[Air-L] Call for Conference Locations

[Kendall, Lori]

Just a reminder that we are still accepting short letters of interest for hosting IRs 16 and 17 (2015 and 2016). Please contact me if you have any questions. The original call for proposals is attached below.

Lori

________________________________
From: Kendall, Lori
Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2013 5:48 PM
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: Call for Conference Locations

Please share widely...

Call for Proposals to Host the Internet Research (IR) conferences in 2015 and 2016.

The Executive Committee of the Association of Internet Researchers is seeking statements of interest for hosting the annual meeting of the Association in October of 2015 and 2016. The Internet Research conference draws an international group of researchers and practitioners to present and discuss work at the cutting edge in understanding the social and cultural aspects of the internet. Organizations or consortia who may be interested in hosting the conference should contact Lori Kendall at vp (at) aoir.org.

We will provide a guide to a full proposal for those invited to apply. At this stage, we seek an indication of interest and intent. We are most likely to entertain applications for North American locations for 2015 and elsewhere for 2016, but all strong proposals are welcome.

Hosting AoIR provides visibility to your institution and city from researchers from around the world, drawing a group of well-known scholars to your city during the period of the conference and providing lasting connections. Geography still matters in an internet age, and hosting Internet Research represents one way of locating important centers of innovation in social computing.

The most recent conference was held in Salford, UK and the upcoming conferences will be held in Denver, USA and Bangkok, Thailand. (See the full list of locations at http://aoir.org/conferences/past/.) We generally seek hosting cities that are reasonably accessible by international visitors, and provide a range of lodging, dining, entertainment and cultural attractions within reasonable proximity of the venue.

The venue should provide a central hall and breakout meeting rooms for a minimum of 400 attendees, as well as the necessary infrastructure for presentations and high-speed wireless internet access. There are generally 7-8 concurrent presentation rooms over a period of 3 days, plus a day of 3-6 preconferences. The conference generally provides some form of onsite refreshments during the day (snacks, coffee, and in many cases lunch), as well as a banquet and receptions.

The Association generally handles registration, and will (with the aid of a program chair) provide assistance with the infrastructure for the peer review and the publication of selected papers. Officers of AoIR serve on the organizing committee and are involved closely with the planning and execution of the conference. The local hosts are responsible for coordinating all on-site arrangements, contracts, transportation, arrangements with local hotels or other lodging, technology, supporting staff for the event. The hosts should be willing and able to mobilize local support for the conference, including volunteers, fund-raising, and cost-sharing.

At this time, we are seeking brief letters of interest. For those sites the Executive Committee feels are suitable for the upcoming conference, we will provide organizers with instructions for a full proposal, and are happy to work with them to provide a strong proposal. At this time, please provide some indication of what you could offer in terms of hosting. In particular:

1. Who makes up your group, who the proposed local chair would be, and your connection to internet research and AoIR.

2. Information about the venue, including recent conferences held there. We have, in the past, held AoIR in hotels and conference centers, as well as university and research campuses. Please give some indication of the layout of the facility and its proximity to lodging and dining (including less expensive options), as well as to its suitability for a conference like Internet Research.

3. Proposed dates. IR is generally held in early October, and usually over a Thursday-Saturday, with pre-conferences on a Wednesday, though there is some flexibility. It is helpful if we are able to avoid conflicts with other major conferences of interest to attendees.

4. What makes your city and venue particularly attractive to the Internet Research community?


The committee will review letters of interest as they are submitted, through the end of July 2013.

Best,

Lori Kendall
(AoIR Vice President)