Call for Bids to Host ACL-2011

The Association for Computational Linguistics invites proposals to host the 49th Annual Meeting of the ACL, to be held in the Americas in June or July, 2011

At this time, we seek preliminary draft proposals from prospective bidders in America (North, Central, or South). Promising bidders will be asked to provide additional information for the final selection.

The ACL-2011 Coordinating Committee, made up of members of the Executive Committee of the ACL and members of the Chapter Board of its North American Chapter (NAACL), will select the General Chair and the Program Committee Co-Chairs for the conference. Draft proposals should identify a Local Arrangements Chair, who will work with the General Chair and the Coordinating Committee to develop a detailed plan, budget and registration materials.

To facilitate conference organization, bidders may delegate many tasks of their choice to a Professional Conference Organizer and/or to the ACL Office (Priscilla Rasmussen). Handy Bid Guidelines, including budget and task list templates and additional useful links are provided at: http://aclweb.org/adminwiki/index.php?title=Bid_Guidelines.

Bid Highlights: Draft proposals include information on the following:

  • Location (accessibility; conference venue, e.g., hotel or university; accommodation; dining options)
  • Proposed dates. Religious and U.S. national holidays should be avoided, as much as possible.
  • Local arrangements team (chair/co-chair, committee, volunteer labor, registration handling; describing any experience the team has had in organizing previous conferences and the number of participants at those conferences)
  • Local Computational Linguistics community
  • Meeting venues (space for sessions, tutorials, workshops, posters, exhibits, demos, small meetings and registration)
  • High-speed, all-ports-open, easy-to-use internet access
  • Audiovisual equipment
  • Catering, including breaks, receptions, banquet and entertainment (traditionally, dancing for participants at the banquet)
  • Local sponsorships
  • Budget estimates spreadsheet (template provided, linked from the Bid Guidelines)

Evaluation: Proposals will be evaluated according to the following criteria (unordered):

  • Experience of local arrangements team
  • Local CL community support
  • Local government and industry support
  • Accessibility and attractiveness of proposed site
  • Suitability of proposed dates
  • Adequacy of conference and exhibit facilities for the anticipated number of registrants
  • Adequacy of residence accommodations and food services in a range of price categories and close to the conference facilities
  • Reasonableness of expected registration fees
  • Adequacy of budget projections and expected surplus, and use of ACL's budget spreadsheet
  • Geographical and national balance with regard to ACL and NAACL meetings in the Americas in the decade prior to 2011 (Philadelphia in 2002, Boston in 2004, Edmonton in 2003, Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2005, New York City in 2006, Rochester, New York in 2007, Columbus, Ohio in 2008, Boulder, Colorado in 2009, Los Angeles in 2010).

Important Dates:

December, 2008 - Final Call for Bids
February 15, 2009 - Notify intention to submit proposal
March 15, 2009 - Draft proposals due
Through May 1, 2009 - Feedback to bidders
June 1, 2009 - Final bids due
July 15, 2009 - Bid selected

For any queries please contact Ido Dagan, the Coordinating Committee chair. Please send notifications and draft proposals to:

Ido Dagan
Department of Computer Science
Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, Israel
Email: dagan @ cs . biu . ac . il
Phone: +972 54 4395336
Fax: +972 3 7384056