32nd International Meeting of Collectors and Researchers
of Slide Rules and other Historic Computing Instruments

ZOOM meeting on September, 12/13, 2026

As outlined on the IM2026 web page we had to switch from our inital plan of a face-to-face meeting to an online form, using the ZOOM system over the Internet. On the one hand it allows many more people to participate, but on the other hand the form used in previous years was a tiresome and not so nice experience for a number of people, mainly due to the situation of staring so long to a computer screen, a digital tablet or even a smartphone. For this reason we have modified the general setup to shorter sessions and a longer break between them, but we could not change the rotation of planet Earth with its time zones.

So here is the preliminary general schedule for both Saturday and Sunday,
with two sessions of 90 minutes each, and a 90 minutes break in between:

CEST  (UTC+2)

Central European Summer Time:   Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, Madrid, ...
17:00 – 18:30    first session
18:30 – 20:00    break
20:00 – 21:30    second session

BST  (UTC+1)

British Summer Time:   London, ...
16:00 – 17:30    first session
17:30 – 19:00    break
19:00 – 20:30    second session

EDT  (UTC-4)

Eastern Daylight saving Time:   New York, Boston, ..., US East Coast
11:00 – 12:30    first session
13:30 – 14:00    break
14:00 – 15:30    second session

PDT  (UTC-7)

Pacific Daylight saving Time:   San Francisco, Seattle, ..., US West Coast
08:00 – 09:30    first session
09:30 – 11:00    break
11:00 – 12:30    second session

UTC

reference time, historically GMT
15:00 – 16:30    first session
16:30 – 18:00    break
18:00 – 19:30    second session

For any other place/time zone you have to calculate the times of the schedule by adding/subtracting to/from UTC times. For a place like Melbourne in Australia (UTC+10) this results in the first session starting at 01:00 in the night. This is an issue of astrophysics. We are very sorry, but the wizzard magic powers of the IM organizer are unfortunately insufficient to change that (at least not on short notice).

Additionally:

• The ZOOM session starts 30 minutes before the first programme session for social gathering and sorting out any technical problems with the equipment and the connectivity.

  First time participants are encouraged to use this period for a very short introduction of themselves; that will make the meeting much more pleasant for everybody. Use the chance, and don't be shy.

• The ZOOM connection will technically run through during the break. You can use it to have a meal, to go to the bathroom, to paint a wall somewhere in the house, to please your partner and the kids in one way or other, or to whatever you can think of. You can also engage in a chat or just listen to the chats going on in the continuing ZOOM session. The long break is intended to do all that and to renew your acquaintance and friendship with fellow slide rule collectors. There will be no moderator for these 90 minutes; it's all up to you.

• Similar to the break, there will be an open end, running for any pending discussions — with a reasonable limit.