The annual meeting of the Classification Society of North America will be held June 12-15, 2003 in Tallahassee, Florida. Short courses will be offered on Thursday, June 12, followed by a conference reception that evening. The regular meeting, including the CSNA business meeting, conference banquet, and regular paper sessions will be scheduled from Friday morning, June 13 until midday on Sunday, June 15. All events will be held at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Tallahassee, and a block of rooms will be reserved at the hotel for conference attendees.

CSNA meetings are traditionally informal and interdisciplinary. Typically, there are at most two concurrent sessions at any time during the conference. The topics of the sessions include classification, cluster analysis, multidimensional scaling, data mining, among others. The presentations during these sessions include both applied and theoretical papers. The conference does not produce formal proceedings; however, abstracts of presented papers are typically distributed.

Tallahassee is located in the northern part of Florida, about 15 minutes from the Georgia border. Traveling by car, gulf coast beaches are accessible in about 1.5 to 2 hours. Atlanta, Tampa, and Orlando are approximately a four-hour drive, and New Orleans is about six hours away.

The organizers of the meeting are particularly interested in including a wide variety of contributed papers in applications and theory for classification, clustering, and related methodologies. Suggestions for invited paper sessions, panel discussions, short courses, invited speakers, are strongly encouraged. Please direct any suggestions to the Program Chair, Michael Brusco, Department of Marketing, College of Business, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, 32306-1110, telephone 850-644-6512, fax 850-644-4098, e-mail: mbrusco@cob.fsu.edu

A registration form for the conference:

1. Registration Form (MS Word file)
2. Short courses description (MS Word file)
3. Preliminary schedule with abstracts (MS Word file)

A block of rooms has been reserved at the conference hotel, Doubletree Hotel Tallahassee. The nightly rate is $85, excluding tax and fees. This rate is guaranteed through May 20, 2003. Reservations should be made by contacting the hotel directly, and please indicate that you are with the CSNA group when making reservations. The contact information for the hotel is provided below:

• Doubletree Hotel Tallahassee
• 101 South Adams Street
• Tallahassee, FL 32301
• Telephone: (850) 224-5000
• FAX: (850) 513-9516
• Thlap_ds@hilton.com

The major air carriers that serve the Tallahassee Municipal Airport are Delta, Northwest and U.S. Air. The airport is located on the South end of Tallahassee and it is approximately a $15 to $20 cab ride from the airport to the Doubletree. Complimentary airport shuttle service is provided based on availability.

Tallahassee is located in a northern part of Florida known as the "Big Bend" region. It is only about 15 minutes from the Georgia border. Interstate highway 10 provides the primary highway access to Tallahassee. Jacksonville, Florida is approximately 160 miles east of Tallahassee on Interstate 10, whereas Pensacola is 180 miles west. Tampa and Orlando are approximately 4 hours away (south) when traveling by car. Atlanta, Georgia is approximately a 4 to 4.5 hour drive, and New Orleans, Louisiana is roughly a 6-hour drive.

Tallahassee is an inland city. The gulf coast of Florida is roughly a 30- to 45-minute drive, and some very nice beaches (e.g., St. George Island) can be reached in approximately 90 minutes. Panama City Beach, Florida and Destin, Florida, which have a number good seafood restaurants and other attractions, are approximately a 2- to 3-hours away when traveling by car.

There are also a number of attractions in or near Tallahassee. Wakulla Springs is a nearby attraction, 20 minutes south of Tallahassee, that features glass bottom riverboat rides, swimming, and a small museum. The Tallahassee Museum of History and Natural Science is an outdoor attraction that features animals that are indigenous to Florida, such as panthers, bears, alligators, river otters, bobcats, and a variety of birds. Other attractions include the Mary Brogan Museum of Art & Science, Challenger Learning Center, Museum of Florida History, and the The Capitol / Old Capitol Museum.

If you are interested in presenting a contributed paper, please submit a 50-150 word abstract (plain text, MS Word, or PDF) to the Program Chair no later than May 1, 2003. You may submit the abstract via e-mail to: mbrusco@cob.fsu.edu, or by regular post to Michael Brusco, Department of Marketing, College of Business, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, 32306-1110.