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INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INFORMATION SYSTEMS
SITE SELECTION PROCEDURES AND CRITERIA
General Information
The International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) is the premier annual research conference in the information systems discipline. ICIS attracts up to a thousand or more attendees from over 40 countries. It is conducted under the auspices of the Association for Information Systems (AIS).
ICIS is held at different sites throughout the world. Colleagues from prominent local universities take responsibility for organizing and making local arrangements associated with the Conference. The ICIS Executive Committee at its December meeting selects sites four years in advance of the date of each Conference.
ICIS is held around the second week of December each year. ICIS usually starts with an opening reception on Sunday evening and finishes at noon on Wednesday. Because of Christmas season and airplane and/or hotel conflicts, ICIS may be held on a Wednesday to Saturday schedule.
A Doctoral Consortium is held in conjunction with ICIS. Forty doctoral students are selected from nominations received from universities around the world. Universities are invited to nominate one student for the Consortium. Ten international academics are invited to act as Faculty members for the Consortium. If ICIS is held on a Sunday to Wednesday time schedule, the Consortium starts on the Thursday evening before the Conference and ends at Sunday lunchtime.
The ICIS Executive Committee is responsible for selecting the site of the Conference with reference to the ICIS Site Selection Procedures and Criteria.
A Site Advisory Committee (SAC) that usually comprises the following three individuals will (a) assist Bid Committees in developing a bid to host ICIS, and (b) advise the ICIS Executive Committee on the merits of each bid:
· Immediate Past Chair of the ICIS Executive Committee (Chair)
· Immediate Past Program Chair or one of the immediate past Program Co-Chairs
· A past Doctoral Consortium faculty member or other suitable person (to be selected by the Chair of the ICIS Executive Committee)
If any of the individuals listed above are ineligible or decline to be members of the SAC, the Chair of the ICIS Executive Committee will appoint a replacement with the experience and expertise to provide high-quality advice and feedback to Bid Committees and the ICIS Executive Committee.
A SAC member may not be directly or indirectly associated with any bid being considered by SAC. A SAC member may not subsequently serve in any administrative capacity with a conference committee whose conference was selected while the SAC member served. A SAC or ICIS Executive Committee member may not accept any gifts, benefits, or other considerations from any party in connection with any bid being considered.
Site Selection Schedule
The following schedule for submitting bids and selecting the site to host ICIS is firm (not negotiable):
· By 1 March: Chairs of Conference Bid Committees notify the Secretary of the ICIS Executive Committee that they intend to submit a bid for the Conference to be held four years hence (notification in Conference Year X – 4).
· By 1 April: Bid Chairs prepare a Preliminary Bid and notify the SAC Chair of the URL where the bid can be accessed.
· By 15 April: SAC Chair provides Bid Chairs with feedback and bid changes requested.
· By 30 April: Bid Chair completes the Preliminary Bid and notifies SAC Chair. SAC Chair notifies all voting members of the ICIS Executive Committee of the URLs for all Preliminary Bids.
· By mid-year ICIS Executive Committee meeting: SAC assesses strengths and weaknesses of each Preliminary Bid. Reflecting SAC deliberations, SAC Chair provides ICIS Executive Committee with an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of each bid. Executive Committee selects up to three Bid Committees to prepare a Full Bid and to present the bid at the December meeting of the ICIS Executive Committee.
· Within 15 working days of the mid-year ICIS Executive Committee Meeting: ICIS Executive Committee Secretary provides Bid Committee Chairs with feedback on their bids. Each Bid Committee Chair is informed of whether or not they are invited to prepare a Full Bid and to present their bid to the December meeting of the ICIS Executive Committee.
· By 1 September: Bid Committee Chairs submit Full Bids and notify the SAC Chair of the URL where the bid may be accessed.
· By 1 October: SAC assesses each bid and SAC Chair provides feedback to Bid Chairs as to suggested changes.
· By 1 November: Bid Chairs finalize Full Bids and notify SAC Chair that the revised Full Bid is posted at the URL. SAC Chair notifies voting members of
" the ICIS Executive Committee that Full Bids are available for examination. The Secretary will also post the URLs on the ICIS Executive Committee web site.
· At December meeting of ICIS Executive Committee (Conference Year X – 4): Invited Bid Chairs formally present their Bid to the ICIS Executive Committee. Twenty minutes maximum is allowed for the presentation with a question period of no more than 10 minutes. The ICIS Executive Committee selects the winning proposal. The ICIS Executive Committee Chair notifies each Bid Chair as to the success of their bid and provides feedback regarding the basis for the Committee’s decision.
Site Selection Criteria
When selecting a site for the Conference, the Site Advisory Committee and the Executive Committee will consider the following matters:
Preliminary Bid
The Preliminary Bid will not exceed two pages and shall include the following:
· The site (city) proposed, including brief comments with respect to how the city will provide an attractive setting for the conference.
· Proposed Conference Chair, Program Chair, and Doctoral Consortium Chair, without elaborating on their qualifications.
· Estimated attendance and the basis for the estimate.
· Location, banquet room capacity, meeting space, and hotel room accommodations available at the hotel options where the conference may be held; hotels proposed must have been contacted as to their availability during the proposed conference dates; brief comments with respect to how each hotel site option would provide an attractive setting for the conference.
· Location, meeting space, and room accommodations available at the proposed doctoral consortium site (or “sites,” if options are available).
Full Bid (by invitation only)
The Preliminary Bid (with appropriate revisions) should serve as an “executive summary” for the Full Bid. The balance of the Full Bid will in turn describe, explain, and provide detail in support of the main elements above, and it shall include a budget. The information required for each element is indicated below. Nonetheless, a Bid may include detail on other bid-related matters that the Bid Committee feels will help the ICIS Executive Committee reach a decision.
Conference Committee
The quality of the Conference Committee proposed in support of the bid is a critical factor in securing a favourable result. The Conference Chair, Program Chair, and Doctoral Consortium Chair should have extensive prior experience with conferences in some administrative or organizing capacity. As a group, they should be able to demonstrate experience with, interest in, and a commitment to ICIS. No Conference Committee positions such as Vice-Chair or Advisory Committee are recognized by ICIS.
No more than two persons may share a Conference Committee position (except for the position of Conference Treasurer where only one person may serve). Where two persons share a position, they will be known as Co-Chairs. Each will assume all responsibilities and obligations of the position unless otherwise relieved from doing so by provisions herein. If a bid has Conference Co-Chairs, one must be nominated as the person who will be Chair of the ICIS Executive Committee at the appropriate time if the bid is successful.
The Conference Treasurer (along with the Conference Chair and Local Arrangements Chair) must be local to the conference site. The Treasurer must have an accounting background, experience with conference financial matters, and be capable of acting independently of all other Conference Committee members. The Conference Treasurer also accepts responsibility for (a) keeping authorized, accurate, and complete financial records relating to the Conference’s activities, (b) acting with probity, (c) providing authorized, accurate, complete, and timely financial reports to the Conference Chair and the ICIS Executive Committee, and (d) providing timely notification of material financial matters that would be of concern to the Conference Chair and/or the ICIS Executive Committee.
The Program Chair must be an established scholar in the discipline and be capable of judging the quality of scholarship in a broad range of relevant topics. Recognizing the international nature of the conference, the Program Chair must be willing and able to build a Program Committee that draws strongly on the worldwide scholarly information systems community. The Program Chair must also be willing to serve as an ICIS Track Chair (or Track Co-Chair) in the year preceding their conference, if so invited by the preceding year’s Program Chair.
The Doctoral Consortium Chair accepts responsibility for managing the Dissertation Award Competition in the year following the Conference. The Chair also accepts responsibility for notifying Consortium Faculty members that a condition of their accepting an appointment as a Consortium Faculty member is that they will assist in reviewing materials associated with choosing the Dissertation Award in the year following the Consortium.
The proposed Conference Chair assumes the important responsibility of ensuring that every member of the Bid Committee understands and accepts their responsibilities as a member of the ICIS Conference Committee, should their Full Bid be accepted, and subsequent responsibilities, should they become a member of the ICIS Executive Committee.
Conference Facilities
The Full Bid must provide evidence that the banquet room, meeting space, and accommodation available for the Conference are appropriate and adequate. Floor plans for the meeting space must be provided. At a minimum, the meeting space must accommodate full conference attendance at plenary sessions, likely attendance at six to seven parallel sessions, exhibitor requirements, and placement requirements. In addition, space will be required to host ancillary meetings.
Doctoral Consortium Facilities
The Full Bid must also provide evidence that the meeting space and accommodation available for the Doctoral Consortium are appropriate and adequate. In addition, the Full Bid should provide details on the number of single-person and double-person rooms available to accommodate students and faculty and the cost to the Conference of renting the facility. The Doctoral Consortium site should be well removed from the conference hotel but in the region of the host city. It must provide an environment in which students and faculty can work intensively yet relax from time to time. Therefore, in addition to the operational characteristics of the Consortium facilities, recreation and other amenities are considered a plus in evaluating the locale.
Conference Budget
The Conference budget in the Full Bid must be comprehensive and realistic. To assist in preparing the conference budget, the Treasurer for the Bid Committee should obtain (a) the financial statements for the previous two ICIS Conferences from the AIS Treasurer, and (b) the Conference budgets for the current-year’s Conference and next year’s Conference from the Treasurers for these Conferences. The Treasurer for the Bid Committee should also obtain a pro-forma chart of accounts in electronic form from the AIS Treasurer and use the same financial software as employed at the AIS Office. Conference budgets must highlight any line items that are exceptional relative to the two previous years’ Conferences.
The Budget must include a contribution of $15 per attendee to the Association for Information Systems. This contribution enables the AIS Office to provide a range of conference support activities (such as paying conference-related accounts, financial backup, and conference proceedings production) and enables the Association generally to support the membership and member groups worldwide in a variety of ways.
The total cost that will have to be borne by individual attendees is also an important factor affecting the ICIS Executive Committee’s decision on the winning bid. In addition to the registration fee, the bid should contain information on likely costs for accommodation, food, and travel. In the case of travel, the bid should contain estimates of travel costs to the host location from international destinations from which most international delegates are likely to depart.
Conference Program
The Full Bid should outline the nature of the Conference program that the Program Committee wishes to conduct. If a theme is chosen for the Conference program, the rationale for the theme should be explained briefly.
The Program Chair for the bid should examine the programs of recent Conferences and seek advice from previous Program Chairs on the strengths and weaknesses of various program options. Program Chairs have some latitude in choosing the format for the Conference program but must receive approval from the ICIS Executive Committee for any major changes from the traditional program (such as the addition or deletion of tracks). The ICIS Executive Committee’s concern will be to evaluate whether the proposed program format is likely to attract attendees and whether it is likely to result in high-quality research being presented.
Ancillary Meetings
A bid should indicate whether facilities are available to support meetings of ancillary groups. A list of ancillary groups and their likely needs is best obtained from the Conference Chairs of current and recent Conferences. The bid should indicate what levels of support, if any, will be provided to ancillary groups.
Conference Management and Administration
If a bid is successful, the Conference Committee must seek the assistance of a professional conference organizer to negotiate accommodation, meeting, meal charges, and to assist with attracting sponsors and exhibitors. Past experience has shown that employing the services of a professional can result in major cost savings. The AIS Executive Director may be able to recommend individuals/firms who can assist with conference management and administration.
Full Bid Document Specifications
A Full Bid (including the “executive summary”) must not exceed 20 pages (either international A4 or U.S. letter size). Up to a further five pages of appendices are allowed.
The Bid Committee agrees that their Full Bid, if successful, shall be made publicly available on the ICIS Web site. It will be removed from the Web site by 31 December of the year following the year in which the Bid Committee is awarded the right to host the Conference.
Succession Considerations
As soon as a bid is approved to host the Conference, the Conference Chair, Program Chair, Doctoral Consortium Chair, and Treasurer of the successful bid must attend the ICIS Executive Committee meetings in the two years prior to their conference. ICIS Executive Committee meetings are normally held each year in early June at next year’s conference site and at ICIS in December. Where co-chairs are proposed for any of these positions, the bid must designate a Primary Chair who will agree to attend Executive Meetings or arrange to have their co-chair attend in their absence.
At each Executive Committee meeting, the Conference Chair must provide both a written report (including an up-to-date budget) and a verbal report on the status of preparations for the Conference. In addition to enabling the ICIS Executive Committee to monitor the progress of preparations for each Conference, attendance by the Conference Committee keeps it apprised of matters that might affect the conduct of the conference.
The right of the Conference Chair to choose the makeup of her/his Conference Committee is acknowledged. However, each Program Chair can strengthen ICIS by agreeing to provide training for the Program Chair and Track Chairs of the conference for the year following their own conference. This may be achieved by inviting the Program Chair for the year following to serve as a track chair, and by inviting track chairs of the year following to serve as “associate editors.” This vital form of “knowledge transfer” will help ensure that each Program Committee is knowledgeable regarding peer-review procedures and ready to assume this very important function.
In the same vein, the right of the Doctoral Consortium Chair to choose her/his Consortium Faculty members is acknowledged. However, for the reason explained in the previous paragraph, the Doctoral Consortium Chair may provide experience and training for the Doctoral Consortium Chair for the year following by inviting that Chair to serve as a member of their Consortium faculty.
Contacts
Additional questions on preparing a Preliminary Bid or Full Bid may be directed to the Chair of the Site Advisory Committee (Immediate Past Chair of the ICIS Executive Committee) or the current Chair of the ICIS Executive Committee.
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