The monthly preparation telecon for 2022 Sea Level Conference was organized on 24 August 2021, with the participation of 8 organizing committee members, including representatives from WCRP Sea Level Grand Challenge, local organizers and Jose Santos and Jing Li from ICPO.

Ms. Gwen Tan briefly introduced the current status of meeting venue options, safe management measures for organizing events in Singapore, virtual exhibition organization, sponsorship opportunity, estimated cost and the draft programme of the conference.

1. Two venue options in Singapore have been explored, both of which could facilitate the onsite Pre-Event Test (PET) (~30 mins) and PCR test (~2 hours). Costs for each PET or PCR test will have to be paid by each participant.
2. According to the current safe management rules, physical participants should be zoned in the big event room (differentiated with lanyard colors), with 50 participants maximum in each zone and one-meter safe distance between the seats. For participants who are not fully vaccinated, daily onsite PET tests are requested. VIP participants and speakers are advised to take PET one day before.  Participants with a negative PET result could get the badge and be granted the access to the meeting. Participants with a positive PET result will be requested to take a PCR test, and further actions will be taken if the PCR test is positive. For local participants who are fully vaccinated, not PET will be requested; and for foreigners who are fully vaccinated, the decision is to be announced. The issues that need to be further explored are which vaccines can be accepted and how to certify the vaccination.
3. Poster sessions are expected to go virtual, as the 50-participant zoning rule is also applied for onsite poster sessions, which will complicate the arrangement. However, the physical participants could gather in groups to join the virtual poster sessions and have some discussion, with a maximum of five participants at each table.
4. Virtual exhibition sessions can be arranged for the conference, but the timing should be carefully considered in order to facilitate the physical participants to join during the interval of the meeting and enable live communication between visitors and exhibitors. Participants are expected to use their own electronic devices to join the virtual exhibition session. A list of potential exhibitors will be prepared.   
5. Among the total estimated cost of the conference, the simultaneous translation cost takes a big portion of it. Jose reminded that we need also to include “small costs”, such as onsite staff and cost and catering, printing costs for the badge, lanyard and other material, etc. Sponsorship opportunities will be arranged and a list of potential sponsorship will be provided.
6. The draft programme of the conference has been developed by SL GC co-chairs, with three days arranged for Singapore time zone participants, and one day each arranged for Europe and US participants respectively. The Science Organizing Committee members of the conference are expected to provide their feedback to the draft programme by the end of September.
7. The conference website is expected to be launched in early October, and the abstract submission is to be open in November.
8. Permissions from the Singapore Tourist Board and Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) need to be obtained prior to the event. The local organizer will help explore the information required to get the permissions.
9. ICPO will help prepare the draft proposal for the conference to be submitted to US CLIVAR Open Call.
10. The next telecon will be organized on 13 September 2021.