2016Q3 Reports: Sponsorship & Exhibition

ACL-2016 Sponsorship + Exhibition Report

Antal van den Bosch / Radboud University Priscilla Rasmussen / ACL

Sponsor acquisition for ACL-2016 has been a markedly successful joint endeavour of ACL Business Manager Priscilla Rasmussen and local chair Valia Kordoni. Reaching the $100,000 mark in sponsorships for the main conference is probably a new record in ACL sponsorship income.

ACL-2016 attracted the following sponsors: Google, Baidu, Amazon (Platinum Sponsors); Bloomberg, Facebook, eBay, Elsevier, Microsoft Research, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, and Maluuba (Gold Sponsors); Huawei Technologies, Zalando SE (Silver Sponsors); Nuance, Grammarly, Voicebox, Yandex, and Textkernel (Bronze Sponsors).

Exhibitors at ACL-2016 are: MIT Press (London Office), Morgan Claypool Publishers, Google, Bloomberg, Maluuba, and Textkernel.

As an alternative to the Student Lunch of past years, a new type of sponsored event was initiated: the “Recruitment Lunch”, where recruiting companies and universities can be present for a $500 sponsorship ticket. The aim of the lunch is to give recruiting companies and potential job seekers the opportunity to meet and discuss employment possibilities. The Recruitment Lunch will be held at the Maritim Hotel, Berlin, on Monday 8 August, 12.30-14.30, in advance of the ACL-2016 poster session in the same location. Participation of the lunch will be based on registration and availability, and will be capped at 400 participants.

While enjoying a free lunch offered at food stations, participants have the opportunity to meet recruiting organizations at a posterboard with a high-top table. Recruiting organizations can display information on the posterboard (A0 poster, portrait orientation) and can place a standing banner at the board. The fixed sponsorship fee of 500 Euros (565 USD) also grants one optional free attendance of this lunch by a recruitment staff member of the institution - company or research institution.

Sponsors of the Recruitment Lunch are Amazon, Google, Nuance, Sony, Textkernel, Zalando SE, Ocado Technology, Siemens, Almax Analytics, Dublin City University, and the University of Copenhagen.

The $500 nominal fee is intended to help defray some of the food/beverage costs, not to fully cover the costs. However, this does greatly reduce the ACL costs compared to previous years holding the Student Lunch (which had no support whatsoever).