ACM SIGMOD/PODS Conference: Vancouver, 2008
Delegates: Welcome From The General Chairs

We are thrilled to welcome you on behalf of the entire SIGMOD/PODS Committee to the 2008 SIGMOD/PODS joint conference, being held in Vancouver in the beautiful province of British Columbia. For many years now, SIGMOD/PODS has been the premier conference in the field. The quality of this year's conference shows that this will continue. As in the past, this year, the conference has drawn numerous submissions from top academic, industrial, and government researchers from around the world. The SIGMOD/PODS joint conference provides a forum where cutting-edge research is discussed, debated, and future research directions are identified. This year, Professor Dennis Shasha (SIGMOD) and Professor Maurizio Lenzerini (PODS) together with their dedicated program committees have put together an outstanding set of research papers, keynotes, tutorials, demonstrations, and industrial sessions. In addition, a novel feature, a first for SIGMOD this year, is products day, scheduled on Thursday, where features of the latest and greatest in the market will be highlighted. All in all, the program promises to be invigorating, challenging, and a lot of fun. To date, the conference registration has surpassed our expectations.

We hope you will have a chance to explore Vancouver's numerous attractions, including its many beautiful gardens, the world famous Stanley Park and its seawall, Grouse Mountain, Granville Island, and Capillano suspension bridge, in addition to enjoying the conference itself.

Numerous people have worked hard for months and have contributed to the technical program and to the overall organization of the conference. We'd like to take this opportunity to recognize all their contributions and offer our debt of gratitude for their commitment, dedication, hard work, and sacrifice for ensuring that this joint conference is a success. In particular, our sponsorship chair, Renee J. Miller, deserves our special thanks for her spectacular job.

We look forward to seeing you in Vancouver.

Sincerely, Laks V.S. Lakshmanan (SIGMOD General co-chair)
Raymond T. Ng (SIGMOD General co-chair)
Phokion Kolaitis (PODS General chair)