Rejection rate at CLEO Europe EQEC

As we had a large number of submitted abstracts but a limited number of slots at the conference, the selection process was very fierce. About 50% of abstracts could be selected for talks, 25% for poster and unfortunately we had to reject about 25% of abstracts. This (relatively high) rejection rate is imposed by the CLEO/EQEC organization and does not necessarily reflect the will of the topical sub-committee (I would have liked to have more posters and less rejected papers). As the selection process is quite fierce, the abstract quality is a key factor. Here are a few hints to write better abstracts:
* state clearly your subject and the results you obtained
* explain how your work improves on the current knowledge or state-of-the-art
* if your abstract relates to a published article in a peer-reviewed journal, make it apparent.
* avoid parallel submission: do not multiply the abtracts on similar work