Guidelines for Proposals

The conference chairs are an important selection criterion. The people that you nominate will not only have to organize the proposed conference, but will also be eligible for the steering committee for three years, and have thus an important impact on the future of this conference series. For this reason, e.g., we generally discourage to nominate people that have not been active in the community in the past.

There are no binding rules for nominating the program chairs, but here are a few criteria that are of concern to the community:

Scientific Merit

Clearly, we expect the chair persons to have a good overview of current research in machine learning and in data mining. This should be evident from their publication history in these fields.

Balance

The program chairs should contain members from both communities, machine learning and data mining. Typically this also implies that the chairs come from more than one group, but this is not required if the group is sufficiently broad. Gender balance is also appreciated by the scientific community. See the list of women in machine learning and data mining.

Community Recognition

A chair person should be part not only of the machine learning or data mining communities at large, but of the ECML PKDD community in particular, so that the community can be reasonably sure that the person is familiar with the traditional lay-out of the conference. The chair persons should have regularly attended the conference in the past, and, ideally, published there before. Previous active involvement (e.g., as a tutorial presenter or workshop organizer) is also a plus.

Number

(Updated in 2019.) The distribution of the tasks to chair members (e.g., general chair, local chair, program chair, journal track chair) is left to the organizers, but the proposal should contain a specification of the structure. The ideal number of chairs responsible for a given task is not larger than 2. It is not necessary that all persons meet all criteria mentioned earlier, but the more the better. However, each criterion should be met by at least one person of the committee. We recommend that one of the General Chairs is also a local chair.

Discuss how you plan to ensure the scientific quality of the conference. Points that may be considered here are:

• Do you have any ideas for improving the quality?
• Is there a local ML or KDD group/community that will be involved in the organization and funding?
• Do you plan to co-locate with other conferences?

The budget is a crucial issue on your proposal. The community expects a first rough estimate of the registration fees, which should go beyond a simple statement of intention (such as “We do not plan to increase the registration fees.”). Provide numbers on all your expected expenses. The steering committee can provide numbers on standard costs such as the production of proceedings to help you in that endeavor. Ideally, you show something like a pie chart.

In general, we prefer well-organized events, but also low registration fees. We are a scientific community and typically work in universities. Typically, ECML PKDD conferences take place in universities because they provide an ideal infra-structure at a low price. If you want to deviate from this (e.g., by organizing the event in a conference center or hotel), these additional costs should be justified and their impact on the registration fees should be taken into account. Similarly, if you intend to employ the service of a professional conference organizer.

In order to keep registrations fees low, it is also a good idea to attract sponsors. It is good if you can already name a few (realistic) potential sponsors.

Please provide detailed information on the venue of the conference. Important parameters are

• number and sizes of conference rooms
• walking distance between conference rooms
• audio-visual equipment
• seating layout (e.g., visibility may be low in the back of rooms with flat rows)
• seating equipment (desk, power plug, …)
• internet connectivity
• total cost of the venue (cf. Budget)
• facilities for poster sessions and demos
• accessibility for handicapped persons Information about the location of the venue is, of course, also appreciated, but you are strongly encouraged to keep the touristic information short. Typically, it is a plus if the location is easy to reach, has good connectivity, cheap flights, etc.

Please provide detailed information on number of hotel rooms, expected prices, and distance from the venue. Is there low-cost, quality housing available for attendees (especially graduate students)? How far from the meeting rooms? Where will attendees eat? Please estimate costs for meals and lodging.

Briefly summarize travel information, in particular if the conference location is not directly reachable with an international airport.

Provide information on infra-structural services that you plan to offer for the conference participants (e.g., child daycare).

(Updated in 2021.) It is not necessary to provide a detailed schedule at the time of the proposal, but at least the conference dates should be mentioned. Here are some suggestions and constraints on the schedule (but see also key dates on previous editions):

• Conference website online: June/July previous year (p.y.)
• Approaching potential sponsors: beginning of October (p.y.)
• Approaching potential invited speakers: October (p.y.)
• Journal track submission deadlines: cutoffs in October (p.y.), December (p.y.), February
• Conference tracks submission deadline: end of March / beginning of April
• Demo track submission deadline: end of April / beginning of May
• Industry track / PhD forum submission deadlines: mid June
• Conference dates: mid September
• First call for papers out: at least three months before the submission deadline
• First call for proposals out: at least five months before the submission deadline
• Workshop/Tutorial/Discovery Challenge proposal deadline: beginning of February
• Workshop/Tutorial/Discovery Challenge acceptance notification: beginning of March
• Workshop/Discovery Challenge CFP out: three months before the submission deadline
• Workshop/Discovery Challenge submission deadlines: mid June
• Early bird registration deadline: after the last submission deadline.
• Camera ready deadlines for proceedings (pre-proceedings): at least nine weeks before the conference (final material should be sent to Springer at least six weeks before the conference)

ECML PKDD has been a dynamic conference that has undergone quite a few changes in recent years. Nevertheless, some key parameters (e.g., the conference schedule) have remained stable over the years. The general structure, typically very much appreciated by the community, consists of:

• conference sessions from Tuesday till Thursday
• workshops and tutorials on Monday and Friday, free for conference participants
• discovery challenge
• invited speakers
• poster sessions (for all accepted papers) with buffet
• plenary sessions
• coffee breaks
• conference banquet
• child daycare
• social events (e.g. guided tours)

(Updated in 2019.)

• the organizers will be responsible for maintaining the journal track, with publications in the DMKD and MLj journals.
• long papers (16 pages in LNCS-format) are strongly preferred
• printed workshop proceedings and tutorial notes are not necessary
• short papers are discouraged
• videos are generally liked and frequently used