Starting an IEEE VGTC Event

The VGTC is the Visualization and Graphics Technical Committee. They are responsible for organizing the activities of the visualization and graphics research and industry communities under the broader umbrella of the IEEE Computer Society, which in turn works under the IEEE itself. In particular, the VGTC sponsors the IEEE Visualization and IEEE VR events, among many others.

The VGTC Chair and Vice Chair for Conferences oversee conference activities. If you don’t already know, go to the Executive Committee page to find out who currently occupies these positions.

Reputation: by organizing through the VGTC, you demonstrate that the visualization and graphics community both agree with the need for your event, and that you are the right people to organize the event.
Advice: the VGTC is quite experienced with running academic conferences and can provide valuable guidance, ensuring that your event is successful.
Dissemination: organizing through the VGTC ensures access to the well-known IEEE and IEEE CS digital libraries.
Financial protection: When the VGTC and its parent IEEE organizations agree to sponsor your event, they indicate that they will pay any creditors in the event the conference doesn’t do well financially. Of course, they will do their utmost to ensure that doesn’t happen!
Access to conference services: including discounted access to the VGTC proceedings and production and printing service (http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~vis/index.html); access to the VGTC promotional mailing list; free conference URL and website hosting; and registration and meeting organization services from IEEE (you can find this list at http://www.ieee.org/web/conferences/services/ ). Hotel contract negotiation services from IEEE CS for conferences in the US.

Currently conferences can have either “cooperation” and “sponsored” status with the VGTC. Only sponsorship provides finanical protection and access to conference services. The future of “in cooperation with” status is uncertain.

Cooperation status relatively inexpensive (a $250 fee), but increasingly difficult to obtain. Sponsorship status requires a 20% fee on all expenses, and the return of any profits to IEEE. These fees and profits compensate IEEE CS for its financial risk in sponsorship.

The VGTC encourages co-sponsorships; it builds community and amortizes risk. Reflecting this, fees and returned profits are reduced by half.

For cooperation status, you must write a call for participation (CFP), fill out a short budget statement (TMRF), and send it in for approval. The in cooperation TMRF is available at: http://tab.computer.org/tccc/resources.html, and should be sent to tmrf@computer.org. They will provide feedback and forward it to the VGTC for our approval.
For sponsorship status, the process is similar but more detailed. Send the conference name, date and the name of the general chair to tmrf@computer.org. IEEE CS will respond by setting up a new online account for you to enter your TMRF. Enter the TMRF there. Complexity of the TMRF varies with the complexity of your new event.

It’s best to begin at least 14 months before the event itself. New conferences must submit their TMRF 12 months before the event.

After you’ve sent in the TMRF, IEEE CS will provide feedback, and on approval forward the document to the VGTC for our approval. IEEE CS is interested primarily in the financial viability of the event, our primary interest is the event’s technical quality. (We recommend contacting us well before you send in the TMRF).

You can get a good idea of the work involved by looking at the IEEE CS conference schedule at: http://www.computer.org/portal/cms_docs_ieeecs/ieeecs/conferences/TIMELINE.pdf. Much of this is overkill for small, new events — but the main elements of the work and timing are accurate.