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Conference Chair

Welcome

As a starting point, you may wish to look at Guidelines for the General Chair for SIGPLAN-Sponsored Conferences

The Conference Chair is the main organizer of a conference. If you are interested in hosting a conference contact the CCSC Northwestern Regional Representative. There is a lot of help available to you from the Regional Board and past Conference Chairs. Below is a synopsis of the main duties and following that is a timeline for what needs to be done.

Synopsis

1. Assemble a Conference Committee by the end of the previous year's conference. The most important person is the Site Chair who does all the local arrangements. Others needed are: Papers Chair, Panels & Tutorials Chair, Speakers Chair, Partners Chair, Program Chair, and Student Posters Chair.
2. Prepare a budget. Usually a good place to start is use the budget of the previous year's conference.
3. Prepare a specific Timeline with dates for important events (e.g. papers due, Program committee meeting date, etc.; see timeline description below). See TimeLine.
4. Prepare a Call for Participation to be distributed at the previous conference and at SIGCSE. Email such calls to the regional members. Include in these calls mention of local attractions and special speaker attractions. Advertise frequently.
5. Prepare a Call for Papers a version of which will be emailed and one which will be physically mailed. Email such calls often with possibly varying slants and suggestions for topics.
6. Prepare the Registration Packet which includes the Program Schedule to be mailed six weeks before the conference.
7. Check on the status of each of the conference chairs to ensure that nothing is missed.
8. Attend Regional Board meetings as next Conference Chair, Current Conference chair and then as Past Conference Chair. This provides continuity for the conference and helps the new people. There are three board meetings a year: October (at conference), January (at current site), May (at next site).