ACM ICMI CALL FOR BIDS 2021
The Steering Board of the ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (ICMI) invites proposals
to host 23rd Annual Conference, to be held between the end of September and mid-November 2021.
Priority will be given for proposals hosted in the America continent, including South America, Central
America and North America.
Strong proposals from other regions are also welcome. ICMI 2016 was in Tokyo, Japan, ICMI 2017 was inGlasgow, UK and ICMI 2018 was recently in Boulder, Colorado, USA. The bidding process is done in twostages. During the first stage, the initial proposals will be reviewed by the steering committee to identify
promising bids and request additional information if necessary. During the second stage, the revised
proposals will be reviewed and the final selection.
Evaluation
Proposals will be evaluated according to the following criteria (unordered):••
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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 theconference 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 the ICMI
Steering Board Chair (Louis-Philippe Morency, morency@cs.cmu.edu).
Important Dates
For ICMI 2021 bids:• December 14, 2018 - Notify intention to submit proposal via email• January 25, 2019 - Draft proposals due• February 11, 2019 - Feedback to bidders• March 1, 2019 - Final bids due• March 19, 2019 - Bid selected
Bid Content
After the notification of intent, the steering board chair will share with you more details, including
successful bids from previous years. The following questions have to be answered for the official bid (bothdraft and final proposals). Text in square brackets [] contains considerations to be taken into account.

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Describe briefly the conference, including side events
Describe briefly the conference site.
What date do you consider?
What is the nearest (international) airport?
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)
What transportation should participants use from the airport to the conference site?
Does the conference site both have a large room for a maximum of 300 people and about 5 smaller
rooms for a maximum of 30-70 people? Is there wireless connection available for attendees? Whatabout 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 shouldfind a hotel that allows accommodation for the expected number of people. Booking rooms andmeals in the same hotel as the conference rooms often helps reducing the overall costs.]

Catering, including breaks, receptions, banquet and entertainment. We encourage organizers toprovide 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., freesecretarial 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 areyour plans concerning student travel stipend program [A minimum of $5,000 should be reservedfrom 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 agrant for $15,000 is obtained from NSF to support U.S. student travel but there is no externalfunding for students from other continents, then an additional $10,000 of you budget 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 ofparticipants 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

9.

Preparing a budget proposal
Based on estimates from previous attendance, one might expect 250 participants to ICMI. Please, provide
three budgets, one for 150 participants, a second for 200 participants and the last one for 250. Costs thatwill 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
10% ACM fee
15% contingency fund
Conference poster and advertisingSocial banquet
Welcome reception
Lunch for ICMI board meeting