IEEE Spectrum - North American - March 2017 - 15

Ishigaki, Okinawa Prefecture
2014 IEEE Asia Pacific Conference on
Circuits and Systems,
ANA InterContinental Ishigaki Resort,
17-20 November 2014
Ishigaki is one of the southernmost islands
of Okinawa Prefecture. It's a tropical island
of 48,000 people just 200 km (125 mi.) east
of Taiwan. To put that in perspective, it is on
the same latitude as Key West, Florida, or
Morocco's West Sahara province.
"Okinawa in general, and Ishigaki in particular,
is one of the best sight-seeing spots in Japan.
It is subtropical, with beautiful
coral beaches, and has the
facilities and quality services to
support a first-class meeting,"
says Professor Hiroshi Ochi
of the Kyushu Institute of

Technology, who served as General Chair of the
2014 IEEE Asia Pacific Conference on Circuits
and Systems (APCCAS 2014, http://www.
apccas2014.org/), held there.
The conference theme was, appropriately,
"Smart and Green Circuits and Systems." It
drew 310 attendees, who were treated not
only to rigorous technical sessions but also
a banquet that featured a local traditional
dance performance and a welcoming talk by
the mayor. "We formed a strong connection
with the Okinawa Convention and Visitors
Bureau that we expect to be useful in
planning future conferences."
There were no complaints about travel or
expense, either, says Professor Ochi. "There
are many direct flights from most major
mainland airports, and low-cost carriers
were available."

Ski Slopes to Tropical Beaches
attendees imagine, thanks to highly
developed transportation networks
throughout the nation," says Ms.
Kawasaki. "Attendees can arrive
in Hokkaido or Kyushu within 2
hours from the major international
airports in Tokyo or Osaka."
Japan's public transportation
system has adopted a common prepaid integrated-circuit fare card
system that can be used to travel on
trains, subways, buses, and taxis
throughout the country.
The multilingual environment
in public places has been improving as Japan prepares for the 2020
Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic
Games. Stations and city streets
carry multilingual signs, and more
tourist information centers open
each month.
How JNTO Helps
The Japan Meetings web site (japanmeetings.org) includes tools
for searching destinations by facility size, region, and amenities.
There are also tools for finding local convention and visitors bureaus
(CVBs), professional congress orga-

nizers (PCOs), destination marketing companies (DMCs), and other
sources of planning assistance.
JNTO maintains local offices in
the U.S., South Korea, the U.K., and
Singapore to help planners bridge
languages and time zones. "JNTO
provides information for organizers, and each local CVB responds
to the organizer's specific requests,"
Ms. Kawasaki says. Convention cities often offer additional incentives,
including subsidies of up to 20 million yen (about US $174,000).

Hokkaido
Sapporo

New Chitose
Airport

J APAN

Honshu

Kyoto

Tokyo

Narita
International
Airport

Osaka
Fukuoka
Airport

Kyushu

Shikoku

Kansai
International
Airport

Tokyo
International
(Haneda)
Airport

Japan National
Tourism Organization
Headquarters Tokyo, Japan
Tel: +81 3 6691 4852
Email: convention@jnto.go.jp
www.japanmeetings.org
New York Office
Meagan McTaggart
Tel: +1 (212) 757 5640
Email: meagan@jntonyc.org

Okinawa
Naha Airport

Ishigaki

0

500 KM

London Office
Margaret Mann
Tel: +44 (0)20 7283 2130
margaret@jnto.co.uk
special advertising section
http://www http://www.apccas2014.org/ http://www.japanmeetings.org http://www.panmeetings.org
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum - North American - March 2017
