AISB Convention Organisers Handbook

AISB Convention Organisers’ Handbook

Last revised 18th August 2015

Overview The AISB Convention consists of a set of co-located symposia on a wide-range of topics in AI and the simulation of behaviour; there are also a number of plenary lectures, and events such as public engagement sessions, performances, and historical/artistic exhibitions are sometimes organised as part of the Convention. The Symposium model allows for the community to decide what the current topics of interest are and the direction that the field is heading. The event is central to the AISB and its mandate of promoting AI research in the UK and in particular, providing early career researchers and students a supportive environment in which to discuss their research. The Convention surplus also provides funds that are necessary to keep the Society going. The exact format of the Convention is left to the organizer to decide, although the Society has some stipulations that are described below along with some general advice for events and ideas that have worked in the past and some important dates.

Indicative Timeline Below are the key dates for the actions leading up to the Convention, starting in the summer before the Convention is due to take place. May/June. Release call for symposia June. Respond to first call for AIJ funding September. Symposia discussed at AISB meeting September. Arrange plenary speakers September. Symposia released call for papers December. Respond to second call for AIJ funding January. Submission deadline for papers February. Paper review deadline April. Convention takes place Convention Organiser’s Role The Convention Organiser has overall responsibility for the Convention programme, local arrangements (including accommodation and facilities), registration and financial management. However, the Organiser may choose to delegate some arrangements to members of a team, and programme detail is mostly delegated to individual Symposium Organisers (see below). The Convention Organiser should also arrange for an engaging set of invited plenary speakers. It is possible for the Convention Organiser role to be distributed between two people.

Format The Convention is a group of Symposia and plenary talks that together occupy a period of 3-4 days (occasionally 5); there have typically been 10-15 Symposia. Most Symposia will run for 1 or 2 days, so in general there will be several running in parallel at any one time. Each Symposium has its own Organiser (or multiple Organisers) who is in charge of that Symposium's programme. The programme for each Symposium can be comprised of any number of activities (e.g. scientific talks, demonstrations, discussions, panel sessions, poster presentations) on a particular topic. The Convention Organizer is advised to discuss the exact nature and requirements of each Symposium with each Symposium Organiser as early as possible. A typical day will begin with a plenary talk and then break into individual Symposium sessions for the rest of the day (alternatively plenaries could be held after lunch or at the end of the day). Some Conventions have organised an artistic or historical exhibition for people to look at in the breaks (and perhaps a private view coinciding with the Convention opening reception), and some have organised some kind of performance (an AI-based music concert, a drama on an AI theme), perhaps involving the performing arts, fine art, history, or museum studies department at their university.

Programme Call for Symposium Proposals The Convention Organiser should solicit proposals for symposia from the community, by making announcements on appropriate mailing lists, social media, and in the AISBQ. Organisers can come from the UK or overseas, and whilst Organisers are not obliged to be AISB members it would usually be assumed that they would become members if their Symposium proposal is accepted. Convention Organisers are encouraged to try to get a range of Organisers from a wide range of institutions and countries. It is particularly worthwhile sending the call for proposals to previous Symposium Organisers from the last two or three Convention, as many Organisers return year-on-year with a related Symposium proposal, or have ideas for people who would be interesting in organising it. Occasionally, potential Organisers will misunderstand the idea of a Symposium, and propose for example an extended tutorial on their work as a Symposium. It is a good idea for the Convention Organiser to advise such a person early on, in the hope that they might modify their proposal into something more suitable. Whilst there is considerable flexibility in how a Symposium might run, a basic principle is that Symposia will have some kind of open call for participation. Programme Approval by AISB Committee The final set of symposia is approved at a meeting with the AISB Committee in August/September before the Convention, though usually most the Convention Organiser’s recommendations are approved with enthusiasm. The Committee occasionally suggests mergings of similar Symposia, removal of weakly justified Symposia, more information about some symposia, etc. The Convention Organiser should make his or her recommendations of Symposia to the AISB Committee in time for discussion before, and hopefully approval at, the September meeting of the Committee. If there are requests for clarifications, then the final approval can be made by email discussion with the Committee in the weeks after the meeting. Symposia Details It is often difficult to determine the exact requirements of symposia early in the organizing process because exact numbers of participants will not be known, however, the estimates given by Symposium organizers, particularly those of long-running symposia can be used to determine e.g. room requirements. It is also recommended that the organizing team determines what, if any, bursary scheme will be in place for symposia. The AISB encourages the provision of bursaries for well-attended symposia and is likely to have a scheme in place for this. The organizing team are encouraged to speak to the committee to determine what this scheme entails early in the organizing process to advertise this to the Symposium chairs. External funding (e.g. from Artificial Intelligence Journal) may also be available. Plenary Speakers It is advisable to invite plenary speakers early in the organizing process to ensure maximum possibility of securing high-profile individuals. In addition it is also advisable for the organizing committee to decide upon what will be provided to the plenary speakers (e.g. travel & accommodation, registration) so that this can be budgeted for and promoted to the speakers to encourage their participation. Plenary talks should be scheduled for a period where no Symposium runs and in a room that can accommodate all attendees. It is important that the costs that the Convention will cover are agreed clearly with the speakers at the point of arrangement, and that the speaker be reminded of this regularly throughout the process. Otherwise, there is a danger of a speaker charging the Convention for business class flights for them and their family, staying in very expensive hotels, etc. One way to avoid this, but at the cost of additional administrative effort, is for the Convention Organisers to book all of the travel etc. for the plenary speakers. One alternative to a “fee+expenses” model is to pay a fixed block of money, and then they can decide how to manage their costs—they could take cheap travel and accommodation options, and retain the majority of the money as a fee, or use the whole amount for expenses. The overall size of the Convention will determine the ambition in terms of where plenary speakers can come from. The larger Conventions have been able to afford big-name international speakers, paying a substantial fee (£1000 pounds or more) and travel expenses from the US or Japan. Some of the smaller Conventions have relied on UK-based speakers. As long as the speakers are well-chosen and able to present well to a general audience, both approaches have been fine. It is worth approaching AISB Fellows (particularly those recently appointed) to see if they would do a lecture on an expenses-only basis. Recordings If possible it is good to provide facilities to record (audio and video) of talks at the Convention. In particular, the AISB website would welcome well-produced videos of the plenary talks. Society Business at the Convention The schedule should include an opportunity for the AISB Chair to make a brief welcome address to attendees, usually just before one of the plenary talks. The schedule must also include time for the AGM of the AISB; an hour is sufficient for this. The timing of the meeting should be determined by the Convention Organiser in consultation with the Committee. The AGM should not occur in parallel with any other session and should be held in a room large enough to accommodate all attendees (although in practice attendance is usually in the order of 20-30). This is to ensure maximum possible attendance at the AGM. At some point there must also be a meeting of the society Committee. A room capable of holding 12 people is needed for this. The Committee meeting should not take place in parallel with other sessions and must be at some point in the Convention prior to the AGM; it is commonly in an early-evening slot. The timing of the meeting should be determined by the Convention Organiser in consultation with the Committee, and 2 or 3 hours should ideally be allowed. The Fellows of the AISB are also invited to this meeting, so if a "Fellows’ dinner" or other event to which they are invited is scheduled as part of the Convention then it is recommended that the Committee meeting be timetabled immediately before this event. The timing of the AGM and the Committee meeting should ideally allow Committee members the opportunity to travel during off-peak periods. Venue Convention Sessions The Convention is typically held in a university venue. Ideally, all sessions should be held in a single building. There are typically 5-6 Symposia happening in parallel, so that number of rooms, plus space for registration, exhibitions etc. is needed. A lecture theatre that can hold all delegates for plenaries and the AGM is also needed. It is important that wifi be available to delegates. It is important for the Convention Organiser to get in contact with the “conference services” or whatever they are called locally at an early stage in the process in order to plan the practical aspects of the Convention from an early stage. In particular, it is important to understand any “hidden” costs, e.g. additional costs for AV or computer equipment use, out-of-hours receptionists or security, etc. Accommodation Cheap on-campus university accommodation is appreciated by many delegates. It is also worth negotiating with local hotels to see if they would provide a discount rate for delegates, or seeing if the host university already has such a deal arranged. Food It is usual to provide lunch and tea/coffee breaks as part of the Convention fee. Money spent on offering good food is well spent; well-fed delegates are more likely to find the experience positive and want to come back in subsequent years

Finances Budget The Organiser should create a budget of income and expenditure early in the organizing process. The early budget should include estimates of the principle cost items for the Convention (e.g. room hire, catering, accommodation etc.) and the proposed registration fee for the Convention. This proposed budget need to be ratified by the Society. The mechanism for this is that they should be submitted to the AISB Treasurer for approval in good time before the Convention. Detailed accounts should also be submitted to the Treasurer by an agreed date after the Convention. An appropriate break-even point for the Convention should be negotiated with the AISB Treasurer in advance. It is important to check the budget rigorously and take account of the expected surplus when setting fees. Surplus It is understood that any surplus will be handed over to the AISB funds after the Convention. In return the AISB undertakes to underwrite the Convention financially once the budget has been agreed. Any arrangements made with the host institution to provide conference facilities etc. should be made with this in mind, usually in the form of an agreed fee rather than a percentage of income. In exceptional circumstances, the AISB may advance cash to a Convention in order to pay for upfront expenses such as room hire. However, it would be more common for such expenses to be held on account by the organizing institution and paid after the Convention. It is important to check the budget rigorously and take account of the expected surplus when setting fees. Bursaries External funding sources are available for hosting AI based events. For example, the journal Artificial Intelligence has offered sponsorship to the Convention in some years—see http://ijcai.org/aijd.php for details of how to apply and deadlines. Examples of this funding in the past have included the funding of student bursaries and symposia bursaries. Any application to this fund is encouraged by the AISB but please take note that decisions for proposals submitted for the December deadline are unlikely to be made before Feb/March. Other past funding sources include the host institution and the EPSRC. In general all Symposium expenditure is covered by the Convention and recouped through Convention attendance fees and sponsorship. We advise that Symposium invited speakers and Symposium Organisers not usually be offered expenses, free registration or accommodation. However, if Organisers of individual Symposia can arrange external funding for their Symposium, then they can organise to pay for their attendance or attendance by invited participants as their funding allows. In some years the Convention has given a small budget to each Symposium lasting at least one full day may be offered a small budget of £100 that can be used for inviting speakers, providing bursaries, or other supportive activities. Symposia lasting longer than one day may, with the agreement of the Committee, be granted additional funds if they have a good track record of attendance in previous years. If the Convention Organiser wishes to provide such a budget or similar benefits then this should be shown in the budget submitted to the AISB Treasurer in advance. Whatever is decided, it is important that it is made clear to symposia Organisers at the time their proposals are accepted whether or not they can expect any kind of financial assistance towards speakers etc. This avoids unnecessary problems and misunderstandings later on. It is very easy for a Convention Organiser to find themselves in a bind where several Symposium Organisers have made rash promises to various participants to provide bursaries, travel expenses or free registrations, and this can rapidly ruin the Convention budget. In a small number of cases symposia have an identity of their own outside the Convention (e.g., they may be events in a separate conference/workshop series). In this case the Organisers may well wish to have a separately managed budget, in part at least. Such symposia are referred to as collocated symposia or workshops. It is advisable to discuss this arrangement with the AISB Treasurer, in particular with regard to issues such as surplus funds. The Convention Organiser is responsible for making sure that arrangements for the distribution of registration fees and payment for services are agreed with collocated workshops well in advance of the Convention. The Committee may be able to provide help in negotiating a suitable agreement. Registration Registration is organised by the Convention as a whole; participants register for the Convention, perhaps for a certain number of days, rather than registering for specific symposia. Registration is usually split into a number of categories, in particular providing different rates for students and for non-AISB members. As a general rule, registration for non-AISB members is usually set to be more expensive than registration for AISB members + the cost of joining, to provide an incentive to join the society. The registration form should therefore include an option for joining the Society, and the Convention Organiser should then send the list of new members who join this way and arrange for their fees to be transferred to the AISB (this should be organised by talking to the treasurer). In recent years we have trialled "Category Two Registration" which includes "free membership" of the society at a reduced rate from standard registration. This has proved very successful and is currently the Committee's preferred method for handling the joint registration+membership option. A list of new members that joined in this way will need to be provided to the Executive Office at the end of the Convention. A mechanism for recording membership numbers of those registrants who are already members of the AISB should also be provided. Two main approaches have been taken to offer lower registration rates to students and other low- income individuals. The first is to offer a concessionary rate for such individuals. The second is to provide a large number of student bursaries, which people can apply for by filling out a short form. The former approach is the most automatic, the latter provides more control on the number of concessionary places available (as the Organisers can choose to stop awarding bursaries). The Society actively promotes the involvement of students in the Convention and therefore student registration rates should be as low as possible (e.g. around the break-even rate). People registering for the Convention will expect to receive electronic proceedings for free, for instance on a USB stick or on a website. We have now largely moved away from providing Symposium proceedings in printed form (though a printed copy of the Convention schedule and other key information is useful). Student helpers often receive discounts or free registration as does a student prepared to write something for the Quarterly, typically a report on the Convention or some aspect of it, or an account of the student’s own work. The matter should be negotiated with the Editor of the Quarterly, who may have relevant guidelines and who may wish to control the overall set of reports on the Convention to avoid duplication. The AISB has a Student Travel Award scheme and, in recent years, has been prepared to allocate several of these awards to the Convention. The normal conditions for such awards are expected to apply, in particular that the student provide an article for AISBQ Again, the article can be a report on the Convention, an account of the student’s own work, or something else, as agreed in discussion with the editor of the AISBQ. In negotiation with the AISB Treasurer it may be possible to include "free membership" of the society for a year with a Student Travel Award instead of requiring recipients to be members in advance. It is the society's preference that the awards be administered separately through the society's processes, rather than through allocating funds directly to the Convention, but this can be negotiated with the Treasurer. If the Organiser wishes or needs to, he/she may apply for grants or other types of sponsorship for the Convention. In such cases the Organiser has the responsibility for the process, but the Committee is willing to help by providing reports of past experience, copies of past grant proposals, contacts with sponsors, etc. In the past some Convention Organisers have successfully negotiated sponsorship or other assistance from their local government or tourist board, and this may well be worth pursuing. Various publishers etc. have offered to donate prizes, for example to be given out as “best paper” prizes at particular Symposia. Recent examples have invluded Eurospan ([email protected]) and Taylor&Francis ([email protected]); the latter have also sent a representative to the Convention with a bookstall. Another option is to offer sponsorship of a specific aspect of the Convention—for example, the opening reception. One Convention received a donation from a local minicab company in return for including their business cards in the conference pack. It is important that a schedule of which symposia are happening on which days is prepared early enough in the process to allow people who are going to register to decide which days to register on. There are various options for handling the specifics of registration. Many universities will have their own method of processing payments, some of which may be oriented well towards taking payments for a conference, some of which are more along the model of a “shop” and less able to take the details that the conference requires. Another alternative is to use an online ticket selling site such as Eventbrite, which was used successfully by the 2015 Convention.

Proceedings Usually the Convention produces individual proceedings for each Symposium, not a combined volume covering the whole Convention. The Convention Organiser is ultimately responsible for the production of these proceedings. However, it is strongly recommended that the Convention Organiser require the Organiser of each Symposium to supply a full finished proceedings for that Symposium (in electronic form, usually), rather than trying to compile them centrally. Sample style files for Symposium proceedings are available from the AISB Committee web page though there is no requirement to use these, and no requirement that all symposia use the same style (in particular, collocated symposia may prefer to use a style they have already established). Some Symposia will want to publish full-length papers; others may prefer extended abstracts. Either is permissible. Copyright The Convention Organiser should ensure, preferably via the Symposium organizers, that authors obtain all necessary permissions to include material from other works. The permissions sought should make it clear that the AISB wishes to put the author’s paper in printed and electronic proceedings, and that the latter will go onto the society website. There is also a sample copyright transfer form for authors to sign. This was prepared by a lawyer for the AISB 2006 Convention and gives the AISB the right to put the proceedings on our web pages while granting permission for reprinting of the material to third parties. In particular, individual authors retain the right to re-publish the material themselves elsewhere as they choose. The reason for the copyright form is thus not to restrict authors or Symposium Organisers but rather to allow AISB to produce the Symposium proceedings and to put them on the AISB website. These points need to be made clear to Symposium Organisers and authors at the time of submission. ISBN Numbering ISBN numbers for the proceedings can be obtained from the Society Publications officer. There are required formats that must be followed for the index pages of each volume (and Symposium Organisers therefore need to be made aware of this). A copy of each volume must be lodged with the British Library by the Convention Organiser. The AISB Publications Officer can provide the necessary details.

Publicity and Calls The Convention Organiser is responsible for all aspects of publicising the event (this can, of course, be delegated). The society will assist with the process of advertising through e.g. posting material on the website and in the regular Society email bulletin. For individual Symposia, though much of the work is best delegated to Symposium organizers, as made clear in the following. The Convention organizer should prepare a call for Symposium proposals as soon as possible after the Convention venue has been decided. This should be publicised as widely as possible. To assist with this the call should be sent to the AISB administrative office (see AISB website for address) for inclusion in the Weekly Bulletin. The Convention Organiser is also advised to publicise this widely in other appropriate places such as general AI and Cognitive Science mailing lists. At a suitable point after the set of symposia has been decided between Convention Organiser and AISB Committee, calls for papers should go out. This is generally managed by Symposium Organisers, who should be encouraged to distribute calls for their individual symposia as widely as possible, using the methods they deem appropriate. Symposium Organizers should be made aware that the Convention Organiser does not generally undertake to do publicity in organs tailored to specific Symposia. However, the Convention Organiser should put out general calls covering the whole Convention, pointing potential authors to the calls of individual symposia. In particular, a general call should be sent to the AISB administrative office for inclusion in the Weekly Bulletin, but dissemination should preferably be wider than this. The Convention Organiser is also advised to ask Symposium Organisers to publicise general calls within appropriate specialised communities, to stimulate greater awareness between communities. It is essential that all calls that are put out by each Symposium clearly and prominently mention that the Symposium is part of the Convention. Similar comments to the above apply at the appropriate later stage when calls for general participation go out, once papers have been selected for symposia. Website The Convention Organiser should also provide a website publicising the Convention. The AISB is happy to provide web space for this on their website, and if needed this should be arranged through the AISB webmaster. Alternatively the Organiser can set up a separate site, in which case the URL should be sent to the AISB webmaster. Examples of previous Convention web pages can be viewed from the AISB website (under Convention). The Convention website should include links to any websites for the individual symposia, and should, at the appropriate moment, include titles and abstracts for the invited plenary talks. It can also include the actual proceedings of the Symposia, and it is a good idea to have the schedule for the Convention—perhaps both in the form of an overview, and also in detail. Information about travel and accommodation should go up as early as possible on the Convention website, certainly by the time Symposium bids are solicited since it may prove important for Symposium Organisers. The AISB strongly recommends that Symposia Organisers contact the learned societies representing relevant disciplines related to AI, such as Psychology and Philosophy, and advertise the calls for symposia, papers etc. on mailing lists or in newsletters associated with those societies. In return links to those societies could be placed on the Convention web site. Media It is useful to offer some form of free registration to relevant media contacts who might be able to write a sympathetic story about the Convention, engage the public with debates and cutting-edge issues in AI, etc. This can include both local and national press and media, and more specialised popular science publications. Handling of Submitted Papers Papers are submitted to specific symposia, not to the Convention as a whole. The job of handling paper submission, and making decision about which papers are accepted, is the responsibility of individual Symposium Organisers (with the help of a Symposium programme committee). Symposia have often found it useful to use an online system such as Easychair to handle the practical aspects of submission. The preferred type of submission is of a full paper (of whatever length is deemed appropriate by a Symposium, within a limit set by the Convention Organiser). However, Symposia may, with the agreement of the Convention Organiser, have submissions that are short or extended abstracts. This may be especially appropriate in the case of symposia centred in some disciplines outside AI. Of course, there may be Symposia where appropriate types of submission include software systems or artworks, for example. Reviewing of Submissions There are no rigorous rules about how submissions are judged. However, it is generally expected that each submission will be anonymously reviewed by at least two people, who may either be on a programme committee or engaged by a PC. The AISB also prefers the identity of authors not to be made available to reviewers during review, though we accept that practice in this area varies a lot between sub-disciplines. The AISB Convention is seen as an opportunity for researchers, particularly early career researchers to submit and discuss their work with their peers. There will be some differences in the review process for each Symposium, but the general principle should be that relevant submissions that represent a decent degree of novelty, are not published elsewhere, are well presented and reasonably rigorous should be accepted. The AISB wishes accepted submissions to be at a high international standard of quality. However, symposia will often be workshops that air work in progress or exist primarily to stimulate discussion, set new agendas, forge new interdisciplinary links, etc., and an appropriate level of flexibility can be allowed in reviewing. The Convention Organiser may choose to set up a central submission mechanism, or may at the other extreme require all symposia to set up their own mechanisms. Any point in between these extremes is allowable. Collocated symposia especially may wish to use mechanisms they have used in previous years.

Social Events Coffee Breaks and Lunch The program should include a substantial morning break, lunch break and afternoon break each (full) day, partly in order to facilitate discussion. Suitable light refreshments should be provided in the morning and afternoon breaks, and should be covered by the registration fee. The registration fee often covers lunch but this need not be the case. Convention Dinner A Convention dinner or other social event is usually arranged for delegates at an additional cost to the main registration. As far as is possible, this should be affordable for delegates, including students. In many parts of the country it is not easy to find a venue that can hold an event of this size, so it is important to plan this early. It is worth looking for unConventional venues for this— for example, one Convention had a tour of a local brewery followed by a beer tasting and dinner. In addition, sometimes, Symposia may organise their own meal at a local restaurant one evening. Reception Conventions often also include a drinks (and light eats) reception at some point in the Convention, usually included in the registration fee.

Other Aspects of the Convention The Convention Organiser is encouraged to contact the British Science Association (who organise the British Science Festival and Science Week) and similar organisations for material that might be placed in Convention packs and the like. The AISB Committee is keen to draw members’ attention to public understanding opportunities and this seems like a good mechanism. The Convention Organiser should seek to attract publishers to the Convention, where they can set up stands in general areas. A fee should be charged for this, unless the publisher can sponsor the event in some material way such as paying for a prize or supplying pens, etc. Suitable charges can be discussed with the AISB Treasurer and previous Convention Organisers. As appropriate to the Convention, industrial organisations and other non-academic entities can be invited to set up stands, provide demonstrations or exhibitions, etc. Whether there is a charge will depend on circumstances, but in the case of industry there should generally be a substantial one unless they are materially sponsoring the event in some way. The AISB sometimes offers a student prize. The format for this varies from year to year and should be agreed with the AISB Committee. Conventions sometimes organise a public engagement event such as a lecture open to the public as well as the Convention attendees. It is a good idea to link this with a local group such as a Café Scientifique to get a decent audience.

Other Responsibilities The Convention Organiser will be co-opted to the AISB Committee for a period of two years: the year leading up to and the year immediately after the Convention. There are three or four meetings of the Committee each year, mostly conducted over the internet (through Skype for example)—in fact recent practice is for the only physical meeting to be the one at the Convention. In their second year the Organiser is expected to liaise with the incoming Convention Organiser and help in answering any queries they may have. The Committee would be grateful if the Convention Organiser could submit any documents (calls for proposals, style files, etc.) to the webmaster for inclusion as samples on the AISB web site. The Convention Organiser is responsible for reviewing this document at the end of their tenure and recommending any changes in the light of their experience. Such amendments should be communicated to the Society Secretary. They should also send the Secretary details of their registration costs and attendance figures (preferably broken down to show numbers of early/late, student/non-student and member/non-member registrations).