DIMACS Publicity: General Instructions for organizers.

The accompanying "Publicity plan and actions for: ..." Describes what we "know how to do", but we are open to additional media, etc. It also serves as a tracking sheet for DIMACS to know what organizers want and to make sure work is done in a timely way.

What DIMACS needs from workshop and event organizers is the contact person who will provide publicity materials; the specific content to be sent out, and where you want it sent. The "Publicity Plan and actions ..." is mostly a checklist for you to tell us what you want done. Where known, deadlines and lag to publication are given. It can also take a week or two at DIMACS when the workload is heavy here.

A typical workshop might produce:

• Workshop announcement. Has name, dates, organizers, 1 - 3 paragraphs about the purpose of the workshop. Should be 8-12 months before workshop.
• Call for Participation; may be same as 1; or expand to include more specific solicitation to participate. 4-6 months.
• Workshop Program: Detailed schedule of talks, receptions, etc. 2-3 months.
• Calendar item: Workshop name, organizers, dates, place, contact, 1 sentence description, etc. 8-12 months.
• Abstracts of talks for WWW. 2-3 weeks.

A distinguished lecturer talk might require an announcement (with abstract) and a calendar item.

Other services can be provided such as distribution site for software or data; papers from the meeting; publication of papers in DIMACS TR series. We also encourage the strongest form of publicity: producing a refereed DIMACS/AMS volume of workshop papers. DIMACS will produce registration forms, travel guide, and housing information.

We use roughly 5 forms of announcement:
1. Full version in latex:
2. Full version in plain text:
3. One or two page version in latex:
4. One or two page version in plain text:
5. 100-200 word blurb in plain text:

Some places allow long announcements; some want short versions; and some allow just a very short blurb. When you provide publicity, DIMACS will add DIMACS logos and contact information; check correctness and do the distribution. We can work from a single long version, but it requires more time and subjects the material to our editorial choices.

To make our lives easier, furnished latex should be "simple latex" since we typically use latex: \documentstyle[12pt,dimacspub]{article} where dimacspub adds a logo and foot, and sets sizes so it all looks nice and fits the page requirements of SIGACT News, EATCS Bulletin, etc. Un-latexing documents that have nonstandard pagelength, etc. consumes valuable time and slows down publicity.

If you have additional places to place announcements, please provide the following information:
- The name of the newsgroup, magazine, etc.
- A contact person; and how to contact that person (email, phone, etc.)
- What sort of announcement they are willing to publish. (Size, format, ???) (We don't want to send 10 page essays to people who want a little blurb!)
- Deadlines and publication dates if known.
- Any other information a submitter ought to know.

For additional WWW or ftp services, contact the DIMACS Publicity Coordinator.