The Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) hereby invites proposals to host the annual ACL conference in the Asia-Pacific Region in July or August 2024. At this time, we seek preliminary draft proposals from prospective bidders in relevant regions. Promising bidders will be asked to provide additional information for the final selection.
ACL 2024 will be organized in collaboration with AACL. The ACL 2024 Coordinating Committee, made up of representatives of the ACL and representatives from the AFNLP, will select the General Chair and the Program Committee Co-Chairs for the conference. Draft proposals should identify Local Arrangements Chair(s), who will work with the General Chair and the Coordinating Committee to develop a detailed conference plan and budget.
To facilitate conference organization, bidders may delegate tasks of their choice to a Professional Conference Organizer (PCO) and/or to the ACL Office (Priscilla Rasmussen). Bid guidelines, including expense and task list templates and additional useful links, are provided at:
http://aclweb.org/adminwiki/index.php?title=Bid_Guidelines
The template for local expenses is available at:
http://ftp.cs.toronto.edu/pub/gh/ACL-conference-bid-template-CURRENT.xlsx
== Bid Highlights ==
Draft proposals should include information on the following:
- Estimates of the anticipated number of registrants
- Location (accessibility; conference venue, e.g., hotel or convention center; accommodation; dining options; social event venue; capability to host the registrants predicted)
- Proposed dates. Religious and local national holidays should be avoided, as much as possible.
- Local arrangements team (chair/co-chair, committee, PCO, volunteer labor, registration handling; description of any experience the team has had in organizing academic conferences, including the number of participants at those conferences)
- Local Computational Linguistics community (the size and impact of local R&D groups on NLP and related disciplines)
- Meeting venues (rooms and capacities for plenary and parallel 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, poster sessions
- Local sponsorship
- Safety of the region/local neighbourhood (venue and proposed accommodations) for all ethnicities, sexual orientations and genders, or a plan to ensure safety
- Physical disability access (i.e., mobility access)
- Availability/cost of a vision assistant for visually challenged conference participants
- Availability of a single-usage nursing room
- Onsite childcare for 10 children ages 6 months through 12 years, for all days of the conference, 8:30am-6pm, including tutorials and workshops.
- Non-gendered restroom access onsite
- Onsite quiet room
- Onsite prayer
- Access to food onsite for restricted diets, if there is food provided (religious constraints/vegans/vegetarians/widespread allergies and intolerances such as gluten-free)
- Local expenses estimates spreadsheet (using template provided; link above)
== Evaluation ==
Proposals will be evaluated according to the following criteria (in no particular order):
- Experience, flexibility, and creativity of local arrangements team
- Local Computational Linguistics community support
- Local government and industry support
- Accessibility and attractiveness of the proposed site
- Suitability of proposed dates
- Adequacy of conference and exhibit facilities for the anticipated number of registrants
- Adequacy of accommodation and food services across a range of price categories and close to the conference facilities
- Adequacy of expense projections
- Geographical balance with regard to ACL and NAACL region in the decade prior to 2024.
== Background and Important Dates ==
Location information of major regionally-relevant conferences:
- ACL: 2018 Melbourne, Australia; 2015 Beijing, China; 2012 Jeju Island, South Korea; 2009 Singapore
- EMNLP: 2019 Hong Kong, China; 2014 Doha, Qatar; 2012 Jeju Island, South Korea; 2009 Singapore
- IJCNLP: 2019 Hong Kong, China; 2017 Taipei, Taiwan; 2013 Nagoya, Japan; 2011 Chiang Mai, Thailand
- COLING: 2022 Geyeongju, South Korea; 2016 Osaka, Japan; 2012 Mumbai, India
- LREC: 2018 Miyazaki, Japan
Important dates
- September, 2021: Call for bids
- November 30, 2021: Notify intention to submit proposal
- January 21, 2022: Draft proposals due
- Through March 1, 2022: Feedback to bidders
- March 31, 2022: Final bids due
- May, 2022: Bid selected and site announced during ACL 2022
For any queries please contact
Iryna Gurevych (gurevych [at] ukp.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de): ACL2024 Coordinating Committee Chair,
or
Priscilla Rasmussen (acl.rasmussen [at] gmail.com).
Please send notifications of intent and draft proposals to:
Iryna Gurevych, gurevych [at] ukp.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de
Priscilla Rasmussen, acl.rasmussen [at] gmail.com
David Yarowsky, yarowsky [at] gmail.com