ACL-IJCNLP 2015 Call for Bids

Call for Bids
ACL-IJCNLP 2015

53rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics and the 7th International Joint Conference on Natural Language Processing of the Asian Federation of Natural Language Processing

The Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) and the Asian Federation of Natural Language Processing (AFNLP) hereby invite proposals to host the joint conference in the Asia-Australasia-Oceania region in July or August 2015.

At this time, we seek preliminary draft proposals from prospective bidders in the Asia-Pacific region. Promising bidders will be asked to provide additional information for the final selection.

The ACL 2015 Coordinating Committee, made up of representatives of the ACL and representatives of AFNLP, 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 and budget.

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 expense and task list templates and additional useful links are provided at: http://aclweb.org/adminwiki/index.php?title=Bid_Guidelines . A recent template for the local expenses is available here: http://ftp.cs.toronto.edu/pub/gh/ACL-conference-bid-template-Rev-2012062...

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 local 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
  • Local expenses 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
  • Adequacy of expense projections
  • Geographical balance with regard to ACL and IJCNLP meetings in the Asia-Pacific region in the decade prior to 2015 (2006 Sydney, Australia; 2008 Hyderabad, India; 2009 Singapore; 2011 Chiang Mai, Thailand; 2012 Jeju, Korea; 2013 Nagoya, Japan)

Important Dates:
November, 2012 - Final Call for Bids
January 31, 2013 - Notify intention to submit proposal
March 15, 2013 - Draft proposals due
Through May 1, 2013 - Feedback to bidders
May 30, 2013 - Final bids due
July 1, 2013 - Bid selected

The selected location for ACL 2015 will be announced at the ACL 2013 conference (Sofia, August 4-9, 2013).

For any queries please contact Gertjan van Noord, the Coordinating Committee chair. Please send notifications and draft proposals to:

Gertjan van Noord
Computational Linguistics
CLGG, University of Groningen
PO Box 716
NL 9700 AS Groningen
g.j.m.van.noord [at] rug.nl, gertjanvannoord [at] gmail.com