ICMI Call for Bids 2015

The Advisory Board of the International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (ICMI) invites proposals to host the 17th Annual Conference, to be held in a between the end of September and mid-November 2015. We seek preliminary draft proposals from bidders in the Americas region (ICMI 2013 is in Australia and ICMI 2014 will be in Turkey), although strong proposals from other regions are also welcome. Promising bidders will be asked to provide additional information for the final selection.

Evaluation

Proposals will be evaluated according to the following criteria (unordered):

• Experience and reputation of General Chairs and Program Chairs
• Local multimodal interaction community support
• (Local) government and industry support
• Support and opportunities for students
• Accessibility and attractiveness of proposed site
• Suitability of proposed dates (with list of specific conflicts to avoid)
• Adequacy of conference facilities for the anticipated number of attendees
• Adequacy of accommodations and food services in a range of price categories and close to the conference facilities
• Overall balance of budget projections
• Geographical balance with regard to previous ICMI meetings

All communications, including request for information and bid submission, should be sent to Daniel Gatica-Perez: gatica(at)idiap(dot)ch

Important Dates

• December 21, 2013 - Notify intention to submit proposal
• January 21, 2014 - Draft proposals due
• February 7, 2014 - Feedback to bidders
• February 21, 2014 - Final bids due
• March 14, 2014 - Bid selected

Bid Content

The following questions have to be answered for the official bid (both draft and final proposals). Text in square brackets [] contains considerations to be taken into account.

1. Describe briefly the conference, including side events
2. Describe briefly the conference site.
3. What date do you consider?
4. What is the nearest (international) airport?
5. Please give price quotes for the cheapest roundtrip to the conference location from Frankfurt, London, New York, San Francisco, Beijing and Tokyo (assume one week of travel with a Saturday overnight stay)
6. What transportation should participants use from the airport to the conference site?
7. Does the conference site both have a large room for a maximum of 250 people and about 5 smaller rooms for a maximum of 30-50 people? Is there wireless connection available for attendees? What about audio-visual facilities?
8. What is the approximate room rate (single and double occupancy)? Is breakfast included? [Often all the attendees of ICMI stay at the same hotel. If this is your case, the conference chair should find a hotel that allows accommodation for the expected number of people. Booking rooms and meals in the same hotel as the conference rooms often helps reducing the overall costs.]
9. Catering, including breaks, receptions, banquet and entertainment. We encourage organizers to provide coffee breaks and lunches in order to promote community building and discussion
10. Which support can your department give for the organization of the conference (e.g., free secretarial assistance, facilities for on-line payment?
11. Which support can your department give during the conference (e.g., free secretarial assistance, PCs / Macs at the conference site)?
12. What are your plans for sponsorship? To which associations / companies / institutions do you plan to apply for financial assistance? What do you realistically expect to receive from them? What are your plans concerning student travel stipend program [A minimum of $5,000 should be reserved from each year's conference budget to support student travel from each of the three major geographic regions (Americas, Europe-Africa, Asia-Pacific), or $15,000 total. For example, if a grant for $15,000 is obtained from NSF to support U.S. student travel but there is no external funding for students from other continents, then an additional $10,000 of ICMI Society funds should be set aside for students from the other two continents]
13. What actions will you take to make the conference cheaper for students? (e.g., seek financial support from other organizations, provide cheaper rooms)? What reduction do you realistically expect?
14. Provide the names of people who are foreseen or confirmed for the major Conference Committees: General Chairs, Program Chairs, Sponsorship Chair; volunteer labor, registration handling. Describe any experience the team has had in organizing previous conferences and the number of participants at those conferences
15. Local Multimodal Interaction community
16. How do you propose to run the paper reviewing process? Do you see any possible improvements?
17. How will you organize the content of the conference to ensure a high-quality and energetic exchange of information that includes timely topics and stimulating external speakers? Please be specific in your suggestions for how you would organize the main program and workshops/tutorials
18. Any other aspects that you may find relevant for the evaluation of your proposal

Preparing a budget proposal

Based on estimates from previous attendance, one might expect 200 participants to ICMI. Please, provide two budgets, one for 150 participants and the other for 200. Costs that will have to be covered include:

• Rental of conference space and meeting rooms
• AV equipment
• Coffee breaks and possibly lunch
• Registration desk/technical helpers (e.g., student volunteers)
• Tutorials
• Producing and printing the proceedings
• ACM 18% contribution and contingency fund
• Conference poster and advertising
• Social dinner
• Welcome reception
• Dinner/lunch for ICMI board meeting