Structure of the Meeting

We aim at covering each session topic and its sub-topics with well-targeted, invited and contributed talks. There will be a sub-session highlighting the poster contributions.

We will consider not only the techniques and the resulting data sets, but the thinking which leads to particular choices of the instrumentation in order to attain the scientific goals. A self-critical element will be important throughout this joint discussion.

So that this joint discussion does not get lost in technique, one session of it will illustrate the “new science” from surveys, particularly in relation to the Milky Way and its components, and to the Local Group. To provide this balance is one reason why 1.5 rather than 1.0 days were proposed for this meeting.

The other reason is to provide time for the final discussion, the heart of this meeting. This discussion will be conducted in a panel form, with a well-chosen moderator, who can encourage participation from all attendees. As an aid to this, participants will be invited to produce, during the overnight break in the JD, brief written reflections and proposals both for getting the best out of surveys and for helping the communication between survey teams and the astronomical community.

List of Topics

• Survey examples: photometric, spectroscopic, kinematic
• Impact on Galactic astronomy
• Limitations: photometric accuracy, spectroscopic discrimination, calibration, synthesis
• Future strategies and discussion