HLT-NAACL 2006
INVITATION LETTER

Dear Sirs and Madams,

We write to you in the hope that you may be able to help support the next Human Language Technology conference HLT-NAACL.

The conference plays a vital role in the ongoing research and development of human language technology - machine translation, question answering, information retrieval, speech recognition, text summarization, dialogue systems, and others. Bringing together researchers from three distinct research communities (information retrieval, speech processing, and language/text processing), HLT-NAACL 2006 continues the combination of the Human Language Technology Conferences (HLT) and North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (NAACL) annual meetings begun in 2003.

HLT-NAACL is the premier research conference in the field in North America in 2006 . It is thus the best opportunity for you to advertise your institution’s interest in and support of language technology. Your participation is important: it shows the students that there is real significance to their work, allows research faculty to learn where they should send their graduating students, and signals to funders like DARPA and the National Science Foundation that the work being done is relevant to society.

The conference is described on http://nlp.cs.nyu.edu/hlt-naacl06 . As usual, we expect between 600 and 700 participants, from academia, industry, and government, and we hope to host a vibrant and varied exhibits program as well. Naturally, we would like to invite you to consider holding an exhibit as well. In fact, if you choose silver, gold, or platinum level sponsorship, the exhibit fee is waived.

How it works

We have five levels of sponsorship:

Up to $1000: Sponsor
$1,000+ Bronze
$2,500+ Silver
$5,000+ Gold
$10,000+ Platinum

Sponsorship at all levels is acknowledged in several ways:
- Your logo is emblazoned on the conference bag and the gift (if the gift is large enough to hold more than the HLT-NAACL logo)
- Your logo, company name, and sponsorship level appear on the conference website
- Your logo and company name are listed in conference program and the proceedings
In all cases, the conference and ACL logos are largest, followed by (in decreasing order of prominence and size) the various levels, from platinum down.

Also:
If you provide it, we will include promotional materials in each conference bag

In addition to the above, Bronze and higher levels of sponsorship have the option of being earmarked for a specific purpose, such as:

Reception (this is a popular option, and is much appreciated by attendees!)
- Banquet (this is also a popular option; support here lowers the price of the banquet and allows more people with limited budgets, like students, to attend)
- Email room or Internet Cafe
- Equipment rental
- Attendee photograph
- Student lunch
- Refreshments breaks
- Poster/Demo Session food/beverage
A notice along the lines of "Email room supported by a generous contribution from XX”, together with logo, will be displayed prominently.

In addition to the above, Silver level sponsorship automatically comes with an exhibit space that includes 1-2 skirted tables, 2-3 chairs, power, internet access (generally wireless these days), security, etc. Unfortunately, we do not provide pipe and drape.

In addition to the above, Gold level sponsorship is given premium exhibit space location of your choosing within the exhibit area and/or within the space of your specified contribution (i.e., Reception, Banquet, Poster/Demo Session, etc.).

In addition to the above, Platinum level sponsorship will be personally acknowledged at the banquet. If you wish, you or someone of your choice will have a chance to say a few words, either at the banquet, or the reception, or at the conference opening ceremony.

In recognition of your generosity, our head conference organizer Priscilla Rasmussen will work personally with the Local Arrangements staff to ensure your needs are met. In particular, she always ensures that the exhibit area setup allows for the inclusion of some portion of the breaks food to encourage traffic flow and best visibility for both the exhibitors and book vendors.

Administration

Becoming a sponsor is very easy: simply send email to the effect to us at .We will immediately be in touch. When the time comes, we will remind you and you can send us a check or otherwise transfer the funds to the conference. We will then obtain your logo, preferred company name, preferences for advertising, etc. Please note that the ACL tax id number is 23-7247935.

Last year, the exhibit booths drew considerable attention of students and researchers, as did the IBM Best Student Paper Award presentation. We hope to this year provide even more, and build a dynamic and lively exhibit area. It would be wonderful if you could be one of them!

Even if not, we would be very grateful for your financial support of the conference. The conference series is one of the most important ways of maintaining a healthy R&D environment, one that guarantees high-caliber and enthusiastic graduates entering the job market every year. Your support is what makes this kind of event possible.

Sincerely,

Eduard Hovy and Patrick Pantel
HLT-NAACL 2006 Sponsorship Chairs