The International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR) is the major scientific event organized under the auspices of the International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR). The aim of this conference is to bring together international experts to share their experiences and to promote the research and development in Pattern Recognition.
The conference is held every two years, on different continents, preferably with a rotation from one continent to another. The site selection is made four years in advance at the governing board (GB) meeting, under the coordination of the chairman of the conference and meeting committee. Any national association interested in making a proposal shall proceed according to the IAPR regulation.
These guidelines summarize some of the procedures defined in the Constitution and Bylaws and it integrates some of the experiences made in the past.
a) it should be organized by one of the member organizations of IAPR.
b) proposals for the n'th ICPR should be submitted to the conferences and meetings committee not later than 2 months before the(n-2)'th ICPR (approx. 4 years + 2 months before the conference). Usually the GB takes the final decision during the ICPR.
c) As an additional preparation for the GB members, it has become a practice to distribute the proposal also to the members of the GB. Names and addresses of GB-members are regularly published in the IAPR Newsletters.
To help the potential organizers to make a proposal, the following paragraphs describe the major issues that have to be handled as well as the preferential time frame to put these forward. The goal of these guidelines is to make proposers aware of different issues: the convention, the budget, the schedule and the expectations of the attendies.
Apart from providing detailed information about the conference location and the group of organizers in charge of the event, it is expected that the following points will be addressed:
Date and location
Accessibility (transportation, visa)
Conference theme, program tracks and track chairs
Functions within the local committee (local arrangements chair, conference secretariat, local treasurers)
Tutorials program
Tentative schedule
Conference proceedings
Facilities isssues (how many meeting rooms, accomodation)
Cancellation policy
Specific events to be included in the program: (K.S. Fu awardee presentation, best paper awards)
Industrial support and donation
Industrial exhibits and demos
Local student aids
Advertising best student paper award
Advertising industry related papers
Website creation and updating.
The typical paper review protocol should be as follows:
Program chair and track co-chairs receive paper abstracts only from conference secretariat.
Program chair and program co-chair decide the list of reviewers for each paper.
Conference secretariat sends full papers to reviewers along with review forms. Electronic reviews must be privileged.
Reviewers send back reviews to program chair and track co-chairs. Electronic reviews must be privileged.
Notification of acceptance sent to authors (through WWW page and/or reviews sent by email or regular mail).
It is suggested that each paper be reviewed by three reviewers.
Concerning the budget, the following items must be addressed:
a) Income
Registration costs (including: paper/CDROM proceedings, banquets, cocktails, lunches…)
Expected grants and sponsorship
IAPR and local society loans
Income from exhibits and tutorials
b) Expenditure
Location
Insurance and security
Audio-visual equipment
Account for the registration fee break for IAPR members
Printing and shipping of the proceedings by IEEE Computer Society
Coffee breaks
Conference dinner
Secretariat expenditure
Publicity
Communication, mailing
Invited speakers
Student prizes
Refund of loans.
A loan of funds can be given to cover some initial expenses. This financial support must be approved by the Governing Board. The borrowed funds have to be returned after the meeting. The budget should clearly show the repayment of 10% of the net registration fee (including tutorial but not optional social events) and the loan as expenditure items.
Finally, the following table provides some guidelines for the nominal time to start some strategic actions:
Actions Nominal time before the conference Selection of local committee (54 months)Track chair selection (48 months)
Final proposed budget (48 months)
Site selection by Governing Board (48 months)
Approaching industry and governments for donations (36 months)
First call for papers via email website IAPR, Newsletter, IEEE Calendar, etc. (24 months)
Selection of KS Fu award by the KS Fu committee, under IAPR responsability. (6 months)
Deadline for paper acceptation (5 months)
Acknowledgement of titles only, on Website (5 months)
Feedback to the authors (preferably through web pages) (5 months)
Draft of detailed program through web pages (4 months)
Camera ready (3 months)
Student prize (3 months)
Hotel registration (3 months)
Conference registration (mandatory for presenters) (3 months)
Selection of industry related best paper (2 months)
Advanced program and official receipts (2 months)
Social activity registration (1 month)
Financial report (6 months after the conference)
Any question concerning the organization of the ICPR should be submitted to the Conference and Meeting Committee who will handle it directly or after discussion with the First IAPR vice-president.
The Conferences and Meetings Committee will evaluate the submitted proposals and present the result to the GB which is responsible to take a definitive decision.
The selected conference will be announced in the IAPR-Newsletter. After the conference, the organizers must submit a report for inclusion in the IAPR-Newsletter.
IAPR home page: http://peipa.essex.ac.uk/iapr/