Virtual Infrastructure Chair Handbook
Current Chairs:
| Name | Affiliation | Contact |
|---|---|---|
| Manling Li | Northwestern University | limanling.ai@gmail.com |
| Yang Liu | Microsoft | yaliu10@microsoft.com |
| Avi Sil | IBM Research | avi@us.ibm.com |
Overview of Responsibilities
The Virtual Infrastructure Chairs at *CL conferences are responsible for handling the administrative set-up of virtual platforms such as Whova, along with the moderation of participants' behaviour and any issues that they may face in this matter. In most cases, virtual sessions, videos, and similar, are handled by Underline.
The following are the main responsibilities of the Virtual Infrastructure Chairs:
- Communication and Preliminary Preparations
- Set Up the Virtual Environment (Whova)
- Administer Virtual Events
Breakdown of Responsibilities
1. Communication and Preliminary Preparations
This responsibility focuses on communicating with previous chairs and Underline, and getting familiar with the virtual environment.
| Task | Start | Deadline | Dependency | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contact Previous Year's Chairs | ASAP | July 2024 | - | Gather insights and resources. |
| Start Organization of Virtual Infrastructure | Jan 2025 | Jan 2025 | - | Whova set up and administration. |
| Contact Underline | May 2025 | May 2025 | - | Communicate with Underline for centralized authentication and information. |
2. Set Up the Virtual Environment (Whova)
This responsibility focuses on setting up important virtual events on the Whova system.
Duties include setting up the virtual environment (hosting, pricing, websites, Underline linking, accounts, etc.) as much as possible before the conference. Following this, Virtual Chair duties primarily consist of being reactive and available the week before the conference to finalize and adapt to new information (e.g., ACL Anthology links, schedule updates, etc.,). During the conference, Virtual Chairs must be alert to address any issues that may arise pertaining to virtual infrastructure.
| Task | Start | Deadline | Dependency | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Set up Main/Finding Track Uploading | May 2025 | June 2025 | Camera-ready deadline | - |
| Set up Workshop Uploading | June 2025 | June 2025 | Camera-ready of Workshops | - |
| Set up Tutorials | July 2025 | July 2025 | - | - |
| Set up Keynote Speakers and other items | July 2025 | July 2025 | - | - |
| Set up a full conference schedule | July 2025 | July 2025 | - | - |
3. Administer Virtual Events
This responsibility focuses on actively managing the virtual events and responding to the virtual attendees.
| Task | Start | Deadline | Dependency | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual Day Set Up | July 2025 | July 2025 | - | Gather Town set up |
| Collect List of Virtual Attendees | July 2025 | July 2025 | - | |
| Virtual Day Session Scheduling | July 2025 | July 2025 | - | Recruit ten session chairs/volunteers/authors using questionnaires + timezone + Best Paper presentation |
| Promote Virtual Day Presentations | July 2025 | July 2025 | - | ACL 2025 Main conference_Video Recording instructions |
| Reply to "Ask Organizers Anything" Thread | July 2025 | July 2025 | - | (1) Collaborate with the Internal Communication Chairs and other local organizers to obtain information relevant to queries. (2) The "ask organizers anything" forum is the responsibility of several people, but primarily the Virtual Infrastructure chairs. |