############################################################################## INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MACHINE LEARNING (ICML) 2017 CALL FOR SITE PROPOSALS ##############################################################################
In the summer of 2017, the 34th International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML-2017) will be held. We invite groups interested in hosting the conference to submit a letter of intent by March 31, 2015, and a complete proposal by May 31, 2015. Proposals from the Asia-Pacific region are particularly encouraged; however, proposals from elsewhere will also be given serious consideration. Past and future ICML locations and plans are: 2014: Beijing, China 2015: Lille, France 2016: New York, USA 2017: Asia-Pacific encouraged 2018: Europe, coordinated with Federated AI Conference 2019: USA, co-located with CVPR Proposals should address the following issues: 1. Proposed Dates. The conference should be scheduled for five-six days (two-three days reserved for workshops and tutorials; three days for paper sessions, poster sessions, and invited talks). The conference prefers dates in the range from June 15 to July 15, but other dates will be considered, particularly if they permit co-location with other related conferences. 2. Locale Parameters. - Cost issues. Historically ICML conferences have tried to keep attendance costs low, to encourage attendence from students and newcomers to the field. Thus the proposal should address the accessibility of the location---i.e., if is it easy and inexpensive for people (especially graduate students) to travel to the conference site. (To answer this question, please compute mean airfares from Europe, North America, and Asia, and discuss visa issues if relevant.) The proposal should also discuss whether meals and lodging available conveniently at reasonable cost. (To answer this question, please estimate costs for meals and lodging, and discuss the proximity to the conference site of eating places.) - Meeting Rooms, AV Equiment, etc. What are the physical facilities like? Consider rooms for plenary sessions, parallel sessions, workshops, tutorials, and poster sessions. Is there visible space for sponsors and publishers who want to set up displays? What are the charges, if any, for using the various rooms/locations? - Internet Access. Is wired or wireless internet access available? At what cost? - Other features. You may mention any other aspects of the site or the region that are relevant. 3. Local Machine Learning Community. Is there a local ML group/community that can help with organization and funding? 4. Opportunities to co-locate with other conferences. In the past, we have co-located with COLT, UAI, and KDD. There is strong interest in co-locating with these conferences and also with other related conferences including ISMB (Intelligent Systems in Molecular Biology), EMNLP (Empirical Methoers in Natural Language Processing), CoNLL (Conference on Natural Language Learning), IUI (Intelligent User Interfaces), and CVPR (Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition). 5. Organizational and Institutional Support. Is there a conference office that can help with local arrangements? 6. Budgetary Issues. In order to compare competing proposals, every proposal will be asked to complete a spreadsheet that discusses budgetary aspects and capacities. Blank sample budget and checklist are http://www.cs.umass.edu/~mccallum/imls/Sample-Bid-Checklist.xlsx http://www.cs.umass.edu/~mccallum/imls/Sample-Bid-Expenses-Budget.xlsx Some issues that must be addressed are: Is any financial support available from the hosting institution and/or local industry? What is a rough estimate of the expected conference registration fees (including a student rate, and the rate for workshops only, if applicable?) Letters of intent need contain nothing other than a non-binding statement of intent and a list of likely principals, and should be emailed by March 31 2015 with Subject line "ICML 2017 Site Proposal" to: Andrew McCallum President, International Machine Learning Society (IMLS) mccal...@cs.umass.edu General questions about proposing a site should also be addressed to Andrew McCallum. Proposals (in PDF) should be emailed to the same address by May 31, 2015, accompanied by a spreadsheet for budgetary information. Note that IMLS will provide a spreadsheet format for budget predictions (so that we can more easily compare competing proposals.) The IMLS governing board will rank proposals according to cost and accessibility, proposed dates, opportunities for co-location, attractiveness of the location, and experience of the host group. Note that IMLS chooses the Program Chair and General Chair as a decision separate from the choice of the site. The site proposal should propose a Local Arrangements Chair and other relevant supporting positions (e.g., Volunteers Coordinator, Registration Chair, etc.). _______________________________________________ uai mailing list uai@ENGR.ORST.EDU https://secure.engr.oregonstate.edu/mailman/listinfo/uai