Virtual Infrastructure Overview for EMNLP 2020
In this post, we will give you an overview of the virtual infrastructure for the main conference for EMNLP 2020.
We built our infrastructure upon that developed for ACL 2020, which in turn was based on the infrastructure pioneered by Sasha Rush and the ICLR organization committee at ICLR 2020, and introduced some new elements such as Zoom Q&A sessions and Gather.Town sessions, which are intended to mimic oral and poster presentations, respectively, from traditional conferences. We will be using SlidesLive for pre-recorded talks, Zoom for live Q&A and plenary sessions, Gather.Town (via Virtual Chair) for poster-like sessions, RocketChat for chat, and a special web portal.
There will be 811 papers/demos organised into live Zoom Q&A sessions and Gather.Town sessions at the main conference, including 752 papers from EMNLP, 25 from Transactions of ACL, 5 from the journal of Computational Linguistics, and 29 demos. Each will have a pre-recorded talk (long/TACL/CL 12 minutes, short 7 minutes). Authors have already been sent instructions from SlidesLive about how to record and upload their presentations. In addition to the Zoom Q&A and Gather.Town sessions, there will be live-streamed keynote presentations, panel discussions, business meetings, a best paper awards session, as well as other sessions and sponsor booths.
| Punta Cana (UTC-4) | New York (UTC-5) | Seattle (UTC-8) | London (UTC) | Beijing (UTC+8) | Melbourne (UTC+11) | Event |
| Mon 11:00 am | Mon 10:00 am | Mon 7:00 am | Mon 3:00 pm | Mon 11:00 pm | Tue 2:00 am | Opening plenary |
| Mon 12:00 noon | Mon 11:00 am | Mon 8:00 am | Mon 4:00 pm | Tue 12:00 midnight | Tue 3:00 am | QA 1 |
| Mon 1:00 pm | Mon 12:00 noon | Mon 9:00 am | Mon 5:00 pm | Tue 1:00 am | Tue 4:00 am | QA 2 |
| Mon 2:00 pm | Mon 1:00 pm | Mon 10:00 am | Mon 6:00 pm | Tue 2:00 am | Tue 5:00 am | |
| Mon 3:00 pm | Mon 2:00 pm | Mon 11:00 am | Mon 7:00 pm | Tue 3:00 am | Tue 6:00 am | |
| Mon 4:00 pm | Mon 3:00 pm | Mon 12:00 noon | Mon 8:00 pm | Tue 4:00 am | Tue 7:00 am | |
| Mon 5:00 pm | Mon 4:00 pm | Mon 1:00 pm | Mon 9:00 pm | Tue 5:00 am | Tue 8:00 am | |
| Mon 6:00 pm | Mon 5:00 pm | Mon 2:00 pm | Mon 10:00 pm | Tue 6:00 am | Tue 9:00 am | |
| Mon 7:00 pm | Mon 6:00 pm | Mon 3:00 pm | Mon 11:00 pm | Tue 7:00 am | Tue 10:00 am | Panel plenary |
| Mon 8:00 pm | Mon 7:00 pm | Mon 4:00 pm | Tue 12:00 midnight | Tue 8:00 am | Tue 11:00 am | QA 3 |
| Mon 9:00 pm | Mon 8:00 pm | Mon 5:00 pm | Tue 1:00 am | Tue 9:00 am | Tue 12:00 noon | QA 4 |
| Mon 10:00 pm | Mon 9:00 pm | Mon 6:00 pm | Tue 2:00 am | Tue 10:00 am | Tue 1:00 pm | Gather 1 |
| Mon 11:00 pm | Mon 10:00 pm | Mon 7:00 pm | Tue 3:00 am | Tue 11:00 am | Tue 2:00 pm | Gather 1 |
| Tue 12:00 midnight | Mon 11:00 pm | Mon 8:00 pm | Tue 4:00 am | Tue 12:00 noon | Tue 3:00 pm | |
| Tue 1:00 am | Tue 12:00 midnight | Mon 9:00 pm | Tue 5:00 am | Tue 1:00 pm | Tue 4:00 pm | |
| Tue 2:00 am | Tue 1:00 am | Mon 10:00 pm | Tue 6:00 am | Tue 2:00 pm | Tue 5:00 pm | |
| Tue 3:00 am | Tue 2:00 am | Mon 11:00 pm | Tue 7:00 am | Tue 3:00 pm | Tue 6:00 pm | |
| Tue 4:00 am | Tue 3:00 am | Tue 12:00 midnight | Tue 8:00 am | Tue 4:00 pm | Tue 7:00 pm | QA 5 |
| Tue 5:00 am | Tue 4:00 am | Tue 1:00 am | Tue 9:00 am | Tue 5:00 pm | Tue 8:00 pm | QA 6 |
| Tue 6:00 am | Tue 5:00 am | Tue 2:00 am | Tue 10:00 am | Tue 6:00 pm | Tue 9:00 pm | Gather 2 |
| Tue 7:00 am | Tue 6:00 am | Tue 3:00 am | Tue 11:00 am | Tue 7:00 pm | Tue 10:00 pm | Gather 2 |
| Tue 8:00 am | Tue 7:00 am | Tue 4:00 am | Tue 12:00 noon | Tue 8:00 pm | Tue 11:00 pm | |
| Tue 9:00 am | Tue 8:00 am | Tue 5:00 am | Tue 1:00 pm | Tue 9:00 pm | Wed 12:00 midnight | |
| Tue 10:00 am | Tue 9:00 am | Tue 6:00 am | Tue 2:00 pm | Tue 10:00 pm | Wed 1:00 am | |
| Tue 11:00 am | Tue 10:00 am | Tue 7:00 am | Tue 3:00 pm | Tue 11:00 pm | Wed 2:00 am | Plenary |
| Tue 12:00 noon | Tue 11:00 am | Tue 8:00 am | Tue 4:00 pm | Wed 12:00 midnight | Wed 3:00 am | QA 7 |
| Tue 1:00 pm | Tue 12:00 noon | Tue 9:00 am | Tue 5:00 pm | Wed 1:00 am | Wed 4:00 am | QA 8 |
| Tue 2:00 pm | Tue 1:00 pm | Tue 10:00 am | Tue 6:00 pm | Wed 2:00 am | Wed 5:00 am | Gather 3 |
| Tue 3:00 pm | Tue 2:00 pm | Tue 11:00 am | Tue 7:00 pm | Wed 3:00 am | Wed 6:00 am | Gather 3 |
| Tue 4:00 pm | Tue 3:00 pm | Tue 12:00 noon | Tue 8:00 pm | Wed 4:00 am | Wed 7:00 am | |
| Tue 5:00 pm | Tue 4:00 pm | Tue 1:00 pm | Tue 9:00 pm | Wed 5:00 am | Wed 8:00 am | |
| Tue 6:00 pm | Tue 5:00 pm | Tue 2:00 pm | Tue 10:00 pm | Wed 6:00 am | Wed 9:00 am | |
| Tue 7:00 pm | Tue 6:00 pm | Tue 3:00 pm | Tue 11:00 pm | Wed 7:00 am | Wed 10:00 am | Plenary |
| Tue 8:00 pm | Tue 7:00 pm | Tue 4:00 pm | Wed 12:00 midnight | Wed 8:00 am | Wed 11:00 am | QA 9 |
| Tue 9:00 pm | Tue 8:00 pm | Tue 5:00 pm | Wed 1:00 am | Wed 9:00 am | Wed 12:00 noon | QA 10 |
| Tue 10:00 pm | Tue 9:00 pm | Tue 6:00 pm | Wed 2:00 am | Wed 10:00 am | Wed 1:00 pm | Gather 4 |
| Tue 11:00 pm | Tue 10:00 pm | Tue 7:00 pm | Wed 3:00 am | Wed 11:00 am | Wed 2:00 pm | Gather 4 |
| Wed 12:00 midnight | Tue 11:00 pm | Tue 8:00 pm | Wed 4:00 am | Wed 12:00 noon | Wed 3:00 pm | |
| Wed 1:00 am | Wed 12:00 midnight | Tue 9:00 pm | Wed 5:00 am | Wed 1:00 pm | Wed 4:00 pm | |
| Wed 2:00 am | Wed 1:00 am | Tue 10:00 pm | Wed 6:00 am | Wed 2:00 pm | Wed 5:00 pm | |
| Wed 3:00 am | Wed 2:00 am | Tue 11:00 pm | Wed 7:00 am | Wed 3:00 pm | Wed 6:00 pm | |
| Wed 4:00 am | Wed 3:00 am | Wed 12:00 midnight | Wed 8:00 am | Wed 4:00 pm | Wed 7:00 pm | QA 11 |
| Wed 5:00 am | Wed 4:00 am | Wed 1:00 am | Wed 9:00 am | Wed 5:00 pm | Wed 8:00 pm | QA 12 |
| Wed 6:00 am | Wed 5:00 am | Wed 2:00 am | Wed 10:00 am | Wed 6:00 pm | Wed 9:00 pm | |
| Wed 7:00 am | Wed 6:00 am | Wed 3:00 am | Wed 11:00 am | Wed 7:00 pm | Wed 10:00 pm | |
| Wed 8:00 am | Wed 7:00 am | Wed 4:00 am | Wed 12:00 noon | Wed 8:00 pm | Wed 11:00 pm | |
| Wed 9:00 am | Wed 8:00 am | Wed 5:00 am | Wed 1:00 pm | Wed 9:00 pm | Thu 12:00 midnight | |
| Wed 10:00 am | Wed 9:00 am | Wed 6:00 am | Wed 2:00 pm | Wed 10:00 pm | Thu 1:00 am | |
| Wed 11:00 am | Wed 10:00 am | Wed 7:00 am | Wed 3:00 pm | Wed 11:00 pm | Thu 2:00 am | Plenary |
| Wed 12:00 noon | Wed 11:00 am | Wed 8:00 am | Wed 4:00 pm | Thu 12:00 midnight | Thu 3:00 am | QA 13 |
| Wed 1:00 pm | Wed 12:00 noon | Wed 9:00 am | Wed 5:00 pm | Thu 1:00 am | Thu 4:00 am | QA 14 |
| Wed 2:00 pm | Wed 1:00 pm | Wed 10:00 am | Wed 6:00 pm | Thu 2:00 am | Thu 5:00 am | Gather 5 |
| Wed 3:00 pm | Wed 2:00 pm | Wed 11:00 am | Wed 7:00 pm | Thu 3:00 am | Thu 6:00 am | Gather 5 |
| Wed 4:00 pm | Wed 3:00 pm | Wed 12:00 noon | Wed 8:00 pm | Thu 4:00 am | Thu 7:00 am | |
| Wed 5:00 pm | Wed 4:00 pm | Wed 1:00 pm | Wed 9:00 pm | Thu 5:00 am | Thu 8:00 am | |
| Wed 6:00 pm | Wed 5:00 pm | Wed 2:00 pm | Wed 10:00 pm | Thu 6:00 am | Thu 9:00 am | |
| Wed 7:00 pm | Wed 6:00 pm | Wed 3:00 pm | Wed 11:00 pm | Thu 7:00 am | Thu 10:00 am | QA 15 |
| Wed 8:00 pm | Wed 7:00 pm | Wed 4:00 pm | Thu 12:00 midnight | Thu 8:00 am | Thu 11 | QA 16 |
| Wed 9:00 pm | Wed 8:00 pm | Wed 5:00 pm | Thu 1:00 am | Thu 9:00 am | Thu 12 noon | Closing Plenary |
The conference schedule is based around three "time blocks", of 2-5 hours each, which are evenly distributed across the 24-hour day. There are gaps of a few hours between each block, during which different kinds of social activities have been scheduled. (See below.) Participants will be able to access two of these blocks during reasonable hours of their day, but are unlikely to participate in the other block which will fall in the middle of the night.
Papers and Live Sessions
All accepted papers will have a pre-recorded video talk (12 minutes for long/TACL/CL papers; 7 minutes for short papers). Videos will be captioned automatically and (wherever possible) reviewed and corrected by the authors, possibly with help from "volunteer caption editors". Videos and slides will be available before the start of the conference and you can watch them at your convenience.
Each paper has been assigned to a live session based on a number of factors, ranging from coherence of paper topics in a session, ensuring diversity of topics, and timezone compatibility. The live session will take one of two forms:
- A 1-hour Zoom Q&A session, where authors of 4-5 papers from one track are available for moderated questions and answers. This is intended to function like the question time between talks in a block during an in-person conference.
- A 2-hour Gather.town session, where authors of 8-12 papers from 1-2 tracks are available in a virtual "room". Participants can steer their avatar around the 2D environment, and engage in video-chat with nearby authors and/or other participants. This is designed to mimic the discussion environment of a poster session (although we do not require a poster, per se, as there will be a prerecorded talk).
Both Zoom Q&A and Gather.town sessions will run with multiple parallel tracks.
Plenary Sessions
- The three Keynote talks will be live-streamed at their designated time. Each talk will be 45 minutes followed by a 15-minutes live Q&A session with the speaker. You can post your questions via chat, and a moderator will read out the questions to the speaker during live Q&A.
- Two panel discussions will also be live-streamed at their designated times. An Industry Panel will discuss NLP practice in industry and future directions, and an Ethics Panel will focus on ethics considerations for future NLP paper submissions.
- The Business Meeting will be live discussions organized by the SIGDAT Executive board. We encourage you to participate and provide your feedback on issues discussed in the meeting. The session chair will moderate the discussion.
- The Best Paper awards will be announced in the Closing Remarks session.
Demonstrations
- There are 29 demonstration papers at the main conference.
- There will be a dedicated room in Gather.Town for demos at each of the 5 main conference Gather.Town sessions; there will be a poster pdf for each demo and its presenter will stand on the "conversation carpet" next to their poster.
- Some demo presenters may also use Zoom for screen-sharing with computer audio, with the exact details to be advised by email from Demo Chairs.
Social Activities: Birds of a feather sessions, affinity groups, career panels and mentoring
- There will be less formal meetings and affinity group sessions during the conference as a whole.
- A Birds of a Feather session is built around something technical.
- An affinity group is built around something non-technical (such as NLP in a geographical region, or another group identity, like being a vegetarian).
- There will be a panel, with presentations, for undergraduates attending EMNLP
See the blog post about Diversity & Inclusion initiatives at EMNLP 2020 for more information.
Registration and Fees
- You must register in order to attend EMNLP 2020 and access the EMNLP 2020 website portal, videos, and live events.
- The papers will be available to everyone at the open access ACL Anthology prior to the conference.
- The EMNLP 2020 registration fees are drastically reduced this year. Regular registration is $200 and student registration is $75.
- The low fees include workshops and tutorials. (You still need to register for workshops/tutorials but there is no additional charge.)
Please refer to the EMNLP 2020 registration page for more details.
– EMNLP 2020 Program Chairs: Trevor Cohn, Yulan He and Yang Liu