Difference between revisions of "Publicity chair duties"

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==Publicity Chair==
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==Publicity Chair (and Social Media Chair)==
  
 
'''[[Conference_Handbook|Conference Handbook]] - Publicity Chair Duties'''  
 
'''[[Conference_Handbook|Conference Handbook]] - Publicity Chair Duties'''  
  
The publicity chair has two major roles:
+
Author: Wei Xu, Barbara Plank, Eduard Hovy, Shiqi Zhao (April 2017)
  
* International: Disseminating information about the conference (calls for papers, etc.) to the largest possible appropriate technical audience
 
* Local: Accessing and bringing in the press at the time of the conference
 
  
It is important that both these roles be fulfilled, but not that they be fulfilled by the same person. Quite commonly, local publicity is handled by someone in the Local Arrangements Committee. General technical publicity can be handled by the General Chair or a designee.  In recent conferences, the local chair has also been handed the duty of creating the conference handbook, for subsequent printing and distribution by the proceedings chair(s).
 
 
===International Dissemination: Technical Community===
 
  
# Publications
+
In some conferences, there maybe a dedicated social media chair. If not, the publicity chair will also be responsible for promoting the conference on social media platforms.
#* ACL Finite String and Computational Linguistics
 
#* AAAI Magazine
 
#* Machine Translation journal
 
#* IEEE Computer
 
#* Communications of the ACM
 
# bboards and technical associations
 
#* ACL bboard
 
#* SIGIR bboard
 
#* ACL SIG bboards
 
#* AMTA bboard
 
#* HCI bboards
 
#* Speech processing bboards
 
  
===Local Dissemination: Press===
+
'''The publicity chair has three major roles:'''
  
* PR for press and TV
+
* International (main responsibility): Disseminating information about the conference (calls for papers, etc.) to the largest possible appropriate technical audience
* may use sponsorship to motivate a press breakfast
+
* Social Media (main responsibility): Initiating and maintaining a social media stream before and during the conference (e.g., Facebook and Twitter). We should consider setting up a single Facebook and Twitter for all main conferences.
 +
* Local: Accessing and bringing in the press at the time of the conference
  
Author: Eduard Hovy, 2000, from notes by Rick Wojcik and Gary Coen
 
 
 
 
 
===Proposal for a Three-member Publicity Committee===
 
  
====Membership====
+
'''Important instructions and warnings:'''
* one person from the Local Arrangements Committee (with easy access to all practical info, the conference website, local publicity channels, including whom to invite from press and media, etc) If the conference website is maintained by the local organizer, this member of the Publicity Committee should be the one to liaise with those responsible for the website in order to ensure some sort of conformity, both in content and in presentation.
+
* Many mailing lists or websites may require several days to register and another several days have messages posted. Start registering and posting at least a week in advance! 
* one person from the Program Committee (with easy access to all content related info)
+
* The major role of the publicity chair is to advertise the conference and inform people of important updates. Hence, continuous communication with the general chair, local chair, website chair and program chairs is necessary.
* one person appointed specifically to the committee who would focus on mailings and mailing lists: preparing a list of all groups that conference announcements should go to (or updating the one from the previous year!); possibly preparing targeted versions of announcements for industry, neighboring fields (e.g., AI, CogSci IR, HCI, etc.) and outlying regions (e.g., Eastern Europe, Middle East, Latin America, etc.), based on information about the Program, the Workshops, the Tutorials, and the Scientific Demos.
 
  
In addition, Priscilla should be involved, as she is already taking care of many of the publicity activities anyway.
 
 
====Publicity Scenario====
 
  
=====A. Pre-conference publicity=====
+
===International Dissemination (CFP and mailing lists) ===
  
The main activity appears to be relaying electronic announcements sent out by Priscilla to various other mailing lists, and asking editors of newsletters and websites to include an explicit pointer to the conference.  
+
#'''Websites for posting calls for papers''':
If there are related conferences/workshops shortly prior to the ACL conference, the Committee could develop flyers to be distributed there. What the flyers could contain depends on what is known about the conference and related activities (workshops, tutorials, etc.) at the time of the related conference/workshop. This has a cost, but it was for other reasons that flyers were not prepared for distribution at COLING'2000. For ACL'2001, the Committee could consider distributing flyers at NAACL'2001, once the cost issue is resolved. (See III.)
+
#* '''ACL Portal''' (https://www.aclweb.org/portal/)
 +
#* '''WikiCFP''' (http://www.wikicfp.com/cfp/)
 +
#* Eventseer (http://eventseer.net/)
 +
# '''NLP mailing lists''':
 +
#* '''Connectionist'''
 +
#* '''Corpora'''
 +
#* '''Linguist List'''
 +
#* ML news
 +
#* MT list
 +
#* Omid's NLP conference calendar
 +
#* SemEval
 +
#* SIGIR
 +
#* SIGLEX
 +
#* SIGDIAL
 +
#* SIGGEN
 +
#* SIGPARSE
 +
#* SIGHAN
 +
#* SIGMORPHON
 +
#* SIGSEM
 +
#* SIGWAC
 +
#* SIGMOL
 +
#* the list of all SIGs (https://www.aclweb.org/adminwiki/index.php?title=SIG_Compliance)
 +
# NLP regional groups
 +
#* AFNLP (http://www.afnlp.org/)
 +
#* ALTA (Australiasian Language Technology)
 +
#* UK
 +
#* Japan (http://www.anlp.jp/en/rules/ML.html)
 +
#* Taiwan
 +
#* China
  
=====B. At-conference publicity=====
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===Social Media===
  
The Local Arrangements chair organised a press conference during the conference, with (paid) assistance of a professional agency. The Publicity Committee prepared background information. This would be one of the responsibilities of the member of the committee from the Local Arrangements group, as they are most likely to have easy access to such information as the history of the organising university, its track record in international activities and in NLP, names of local VIPs that ought to be included, participation statistics, etc). Background information is also needed about the program: why were specific formats and themes chosen, some statistics about submission and rejection, choice and background of invited speakers, etc. So this should involve the member of the Publicity Committee from the Program Committee.  
+
* Establish feeds in Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere for the conference, with the appropriate hashtag name. Try to avoid hashtag clash, for example, by using  #acl2016berlin instead of #acl2016. #aclYEAR is typically used for a sports event (e.g., https://twitter.com/TheAFCCL). For EMNLP, NAACL, EACL we don't seem to have this issue. 
Besides the Press Conference, the Publicity Committee might consider other forms of publicity to the local community (city, state, county, etc.) both right before and during the Conference.  
+
* Before the conference, broadcast interesting updates (invited speakers, social events, awards, etc.).  
+
* Perhaps include the hashtag in an appropriate message in the conference handbook? 
====Remaining Questions====
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* Arrange for a team of people (especially students) to actively post messages at the conference using the hashtag.
 +
* Ask the conference chair to announce the social media during the opening.
  
Should the Publicity Committee consider types of publicity for which funds are required, and if so, who pays--ACL or the conference? For example, posters. Steven Krauwer (Publicity Co-Chair, ACL 2000) said they decided against posters because they tend to be very expensive, and he has never seen any evidence that they are effective.
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===Local Dissemination (Press) ===
 
 
Author: Bonnie Webber, in discussion with Stephen Krauwer, 2000.
 
  
==ACL-IJCNLP09 Publicity Items==
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The Press is usually interested in the following kinds of topics:
 +
* A major breakthrough that changes society (rare if ever)
 +
* A famous invited speaker (like a big name from Google)
 +
* Some unusual demo or event
  
This section of this note shall act as a bulletin board for publicly important updates to the ACL-IJCNLP 2009 publicity chairs, Andy Way and Min-Yen Kan.
+
If the conference has none of these, you’re unlikely to interest a reporter. But do try! For ACL and EMNLP, there are local organizers who may help. At ACL 2010 in Sweden, the TV station interviewed several people and broadcasted on national news. Below is an example email that we sent to local media for NAACL 2016, that you would need to update and improve before sending it.
  
Done:
+
-----------------------------------------
* Sep 08: budget approved by General Chair - includes local conference publicity and banners.
+
Dear XXXXXX,
* Sep 08: circulated call to corpora, SIGIR list.
+
 
...
+
We would like to draw your attention to an annual international computer science conference -- NAACL (http://naacl.org/naacl-hlt-2016/) -- that is to be held on June 12-17 in San Diego for the first time.
* Jul 09: newsletter circulated to all ACL members.
+
 
* Jul-Aug 09: conference handbook compiled.
+
It is a week-long annual conference of the Association for Computational Linguistics, the premier international scientific and professional society for people working on computational problems involving human language. More than 800 computer science researchers in the Artificial Intelligence area will gather together to discuss and present their recent discoveries in machine learning algorithms and various applications, such as deep learning, machine translation, social media analysis, knowledge bases, dialog and interactive systems, to name just a few.  
* Aug 09: press conference held (but no press arrived, even after much publicity with reporters)
+
 
* Aug 09: at-conference and post-conference blog posts updated. Flickr group for photos created by Dong Minghui (webmaster) and files uploaded by us.  
+
This year’s program consists of 6 half-day tutorials, 100+ talks and 15 full-day workshops. Attendees include students, professors, researchers, software engineers, entrepreneurs from both universities and industry ranging from large companies such as Google, Microsoft, Bloomberg to small start-up companies. Two keynote speeches will be delivered by Regina Barzilay, a professor of MIT and Ehud Reiter, the Chief Scientist of Arria NLG, a UK-based company offering Artificial Intelligence technology in data analytics.  
 +
 
 +
We would like to invite you to attend the event. If you are interested in reporting on the event or need more detailed information, please feel free to contact us at any time.  
 +
 
 +
XXX XXX (University of XXXXXX -- xxx@xxxxx.edu) <br>
 +
XXX XXX (University of XXXXXX -- xxx@xxxxx.edu) <br>
 +
NAACL 2016 Publicity Chair and General Chair
 +
 
 +
=== Example Tasks and Timeline from ACL2017 ===
 +
==== Social Media ====
 +
** Recommended platforms: Facebook, Twitter
 +
** Optional platform: Instagram
 +
** Reference* social media accounts: Facebook@acl2017 Twitter@acl2017 Instagram@aclnlp
 +
 
 +
==== Chairs to communicate with ====
 +
** General Chair
 +
** Program Co-Chairs
 +
** Web master
 +
** Local Organizing Committee
 +
 
 +
==== Timeline: (Approximate) ====
 +
A. As soon as chair is selected:
 +
* Create/get access to social media accounts and fill with conference information
 +
* Identify media outlets with local organizing committee (e.g. university press, tech magazines, tv stations, etc). Optional: national or international media outlets
 +
 
 +
B. Oct - Feb, mainly information dissemination
 +
* First, second and last CFP
 +
* Call-for-participation of tutorials, demos, etc.
 +
* Any social media updates suggested by chairs
 +
* Reach out to media outlets
 +
 
 +
C. Feb - Jun
 +
* Promote information from Program Co-Chairs and General Chairs
 +
* Confirm with chairs on official hashtag and announce via social media
 +
* Promote registration when the website is up
 +
* Promote accepted papers
 +
* Promote conference venue information
 +
* Promote other misc informations on the conference website (e.g. reminder for visa application, conference hotel booking, etc.)
 +
* Follow up with media outlets
 +
 
 +
D. July - Before Conference
 +
* Reminder of registration deadlines (early, regular and onsite)
 +
* Promote about invited speakers and other conference activities
 +
* Promote any info requested by the chairs
 +
 
 +
E. During Conference
 +
* Promote reminders of all the main events/activities, as well as tutorial and workshop information
 +
* Work with webmaster and chairs to disseminate any important information; also to  make sure there's no discrepancy in schedule between difference sources (e.g. handbook vs conference app)
 +
* Promote any last min changes or correction
 +
* Take photos of sessions, optional: post to instagram
 +
* Re-tweet important posts
  
 
[[Category:Conference Handbook]]
 
[[Category:Conference Handbook]]

Latest revision as of 05:50, 9 September 2017

Publicity Chair (and Social Media Chair)

Conference Handbook - Publicity Chair Duties

Author: Wei Xu, Barbara Plank, Eduard Hovy, Shiqi Zhao (April 2017)


In some conferences, there maybe a dedicated social media chair. If not, the publicity chair will also be responsible for promoting the conference on social media platforms.

The publicity chair has three major roles:

  • International (main responsibility): Disseminating information about the conference (calls for papers, etc.) to the largest possible appropriate technical audience
  • Social Media (main responsibility): Initiating and maintaining a social media stream before and during the conference (e.g., Facebook and Twitter). We should consider setting up a single Facebook and Twitter for all main conferences.
  • Local: Accessing and bringing in the press at the time of the conference


Important instructions and warnings:

  • Many mailing lists or websites may require several days to register and another several days have messages posted. Start registering and posting at least a week in advance!
  • The major role of the publicity chair is to advertise the conference and inform people of important updates. Hence, continuous communication with the general chair, local chair, website chair and program chairs is necessary.


International Dissemination (CFP and mailing lists)

  1. Websites for posting calls for papers:
  2. NLP mailing lists:
  3. NLP regional groups

Social Media

  • Establish feeds in Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere for the conference, with the appropriate hashtag name. Try to avoid hashtag clash, for example, by using #acl2016berlin instead of #acl2016. #aclYEAR is typically used for a sports event (e.g., https://twitter.com/TheAFCCL). For EMNLP, NAACL, EACL we don't seem to have this issue.
  • Before the conference, broadcast interesting updates (invited speakers, social events, awards, etc.).
  • Perhaps include the hashtag in an appropriate message in the conference handbook?
  • Arrange for a team of people (especially students) to actively post messages at the conference using the hashtag.
  • Ask the conference chair to announce the social media during the opening.

Local Dissemination (Press)

The Press is usually interested in the following kinds of topics:

  • A major breakthrough that changes society (rare if ever)
  • A famous invited speaker (like a big name from Google)
  • Some unusual demo or event

If the conference has none of these, you’re unlikely to interest a reporter. But do try! For ACL and EMNLP, there are local organizers who may help. At ACL 2010 in Sweden, the TV station interviewed several people and broadcasted on national news. Below is an example email that we sent to local media for NAACL 2016, that you would need to update and improve before sending it.


Dear XXXXXX,

We would like to draw your attention to an annual international computer science conference -- NAACL (http://naacl.org/naacl-hlt-2016/) -- that is to be held on June 12-17 in San Diego for the first time.

It is a week-long annual conference of the Association for Computational Linguistics, the premier international scientific and professional society for people working on computational problems involving human language. More than 800 computer science researchers in the Artificial Intelligence area will gather together to discuss and present their recent discoveries in machine learning algorithms and various applications, such as deep learning, machine translation, social media analysis, knowledge bases, dialog and interactive systems, to name just a few.

This year’s program consists of 6 half-day tutorials, 100+ talks and 15 full-day workshops. Attendees include students, professors, researchers, software engineers, entrepreneurs from both universities and industry ranging from large companies such as Google, Microsoft, Bloomberg to small start-up companies. Two keynote speeches will be delivered by Regina Barzilay, a professor of MIT and Ehud Reiter, the Chief Scientist of Arria NLG, a UK-based company offering Artificial Intelligence technology in data analytics.

We would like to invite you to attend the event. If you are interested in reporting on the event or need more detailed information, please feel free to contact us at any time.

XXX XXX (University of XXXXXX -- xxx@xxxxx.edu)
XXX XXX (University of XXXXXX -- xxx@xxxxx.edu)
NAACL 2016 Publicity Chair and General Chair

Example Tasks and Timeline from ACL2017

Social Media

    • Recommended platforms: Facebook, Twitter
    • Optional platform: Instagram
    • Reference* social media accounts: Facebook@acl2017 Twitter@acl2017 Instagram@aclnlp

Chairs to communicate with

    • General Chair
    • Program Co-Chairs
    • Web master
    • Local Organizing Committee

Timeline: (Approximate)

A. As soon as chair is selected:

  • Create/get access to social media accounts and fill with conference information
  • Identify media outlets with local organizing committee (e.g. university press, tech magazines, tv stations, etc). Optional: national or international media outlets

B. Oct - Feb, mainly information dissemination

  • First, second and last CFP
  • Call-for-participation of tutorials, demos, etc.
  • Any social media updates suggested by chairs
  • Reach out to media outlets

C. Feb - Jun

  • Promote information from Program Co-Chairs and General Chairs
  • Confirm with chairs on official hashtag and announce via social media
  • Promote registration when the website is up
  • Promote accepted papers
  • Promote conference venue information
  • Promote other misc informations on the conference website (e.g. reminder for visa application, conference hotel booking, etc.)
  • Follow up with media outlets

D. July - Before Conference

  • Reminder of registration deadlines (early, regular and onsite)
  • Promote about invited speakers and other conference activities
  • Promote any info requested by the chairs

E. During Conference

  • Promote reminders of all the main events/activities, as well as tutorial and workshop information
  • Work with webmaster and chairs to disseminate any important information; also to make sure there's no discrepancy in schedule between difference sources (e.g. handbook vs conference app)
  • Promote any last min changes or correction
  • Take photos of sessions, optional: post to instagram
  • Re-tweet important posts