A Dream come True

The peak of a scholar’s service to their academic community is to host them for their annual academic conference. I am humbled by the trust shown in me and my team by ARDIN President Hartmut Koenitz and the ARDIN Executive Board to host the ICIDS conference for 2025 on my native island of Malta. Being online for the past three editions, I only had on-site memories of ICIDS 2015 in Copenhagen, ICIDS 2018 in Dublin, Ireland hosted by my supervisor Mads Haahr and attracting a record number of 125 participants, and ICIDS 2021 in Tallinn, Estonia which was hosted at the University of Tallinn with their professional TV studio-like venue. I felt I had to live up to these standards and with the “knowledge limits creativity” mantra and not having any prior technical experience of livestreaming, we went all creative and came up with a massive technical setup that was a key element in the smooth running of the conference – “like a train”, as Program Chair Frank Nack described it on Friday evening. Program Chair Maria Cecilia Reyes “felt at home and so well taken care of” and I could see this on everyone’s face throughout the conference. I am blessed to have had a supportive team of colleagues (Silvio, Jeremy, Dunstan, Joe), alumni (Keith and Brigitte), ERASMUS interns (Thibaut, Freesia, and Lorenzo) and my wondefully supportive wife (Josielle), that together worked like a true “Kaleidoscopic Machine” to help me run this conference like a dream. I must not forget my partner-in-crime Charles Theuma for his logistical and financial support before, throughout, and after the conference. Karina, your marvellous artwork was all around us: on the stage, on our lanyward tags, on our menus, on our certificates. Thank you all, to each and every one of you participants and attendees for making this conference so special! See you all in Bangkok, Thailand for ICIDS 2026!