Call for Bids to Host IJCNLP-2011

Asian Federation of Natural Language Processing (AFNLP) hereby invites proposals to host IJCNLP-2011. This conference will be the 5th bi-annual flagship conference organized by AFNLP.

At this time, we seek draft proposals from prospective bidders. Based on an evaluation of the draft proposals received, promising bidders will be asked to provide additional information as needed for the final selection.

The AFNLP Executive Committees will select the General Chair, Program Committee Co-Chairs and all other Chairs for the conference (e.g., Tutorial Chair, Demo Chair, Publications Chair, Student Co-Chairs), except the Local Arrangements Chair.

Draft proposals should identify a Local Arrangements Chair, who will be responsible for activities such as arranging meeting rooms, equipment, refreshments, housing, on-site registration, participant e-mail access, security for equipment, the reception, the banquet, and working with the General Chair and the AFNLP Executive Committee to develop the budget and registration materials.

Draft proposals are due on January 31, 2010. They will be evaluated by the AFNLP Executive Committee by February 28, 2010.? Promising bidders will then be contacted and asked to provide further information due by March 28, 2010. The final bid will be chosen by April 12, 2010.
The conference should take place in October-December 2011.

Draft proposals should include information:

• Location (accessibility; conference venue, e.g., hotel or university; accommodations, e.g., hotels, motels, student housing)
• Proposed dates
• Local Arrangements team (chair/co-chair, committee, volunteer labor, registration handling)
• Local Computational Linguistics community (if any)
• Meeting venues (space for plenary sessions, tutorials, workshops, posters, exhibits, demos and small meetings)
• High speed, all-ports-open, easy-to-use internet access for participants.
• A/V equipment
• Food/entertainment/banquet/receptions
• Sponsorships
• Budget estimates

Proposals will be evaluated in relation to a number of site selection criteria (unordered):

• Experience of local arrangements team
• Local CL community support
• Local government and industry support
• Accessibility and attractiveness of proposed site
• Appropriateness of proposed dates
• Adequacy of conference and exhibit facilities for the anticipated number of registrants
• Adequacy of residence accommodations and food services in a range of price categories and close to the conference facilities
• Reasonableness of expected registration fees.
• Adequacy of budget projections and expected surplus
• Geographical and national balance with regard to the previous or currently planned conferences: Beijing, China (COLING-2010), Singapore (ACL-IJCNLP-2009), Hyderabad, India (IJCNLP-2008), Sydney, Australia (COLING/ACL-2006), Jeju Island, Korea (IJCNLP-2005), Hainan Island, China (IJCNLP-2004), Sapporo, Japan (ACL-2003), and Hong Kong (ACL-2000)

Information about AFNLP and past IJCNLP conferences can be found at http://www.afnlp.org

Please send draft proposals electronically to:

Professor Yuji Matsumoto
Graduate School of Information Science
Nara Institute of Science and Technology
8916-5, Takayama, Ikoma, Nara 630-0192, Japan
Email: matsu@is.naist.jp
Phone: +81-743-72-5240???? Fax: +81-743-72-5249

Important Dates:

November 16, 2009: Call for Bids Posted
January 31, 2010: Draft proposals due
February 28, 2010: AFLNLP Conference Coordinating Committee provides feedback to bidders
March 28, 2010: Promising bidders provide requested information
April 12, 2010: Bid selected