional and international travelers,” explained ISC Managing Director, Martin Meuer. “The venue, Forum Messe Frankfurt offers ample rooms in various sizes to host our ever-expanding conference program, and various business meetings that take place during the five days of the conference. The exhibition hall 3 that we will be renting is also very impressive in size and layout.”

In a departure from previous years, the 2015 conference will be held July 12th through the 16th. Welcoming the move, many ISC’14 exhibitors have already signed up for the 2015 exhibition, including various sponsorship levels. In keeping with tradition, the TOP500 List will be announced during the opening session of the conference.

The owner of the facility is the Trade Fair Company Messe Frankfurt, Germany’s largest trade fair organizer. They own more than 100 trade fairs and exhibitions worldwide that attracted a total of 78,550 exhibitors and 3.57 million visitors in 2013. The exhibition space spans multiple halls, totaling up to about 450,000 square meters. ISC will be renting a fraction of this exhibition space.

The 30th ISC will reflect a couple of significant transformations, while also marking the change in leadership from Hans Meuer to his sons, Martin and Thomas. Starting 2015, the conference will be called ISC High Performance, with “The HPC Event” as its tagline. It will also bear a new corporate logo.

Also starting next year, the conference will dedicate a full day to European and international projects in the form of workshops, which will fall under the care of ISC Executive Consultant Dr. Bernd Mohr. The ISC High Performance program team will consist of ISC Program Chair, Prof. Dr. Arndt Bode, Dr. Horst Gietl, Dr. Bernd Mohr and a new steering committee that will advise the team on their choice of topics and speakers.

“We are delighted and proud that the International Supercomputing Conference has selected Messe Frankfurt as the venue and the service provider for this important event. In the ISC, we have gained an outstanding international conference that reflects the strength of Frankfurt as an IT location," says Uwe Behm, Member of the Executive Board of Messe Frankfurt. "Frankfurt is a vital node in the IT world where the majority of international business connections and relationships converge. It is no accident that approx. 70 percent of exhibitors and half of visitors travel to events at Messe Frankfurt from abroad. My colleagues from Congress Frankfurt will also provide active support to ensure the continuing success of the ISC."

About ISC High Performance
Moving into its 30th year, ISC High Performance is the world’s oldest and Europe’s most important conference and networking event for the HPC community, offering a strong five-day technical program focusing on HPC technological development and its application in scientific fields, as well as its adoption in an industrial environment.

Over 300 hand-picked expert speakers and 160 exhibitors, consisting of leading research centers and vendors, will greet attendees at ISC High Performance. A number of events complement the technical program including Tutorials, the TOP500 Announcement, Research Paper Sessions, Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF) Sessions, the Research Poster Session, Exhibitor Forums, and Workshops.

ISC High Performance is open to engineers, IT specialists, systems developers, vendors, end users, scientists, researchers, students and other members of the HPC global community. The ISC High Performance exhibition attracts decision-makers from automotive, defense, aeronautical, gas & oil, banking and other industries, as well as analysts, solution providers, data storage suppliers, distributors, hardware and software manufacturers, the media, scientists, and universities. By attending, they will to learn firsthand about new products, applications and the latest technological advances in the supercomputing industry.