Call for Bids to Host EMNLP 2024

New Draft Proposal Due Date & Bid Selected Date

  • May 29, 2023: Call for bids
  • Through June 15, 2023: Feedback to bidders
  • August 18, 2023: Draft proposals due (extended)
  • September 15, 2023: Bid selected (extended)

Introduction

SIGDAT (Special Interest Group on Linguistic Data & Corpus-based Approaches to Natural Language Processing) of ACL hereby invites proposals to host the annual EMNLP conference in Asia-Pacific, Europe, or MENA, Global South (Africa, Latin America, Mid and South Asia) with a preference for Global South, December 2024. Some of the proposals will also be considered for EMNLP in 2025 and beyond.

At this time, we seek preliminary draft proposals from prospective bidders in the relevant regions. Promising bids will be asked to provide additional information for the final selection.

The SIGDAT committee, together with the SIGDAT advisory committee, 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 SIGDAT 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). Bid guidelines follow that of ACL, including expense and task list templates and additional useful links, are provided on the ACL adminwiki.

The template for local expenses can be downloaded as an Excel spreadsheet.

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

Please list available conference weeks at the proposed venue in December, sorted in descending order of preference.

  • 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)
  • Local sponsorship
  • Meeting venues (rooms and capacities for plenary and parallel sessions, tutorials, workshops, posters, exhibits, demos, small meetings, and registration)

Please provide a listing of available potential room spaces for plenary sessions (e.g. 2000+ people), breakout sessions (e.g. 400+ people) and 15+ workshop/tutorial spaces of a wide variety of sizes.

  • Detailed plan for organizing a hybrid conference, as EMNLP will all be held as a hybrid conference in the future
  • High-speed, all-ports-open, easy-to-use internet access
  • AV equipment

Please provide a list of AV providers and sample prices for a typical EMNLP-conference configuration.

  • Catering, including breaks, receptions, poster sessions

Please provide sample prices of different kinds of coffee/refreshment breaks

  • 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 space
  • Access to food onsite for restricted diets, if there is food provided (religious constraints/vegans/vegetarians/widespread allergies and intolerances such as gluten-free)
  • Social event

Provide a list of possible locations for the mid-conference evening social event.

  • 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 proximity 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 conferences:

  • ACL: 2023 Toronto, CA; 2022 Dublin, Ireland; 2021 Bangkok, Thailand; 2020 fully virtual; 2019 Florence, Italy; 2018 Melbourne, Australia; 2017 Vancouver, Canada; 2016 Berlin, Germany; 2015 Beijing, China; 2014 Baltimore, USA; 2013 Sofia, Bulgaria; 2012 Jeju Island, Korea
  • EMNLP: 2023 Singapore; 2022 Abu Dhabi, UAE; 2021 Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, 2020 fully virtual; 2019 Hong Kong, China; 2018 Brussels, Belgium; 2017 Copenhagen, Denmark; 2016 Austin, USA; 2015 Lisbon, Portugal; 2014 Doha, Qatar; 2013 Seattle, USA; 2012 Jeju, South Korea
  • IJCNLP: 2023 Bali, Indonesia; 2021 Bangkok, Thailand; 2019 Hong Kong, China; 2017 Taipei, Taiwan; 2015 Beijing, China; 2013 Nagoya, Japan; 2011 Chiang Mai, Thailand
  • COLING: 2022 Geyeongju, South Korea; 2020 [Barcelona, Spain; 2018 Santa Fe, USA; 2016 Osaka, Japan; 2014 Dublin, Ireland; 2012 Mumbai, India
  • LREC: 2022 Marseille, France; 2020 Marseille, France; 2018 Miyazaki, Japan; 2016 Portorož, Slovenia; 2014 Reykjavik, Iceland; 2012 Istanbul, Turkey

Important dates

  • May 26, 2023: Call for bids
  • Through June 15, 2023: Feedback to bidders
  • June 30, 2023: Draft proposals due
  • July 31, 2023: Bid selected

For any queries please contact: