Good morning to everybody.

I am Iliano Cervesato, one of the Program Chairs of LPAR'08 and coordinator of
the the conference on the ground.  As such, please come to see me, or anybody
with a red ribbon on his/her badge, for any question you may have.  I already
know what the first one is going to be: "how do I get on the Internet?".
Connect to the QFLink wireless network and log in as a guest (but use
distractions sparingly).

Welcome to the 2008 edition of LPAR, the 15th International Conference on
Logic for Programming, Artificial Intelligence and Reasoning.  Over the last 15
years, LPAR has grown to become one of the most sought-after meetings in
computational logic in the conference circuit.  It is a laid back forum for
researchers around the world to present their work, to discuss advances in the
field, and to interact with other researcher.  LPAR'08 has more than fulfilled
this mission: we have delegates from more than 20 countries in this room.
Please make sure to talk to all of them!

It is wonderful to see so many of you here, especially since this is only the
second time that a scientific conference in Computer Science takes place in
Qatar.  Many of you, like me a couple of years ago, had to look up on a map
where exactly Qatar was, and I hope that, like me, you will be mesmerized by
the grandiose experiment in education and research that is taking shape here.
We, at Carnegie Mellon University, are proud to be part of it, and we are glad
that you too are part of it.

In spite of taking place in a little known (for now) corner of Asia, LPAR'08
has attracted many more submissions (154) than any previous edition of LPAR,
and out of these, the Program Committee has selected 45 presentations and an
additional 14 short talks, which will be presented over the next 5 days.  In
addition, 3 of the most influential researchers in computational logic
security have graciously accepted to give invited talks.  Specifically, 2007
Turing Award recipient Ed Clarke, Thomas Eiter and Michael Backes.  A fourth
speaker, 1996 Turing Award recipient Amir Pnueli regrettably had to cancel his
participation at the last minute for personal reasons.


Welcome to LPAR'08,
welcome to Carnegie Mellon University,
welcome to Education City,
welcome to Qatar!