How to put together an Advance Program for SIGCOMM (last updated 3/23/2000) The 6 weeks surrounding the program committee meeting are the most important time of the SIGCOMM conference committee, because everyone's plans must be complete enough to specify IN PRINT in the ADVANCE PROGRAM. and on the web. Yes, we can update the web, but not the thousands of advance programs that are to be mailed out....;-). This email contains two separate sections to aid you in completing this process: * Section1 has a "to do list" for each "planning role" in the conference. * Section2 has a proposed schedule for completing the advance program Don't forget the advice that you can solicit from ACM (SIGCOMM's program director is Erica Johnson johnson_e@acm.org) or the author of this planning tool. (SIGCOMM's volunteer conference coordinator, Chris Edmondson-Yurkanan, chris@cs.utexas.edu) If you want to print out a paper copy of an old SIGCOMM advance program as it actually looked (minus the mailing info), the only one on the SIGCOMM web pages is from 98 (doesn't include everything found in this guide): http://www.acm.org/sigcomm/sigcomm98/index.html and look at the frame on the left to find "advance program pdf" or I can fax you advance programs from all previous years. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Section 1: The following components are typically included in a SIGCOMM adv. program. "Role" Responsible for Component ---------------------- --------- Conference Chairs&all * Time table for the entire week (including the hours of each activity) A SIGCOMM week has usually looked similar to this: MON: 9-5 tutorials (with 2 hrs out for breaks and lunch) TUE: 9-5 tutorials (with 2 hrs out for breaks and lunch) 6-8 Reception (but not a dinner) WED 9-5 (keynote session & 3 paper sessions) (with 2.5 hrs out for breaks and lunch 5-6:30 SIGCOMM Business Mtg 7-10 social event (dinner) THURS 9-5:30 (4 paper sessions) (with 2.5 hrs out for breaks and lunch 6-7 Outrageous Opinions Social Event (snacks) FRI 9-12:30 (2 paper sessions) (SIGCOMM2000 moved the Wed social event to Thursday.) * Question: if we have a goal of 27 papers (9 sessions) what to do about speculative results session? (i.e. "new research") * decide when to have the Student dinner: (remember PC members are also invited) * Provide names of the conference committee (the paper copy needs names/affiliations, the web page needs the email addresses and can have complete addresses) * optional: write a few words of welcome for paper copy; and more for web page * what email address should be used "for more info"? Fund Raising Chair All sponsors should be on board, with their logos available to put on the advance program, web, and proceedings. Tutorial Chair Names of presentors at 4? tutorials; for the paper copy: short description, intended audience, and short biography for the web copy; longer desc/bio if desired (be sure to have discussed $ with each) Program Chairs * Technical Program, organized into 8-9 sessions, with paper title, names of authors and affil- iations (this should be emailed to the entire list of authors to check for typos) * ?Speculative Ideas session Description&who to contact * ?Outrageous Opinions Social event Description and who to contact * Student Paper Award (ideally this is in the advprog, but if not, then update the web when decided and include in the final program) * Program Committee Names and affiliations (anyone drop out? move?) Local Arrangements * Reception - when/where/what: a short but inviting description * Conference Dinner - when/where/what: a short but inviting description (& how much guest tickets will be) * Indicate lunches will be provided for which days (e.g. sometimes it is included in Friday, sometimes not) * Local information: paper copy doesn't need much besides how one gets from the airport to the conference hotel; the web copy can have maps, restaurant lists/reviews, activities for the weekend, transportation, weather, link to exchange rates * Hotel info: paper copy needs: location, phone, fax, how to make reservations with the hotel, room rate, daily parking charge. When is hotel registration deadline? Internet Connectivity * For the advance program all that is needed is Chair to have an agreed upon plan: location, how many stations will be provided, and how many laptop hookups can be accomodated by an available Ethernet; how much it will all cost; does it fit the budget; are any companies donating any of their services (if so, need company names and logos) All the details (both location and technical) can be handed out at the conference. Award Committee Chair Name of award winner (with affiliation and title of the keynote address) Student Travel Grant * Short description for the paper copy; Chair longer description for the web * Any fund raising here should be complete with company names and logos Student Dinner Chair Paper copy can have just the time frame, but the web copy needs to indicate that students will get tickets/location of the dinner in their registration packet Registration Chair * Design the registration form, being sure to include an easy way to join sigcomm and ACM. Get the $ amounts from the treasure. State exactly what is included and when early registration deadline is. After that deadline ACM should accept online late registrations until N days before the conference and make that very, very clear on the web page. * Debug ACM's registration procedures Treasurer Review the conference plans vs the TMRF (and if necessary, adjust the amounts to be charged to attendees) Publicity * Graphic Design of paper copy select the paper weight and color; be sure to use international style of dates and telephone numbers Distribute to mailing list all drafts (pdf?) * Web Design frequent repetition of the URL * Order international & regional postal mailing lists Conference Coordinator * Insert two sentences about next year's SIGCOMM * Insert a paragraph if room on ACM SIGCOMM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Section 2: Six Weeks of milestones: Advance Program Schedule: Goal 5/15 (ACM postal mails to SIGCOMM members & other mailing lists) to achieve this goal, you will typically have a series of milestones, such as: 4/3 Last day to pick Tutorials and tell tutorial presentors that they have 1 week to write a short description and bio for the paper copy, and a long description and bio for the Web. 4/10 Everyone submits their text input for the advance program. (the main exception is the technical program) 4/14 PC mtg (pick 27, or so, papers) 4/17 (send out 1st draft of advance program for review that includes everyone's final input except for the tech program) {Reviewers have to respond in 3 days.} 4/20 (Program Co-Chairs send list of papers organized by session with official paper titles and authors and affiliations. Ideally, this would include session chairs, but may not, given this short amount of time. 4/24 (send out next-to-last draft for review ... this may be the first draft that has the actual papers in it) {Reviewers have to respond in 2 days.} 4/27 (send out final draft for proofreading only) {Proofers have to respond in 1 day.} 5/1 (ACM receives camera ready copy AND internal mailing lists plus actual labels or electronic form for other mailing lists)