Virtual Format of Plenary Sessions
The first virtual ACL is quickly approaching! Several weeks ago we described the format of this new conference in a blog post. In this post, we wanted to give you more details about one aspect of the conference, the Plenary Sessions. All three days of the main conference feature a two-hour plenary session with keynote talks, award sessions, and business and review meetings. Each plenary starts at 7:00 PDT (14:00 UTC+0). Here is what to expect for each day:
- July 6: Opening Remarks, Presidential Address, Keynote, Business Meeting Q&A
- July 7: Lifetime Achievement Award, Distinguished Service Award, Test of Time Awards, Review Meeting Q&A
- July 8: Keynote, Best Paper Awards, Future Conferences, Closing Remarks
PLEASE NOTE: Links in this page point to the virtual website https://virtual.acl2020.org/. If you have registered for ACL2020, please wait till the end of July 3rd for your welcome email which will contain your username and password to access the virtual site. Only then you can access the virtual website by following the login instructions.
Below we describe these talks. Talks that have been pre-recorded can be viewed under the plenary sessions page whereas the talks that are live streamed can be viewed under the livestream page.
Keynote Talks
We are very excited to have Professor Kathleen McKeown and Professor Josh Tenenbaum speak at the conference. Their talks will be pre-recorded. You can either watch the talk ahead of time or join the live-streamed presentation during the plenary session.
There are two ways for you to ask a question:
- You can post your questions on the keynote’s respective Rocket Chat channel before the scheduled live-stream presentation. The chat window is next to the pre-recorded video.
- For Professor McKeown: https://virtual.acl2020.org/plenary_session_keynote_kathy_mckeown.html
- For Professor Tenenbaum: https://virtual.acl2020.org/plenary_session_keynote_josh_tenenbaum.html
- You can post your question on the live Rocket Chat channel during the talk and the live QA session. The chat window is immediately below the live-streamed presentation.
Award Sessions
Lifetime Achievement Award (LTA) on Tuesday July 7
This session will be hosted by the ACL president, Professor Hinrich Schuetze. Immediately following a 30 minute livestreamed pre-recorded presentation, there will be a live 15-minute QA session. You can use live Rocket Chat immediately below the livestreamed presentation to post your questions to the awardee. As the winner of the LTA is a surprise, the presentation can only be accessed during the livestream and questions can only be asked once that begins.
Distinguished Service Award (DSA) on Tuesday July 7
This session will also be hosted by the ACL president, Professor Hinrich Schuetze. Immediately following a 10 minute livestreamed presentation, there will be a 5-minute QA session. You can use live Rocket Chat immediately below the livestreamed presentation to post your questions to the awardee.
Test of Time (ToT) Award on Tuesday July 7
In this session, Professor Barbara Di Eugenio, ACL conference officer, will announce the ToT awardees! Immediately following the announcement, there will be a live QA session. You can use live Rocket Chat immediately below the livestreamed presentation to post your questions to the awardees.
Best Paper Awards on Wednesday July 8
In this session, best paper winners will be announced!! Please come to the session to find out this year’s winners! There will be no live Q&A or Rocket Chat associated with this session.
Business Meeting Q&A
The ACL Business Meeting encompasses reports from the many initiatives the community is working on. Each initiative has a pre-recorded talk at the business meeting. All pre-recorded talks for business the meeting have been combined together as one and can be found here: https://virtual.acl2020.org/plenary_session_business_meeting.html.
Please submit questions beforehand for the speakers (see below) at the business meeting by sending an email to inquiries@cislmu.org, subject “Business Meeting Q&A”. In addition, questions can be asked during the Live Q&A on the respective Rocket Chat. During the Plenary, the moderator, Barbara di Eugenio, will ask the questions to the speakers.
Review Meeting Q&A
Reviewing processes are always a hot topic, and this year is no different, especially as our conferences hit record submission numbers. The goal of this meeting is to get feedback on reviewing at ACL conferences and on a number of proposals that are under discussion. The following talks are pre-recorded and posted on the virtual website here: https://virtual.acl2020.org/plenary_session_review_meeting.html.
We encourage you to view them before the session:
- Hinrich Schuetze will give a brief introduction.
- The ACL 2020 program chairs will talk about innovations in reviewing at ACL 2020.
- The EMNLP 2020 program chairs will talk about innovations in reviewing at EMNLP 2020.
- Amanda Stent will first report on COI management and reviewer management and then on the short-term proposals of the ACL reviewing committee.
- Graham Neubig will present the Rolling Review Proposal.
IMPORTANT: please submit questions beforehand for the speakers at the review meeting by sending an email to inquiries@cislmu.org, subject “Review Meeting Q&A”. In addition, questions can be asked during the Live Q&A on the respective Rocket Chat. As in the Business Meeting Q&A, the moderator will ask the questions to the speakers.