Special Session Proposals
Submission site is
CLOSED. If you have any questions, please contact
Donatella Sciuto,
Technical Program Co-Chair
A special session is devoted to a topic of strong contemporary or future interest.
The topic must represent an emerging area that does not yet receive sufficient focus from research manuscripts. Special session proposals must include descriptions of the proposed manuscripts and speakers, and the importance of the special session to the DAC audience.
A submission must list at least three inspiring speakers who address the topic from different angles.
DAC reserves the right to restructure all special session proposals. For early feedback on a proposal topic, please contact the technical program co-chairs.
A. DAC special sessions are part of the technical program and occupy a time slot of either 1.5 or 2 hours. As in a regular session in the technical program, there is an organizer, moderator (which can also be the Special Session Chair) and an opportunity for three or more participants to speak in a room with theater style seating with a seated audience of up to 500 people.
TIMELINE:
SEPTEMBER 2011:
September 19: Online submission opens for special sessions on the DAC website.
NOVEMBER 2011:
November 20: Special session proposal deadline.
FEBRUARY 2012:
February 14: Accept/reject notification to special sessions proposals.
MARCH 2012:
March 5: Draft manuscript due to Special Session Chair from presenters if session is submitting a manuscript to be included in the Proceedings. 2 pages minimum – 6 pages maximum. You will NOT be able to add authors or change the title after this deadline!
March 9: Confirmation form due back to DAC office with final manuscript title, speaker designation, and co-author listing.
March 19: Feedback due to special session presenters on draft manuscript from Special Session Chair.
March 30: DAC website LIVE with the technical program!
APRIL 2012:
April 4: Final manuscript due to publisher and copyright form due to ACM.
A. The DAC Technical Program Co-Chairs review the proposals for the special sessions and coordinate with the organizer on the final content. All suggestions must be submitted via the DAC website. However, please feel free to consult the Technical Program Co-Chairs prior to submitting the proposal.
A. There are a number of things to consider in a special session proposal:
- Focus – Technical or business? The majority of special sessions have a technical focus, which is appropriate, as they are part of the technical program. Sometimes they have a mixed focus, but a business-only special session would likely be better as a panel or part of a special DAC “management track”.
- Premise and Motivation – Consider why a special session is appropriate and what the overall theme is meant to convey. What is the key issue? Why have it at DAC, and why in 2012? (i.e., what makes it timely?) Why a special session format?
- Topic and Speakers – There are only a few special sessions at DAC; therefore, the topic should be of significant importance to the technical audience at this time. The speakers need to convey compelling information about the topic, and it must be of high value to the attendees.
- Speakers and Structure – Who are the invited speakers? What is the title, the length and the topic of each talk? Speakers should be confirmed in advance before making the proposal. They should know and agree to the theme of the session. Each speaker will be expected to submit an invited manuscript for the proceedings. The manuscript will be reviewed by the Technical Program Co-Chairs, the session Organizer and the Session Chair. What ties the speakers together into the overall theme, and what is the order of the talks? A special session may have an interesting thematic structure – for example, the first talk may give a mini-tutorial overview of a problem; the next talks may give various solutions to that problem. (See below for more suggestions on structure).
- Chair – Be sure to confirm a chair in advance and include the Chair's name, affiliation, city, state, country, and email address in your proposal.
- Organizer - The Organizer may also be the chair or speaker of a special session.
A. There are three different popular structures for a DAC special session. Of course, variations on any of these structures may be appropriate – but please justify your choice of structure in your proposal. The popular structures are:
- Traditional – As many 30-minute talks that will fit into a session of 90 or 120 minutes.
- Mini-tutorial plus solutions – The first talk is a 30 or 45-minute setup talk which acts as a mini-tutorial outlining a problem, followed by 15 or 30-minute talks which cover various solutions or experiments looking for solutions in the topic area.
- Talks and panel – e.g., three 30-minute talks, followed by a 30-minute panel discussion moderated by the session Chair and involving all the speakers, and Q&A moderated by the Chair which engages the audience.
A. When you complete the proposal form on the DAC website, be sure to complete the required fields:
- Title – Indicate the focus (technical, business or mixed).
- Topic, motivation and premise – Indicate the proposed topic area, why it is appropriate for DAC 2012, and why the special session is preferred to a panel, tutorial or other format.
- Abstract or description – Summarize the content of the special session and the proposed length (200 words or less) 90 or 120 minutes. What are the viewpoints of the main sub-areas in the session? What is the balance between vendor and customer (user), technologist and methodologist, various competing technology solutions, etc? What is your chosen structure, and why?
- Organizer information – Name, affiliation, city, state, country, and email address.
When completing the DAC submission web form, you will be asked to upload a presentation file (either in PowerPoint, OpenOffice, or LibreOffice format) with the following information: Please use the template found at the bottom of the special session web submission form.
- Brief Session Description
- Proposed Chair – Confirmed in advance – Full name, physical address, affiliation, city, state, country, and email address.
- Presenters/authors – Confirmed in advance – Full name, physical address, affiliation, city, state, country, email address, and designated presenter’s short bio (50 words or less) and qualifications to be part of the special session.
- Presentation/manuscript titles, short summaries, sequence, time slots, length and presenter's qualifications to be part of the special session – The short summaries should be two-five sentences long, and clearly indicate the planned content and role of each presentation within the session.
This is MANDATORY, and is used by the Technical Program Committee as the ONLY summary of the proposal for first-round selection processes. Be sure to include all the information suggested above. Special session proposals that do not include all the above items will be at a significant disadvantage.
IMPORTANT: Do not submit your special session proposal until you have confirmed participation by the designated chair and speakers. Do not wait to find out if the special session has been accepted before obtaining confirmation.
A. The DAC Program Committee determines which and how many special sessions are included in the DAC program, as well as their placement in the conference schedule. The Program Committee selects special sessions based on:
- Completeness of the special session proposal
- Timeliness of the proposal – i.e., why it is especially suitable for DAC 2012 to cover this topic
- Breadth of interest in the area
- Confirmed speaker list and the coverage of the topic in their talks
- How well the topic fits within the overall content of the conference
Once the special session submission has been reviewed, the Program Committee may make any changes to the special session they deem necessary, including:
- Modify the topic
- Replace the proposed Chair
- Add, remove, or replace proposed speakers
If multiple special session proposals are submitted with similar topics, the Program Committee may choose to accept one over the others, to merge the proposed sessions, or to reject all of them.
A. The following people:
- Organizer: The Organizer writes the proposal for the special session, selects and confirms the participation of the Chair and session speakers, and submits the proposal to DAC by the due date (November 2, 2011). The Organizer also communicates with the speakers about their manuscript for the conference proceedings to be submitted by April 4, 2012 to the proceedings publisher.
- Chair: The Special Session Chair fills the same role as the chair of any regular technical program session. He or she briefly introduces the session and each speaker, keeps track of time, moderates the panel (if a panel is part of the special session), and manages the question and answer session after each manuscript.
- Speakers: The speakers for the special sessions fill the same role as any regular technical speaker at DAC, and must submit separate invited manuscripts for publication in the proceedings. The TPC Co-Chairs, Special Session Organizer, and Chair will review the manuscript and provide feedback.
A. For additional information, please contact
Donatella Sciuto, 49th DAC Technical Program Co-Chair.