2018Q3 Reports: Conference Handbook Chair

Jey Han Lau, IBM Research

Trevor Cohn, University of Melbourne

We read Matt Post's "handbook chair duties" and forked the handbook source code (https://github.com/naacl-org/naacl-handbook). We discussed with Priscilla and Shiqi to finalise timeline for the handbook creation, which is detailed below. Note that the deadlines are much more compressed than last year, as this time around the deadlines for paper decisions and camera ready is much closer to the conference date. Consequently the PC and workshop organisers had to start on scheduling before the camera ready deadlines, i.e., soon after acceptance decisions, which can be revised after camera ready.

We initially blocked some time off from June 14-21 to work on the handbook, but due to a number of delays most of the work was done between 18-25 June. We first worked on the local guide, enlisting help from colleagues who have run conferences here in previous years. We found a cover designer and had the cover ready by early June. We also started liaising with PC and workshop chairs early on to clarify some deadlines/expectation.

The planned timeline is given as follows:

• 1 May: Handbook draft, excluding conference and workshop data
• 1 June: Final tutorial program due
• 8 June: Final main conference program due (4 weeks for PC to assemble the “order” file)
• 14 June: Final workshop schedules and programs due (17 days for workshop chair to assemble the “order” file)
• 25 June: Final handbook for printing
• 12 July: Handbook arrives in Melbourne
• 15 July: ACL2018 conference starts