Registration and booking
Booking and payment for the conference is done electronically, using the dedicated booking website linked to below. The booking website is hosted at Edinburgh on the university's secure payment system, so you'll be paying the University of Edinburgh (don't let this confuse you, the conference is in Manchester...). The booking requires a credit or debit card. If you are not able to book using the electronic booking system for any reason (or have a problem using it), please get in touch: patrick.honeybone@ed.ac.uk.

We have decided to hold the fees at 2010 levels, again. No-one's got much money at the moment. This means that the full-price full package conference charge will be GBPounds 130.00, and the full package conference charge at the 'reduced rate' for students and unwaged participants will be GBP 65.00. The full package includes all meals during the conference (apart from breakfast, which you may want to book at your hotel). It is also possible to book for individual selected items if you do not want to book all or any meals, and this will reduce the price you have to pay. The list of items that the full package includes, and which you can choose from if you book for only selected items, is as follows (with 'selected items' prices at the full-rate/reduced-rate). Buying the full package is slightly cheaper than paying for all the items individually.

• the conference fee (NB: everyone has to pay the conference fee; it covers room hire, coffee and biscuits and such things) [GBP 65.00/35.00]
• midday meal on 24th May (at Hulme Hall) [GBP 12.00/6.00]
• evening meal on 24th May (at a Manchester restaurant) [GBP 17.50/8.75]
• midday meal on 25th May (at Hulme Hall) [GBP 12.00/6.00]
• evening meal on 25th May (at a Manchester restaurant) [GBP 17.50/8.75]
• midday meal on 26th May (at Hulme Hall) [GBP 12.00/6.00]

Please follow the instructions below to book. Unfortunately, all university-run electronic booking systems seem to be horribly complex, and this one is no exception. We're sorry that it might infuriate you a little as you go through the steps, but please persevere, and let us know if you have any problems. 

 The booking website is available here - click on this link to start the booking process. The booking website will open in a new window, and you'll probably need to consult the instructions below as you use it. You will need to know what you'd like to book for (either the full package or selected items, as listed above) and whether or not you qualify for the reduced rate. You will need a credit or debit card handy, and you'll need to know the billing address for the credit card (this is the address that the card is registered to - if it's your card, it's likely to be your home address). You can use these cards to pay: Mastercard, Visa, Visa Debit, Visa Electron, Maestro. If you cannot pay using a card get in touch (patrick.honeybone@ed.ac.uk) and we'll fix another way for you to pay.

Firstly, click on the 'book event' button on the booking website. This will take you to a page entitled 'Login/Register'. If you've not used the University of Edinburgh's electronic payment system before, you'll need to register. You might well have used the system before - if you attended the 17mfm, 18mfm or 19mfm, or the OCP6 conference at Edinburgh, you will probably have booked through this system. If you did book for one of those events, you can log in to the system using your email address and the password that you selected when you last used the system, and go to the next bulletpoint, below. If you have forgotten your password, the system will email you a way to reset it if you follow the 'Forgotten your password?' instructions. If you haven't used the system before, you're a 'new customer', so you should click where it says 'If this is your first visit click here'. You'll need to enter your email address and then select a password, which can be anything you like. Sorry about this, but you have to register in this way before you can book for the conference. You'll need to enter 'Your Details' about you and 'Your Address'. We don't really need your address or your contact (phone) number, but the system requires us to ask you for it. You need to put something in all the boxes that are marked with a red star, but you can ignore the other boxes. The address box is annoying - you have the give your address a 'name' in the first box - call it 'home' and give your home address or call it 'work' and give your work address; or call it whatever you like. You need to tick the box to give permission to use your contact details (bizarrely) and then click on 'Continue'. After that, you should be logged in and be automatically directed to the 'Delegate Categories' page (see next bulletpoint).

You'll next come to the 'Delegate Categories' page. Select here whether you want to pay for the full package or selected items. If you choose the reduced rate, you will need to show evidence of your status when you register at the conference and pick up your participant's pack. If you want to book for selected items, you need to choose on this screen whether you'll be paying at the full or reduced rate.

You'll next have to fill in some of your details on the 'Delegate Details' page. If you click on 'Use my Customer Details' you should get some/all of the boxes filled in. If not, you'll have to fill in something in all the boxes that are marked with a red star by hand, but you can ignore the other boxes. The 'Delegate Address' box is again annoying - unless it already has a name, you'll have the give your address a name in the first box - call it 'home' and give your home address or call it 'work' and give your work address; or call it whatever you like. 

If you are booking 'selected items', the next page is entitled 'Conference Items'. If you want the full package, you won't see this page, so go on to the next bulletpoint, below. If you want to book for selected items, this is where you have to register what you'd like to book for. YOU MUST SELECT THE CONFERENCE FEE - that's obligatory, so everyone has to pay it - so tick that box and then tick the box for any of the meals that you'd like to book for (you don't have to book for any meals, if you don't want to, of course, but the meals are normally fun as they bring everyone together, so we adivse you to book for them if you can). Then click the 'Continue' button.

 The next page is a 'Questionnaire', where you need to tell us your institutional affiliation (that is, which university or institute you are connected to), whether you are vegetarian or have any other dietary requirements, and whether you require any particular assitance. You need to put something in the boxes, even if it's 'no'. But please put in your affiliation, and try to keep this short (so that it can fit on a badge).

You'll next come to the 'Booking Summary'. You can go back and change your booking by clicking on the 'Edit' button, or you can cancel the booking by clicking on the 'Cancel Booking' button. If your booking is right so far, click on the 'Add to Basket' button.

 The page after the 'Booking Summary' is your 'Shopping Basket'. Apparently. If it all looks right, click on 'Proceed to Checkout'.

On the next screen you might need to select a billing address - that has to match with the address registered for the credit card that you'll be using to pay with. You may need to select the Billing Address that you've already entered. if it's not right, change it by clicking on 'Edit'. Once this is right, you'll need to enter the details of the card that you'll be using to pay and click on 'Continue'

One more screen to go - you need to click on 'Confirm Your Order' here.

That should be it. All participants in the conference (apart from the invitees in the special session) need to book, and payment should be made before the conference. If you are not able to use the electronic booking system, or know that you will only be able to book after 11th May, please get in touch as soon as possible (patrick.honeybone@ed.ac.uk).

The conference fee does not cover accommodation, which you will need to book yourself (please use the information on the accommodation page to make your own arrangements).

NB: Some of you will probably also want to stay in Manchester during the evening of Saturday (26th May). For those that do, it might be nice to meet up for a post-conference meal. Jill Beckman has kindly agreed to organise a trip to a restaurant for the Saturday evening - this will be to the Genghis Khan Mongolian Barbecue restaurant in the centre of Manchester. If you would like to come along to the meal on the 26th, you will need to email Jill (jill-beckman@uiowa.edu) by 16th May, with "Genghis Khan" in the subject line of your message.

Cancellation policy: we will endeavour to refund any fees paid if you cancel by 14th May. Any cancellations after 14th May may not able to be fully refunded as we will have committed to certain payments on your behalf.

Special session
A special themed session is being organised for Friday 25th May by members of the organising committee and the advisory board. This will feature invited speakers, including those listed below, and will allow for open discussion when contributions from the audience will be very welcome.

Unsolved Problems in Phonology
The fact that the mfm is celebrating its twentieth anniversary has encouraged us to take stock of what phonology has achieved - and how much it has really progressed - in recent decades. We have therefore decided that the topic of the 20mfm will be "Unsolved Problems in Phonology", and we have invited a number of colleagues to discuss a key puzzle for phonological theory.

We have asked them to focus on problems for which there once was a solution that commanded widespread agreement within the phonological community, but where such consensus has since, for one reason or another, collapsed. In this sense, we are interested in how a "solved" problem can become "unsolved", with all that this implies for questions such as the causes of agreement and disagreement in the phonological community, and the extent of progress in phonological research. And, of course, we have chosen problems that we believe are all interesting in their own right.

The topics that we have asked our invited speakers to address are:
 Jacques Durand, Universite de Toulouse-Le Mirail: latent consonants [20th Anniversary Honorary Guest Speaker, as a founder of the mfm]
 Sharon Inkelas, University of California, Berkeley: nonderived environment blocking
 Donca Steriade, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: segment sequencing
 Nina Topintzi, Universitaet Leipzig: compensatory lengthening