DATE is held every year in Europe in the first quarter of the year. The current
agreement is that in even years DATE will be held in Paris, France, and in odd years in
Munich, Germany.

The time line of major yearly Conference milestones is given in the following figure:

The Conference and Exhibition are co-located.
The duration of the total Event will be five days, following a scheme like the one
shown below:

In this scheme the day before the Conference will be reserved for speakers invited by the DATE Executive Committee to present Tutorials and Workshops of current professional interest. This day is also used to build up the Exhibition and to prepare the attendee registration.

The Event usually starts with an Opening Session with invited Keynote speakers. The Exhibition is officially opened after this Opening Session.

The three days of the Conference will be used for presentation of technical papers. The papers presented will be selected from those submitted for peer review. The Conference Program Committee will select the papers and then arrange them into sessions according to the format designed by the Conference Program Chair. At the option of the Conference Program Chair, other presentations of general interest, including panels, hot topics, embedded tutorials, Design sessions, PCB sessions, etc. may be included in the three days of the Conference. The number of parallel sessions is determined by the Conference Program Chair in consultation with the General Chair.

Parallel to the Conference the Exhibition will be organised by the DATE Executive Committee, as advised by the Exhibition Program Committee. A time line for major Exhibition milestones is the following:

Acceptance of exhibitors at the DATE Exhibition is at the sole discretion of the DATE Executive Committee. Initial screening of potential exhibitors will be done by the contracted Exhibition Secretariat. Policies will be established to reach a fair distribution of the available exhibition space. Final resolution of contested decisions will be made and confirmed in writing by the Exhibition Program Chair and the General Chair and reported to the DATE Executive Committee at the next scheduled meeting. The Exhibition Program Chair is responsible for the technical program accompanying the Exhibition and initiates, incorporates and balances contents, time, space and cost of the University booth, Vendor presentations, Embedded System tutorials, hands-on sessions, etc.

In this scheme the fifth day of the Event is reserved for vendor related user groups, and it is advertised as such. DATE is not involved in the organisation of such user group or other meetings, and makes no space available to them. DATE may however publicise such events if it expects to draw more attendees for the Conference and Exhibition by doing so.

Outside session hours will be allocated to Fringe Meetings related to professional design and test topics. Topics should be complementary to the goals of the Conference, and they should be accepted by the Fringe Meeting Chair and approved by the DEC. Such meetings are not sponsored by the Conference other than by making space available for them. Time and space allocation is the responsibility of the Fringe Meeting Chair. DATE shall not be financially or otherwise liable for Fringe Meetings. Fringe Meetings can be published by DATE in its Program booklet and on its Web page, but this holds only for those held within the time limits set for Fringe Meetings by the DEC.