gretl Conference 2009 Bilbao, may 28-29 Dear colleague: Some time ago, some users of the gretl Econometrics package e-mail list mentioned the possibility of promoting a first international meeting of gretl users. At the same time, one of the ideas that we had and that should be also promoted in this meeting is that it should also contribute, in a relevant manner, to the scientific development, and that it should also be a forum in which the use of free software is also advocated. Finally, with the valuable support of the School of Business Administration and Economics, the Department of Applied Economics III (Econometrics and Statistics), and the ERG research group, all from the University of the Basque Country (Bilbao, Spain), and also from the gretl development team, a small group of professors have decided to take this initial idea into practice and, thus, organize such an important event. This meeting will have the usual structure a scientific meeting has and it will take place at the School of Business Administration and Economics of the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain, on May 28-29, 2009. The scientific programme will include several invited sessions organized by the original gretl developers and, in addition, there will be one invited session with a talk given by Prof. D.S.G. Pollock, and several sessions in which authors interested to contribute will have the opportunity of present either an oral or a poster contribution. Topics of interest for this sessions include: - Teaching Econometrics and Statistics using free software - Implementation of some Econometric techniques in gretl - Methodological papers with a strong computational emphasis - Applications using gretl - Developing gretl The web site for the conference is at http://www.gretlconference.org Important dates: Submission Deadline:            January 15, 2009 Notification to Authors:          February 27, 2009 Registration Deadline:            April 30, 2009 Conference:                          May 28-29, 2009 We encourage gretl users to participate in this first meeting so that we all can contribute to the expected success of the event.  At the same time, we would like to ask you to pass this announcement to all people that you may consider have some interest in the use and advantages of this econometric package. Best regards and see you in Bilbao!! Local Organizing Committee gretl Conference 2009 ----------- PD: At the same time, If you would like to collaborate in announcing the conference. We prepared a poster announcing the meeting, that you may download at http://www.gretlconference.org/Poster.pdf and a "Call for papers" which is at http://www.gretlconference.org/CallForPapers.pdf Please, feel free to print them and put them at places where interested users from your institution may read them. You may also help sending this message to the lists or colleagues you know. Thank you for all your help. -- Ignacio Diaz-Emparanza DEPARTAMENTO DE ECONOMÍA APLICADA III (ECONOMETRÍA Y ESTADÍSTICA) UPV/EHU Avda. Lehendakari Aguirre, 83 | 48015 BILBAO T.: +34 946013732 | F.: +34 946013754 www.et.bs.ehu.es