ICLR2020 as a Fully Virtual Conference

Due to growing concerns about COVID-19, ICLR2020 will cancel its physical conference this year, instead shifting to a fully virtual conference. We were very excited to hold ICLR in Addis Ababa, and it is disappointing that we will not all be able to come together in person in April. This unfortunate event does give us the opportunity to innovate on how to host an effective remote conference. The organizing committees are now working to create a virtual conference that will be valuable and engaging for both presenters and attendees.

Immediate guidance for authors, and questions about registration and participation are given below. We are actively discussing several options, with full details to be announced soon.

Information for Authors of Accepted Papers

All accepted papers at the virtual conference will be presented using a pre-recorded video.

All accepted papers (poster, spotlight, long talk) will need to create a 5 minute video that will be used during the virtual poster session.
In addition, papers accepted as a long-talk should create a 15 minute video.

We will provide more detailed instructions soon, particularly on how to record your presentations. In the interim, please do begin preparing your talk and associated slides.

Each video should use a set of slides, and should be timed carefully to not exceed the time allocation. The slides should be in widescreen format (16:9), and can be created in any presentation software that allows you to export to PDF (e.g., PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi, Beamer, etc).

Virtual Conference Dates

The conference will still take place between April 25 and April 30, as these are the dates people have allocated to attend the conference. We expect most participants will still commit their time during this window to participate in the conference, and have discussions with fellow researchers around the world.

Conference Registration Fee

The registration fee has been substantially reduced to 50 USD for students and 100 USD for non-students. For those who have already registered, we have automatically refunded the remainder of the registration fee, so that you will only pay the new reduced rate. Registration provides each participant with an access code to participate in sessions where they can ask questions of speakers, see questions and answers from other participants, take part in discussion groups, meet with sponsors, and join groups for networking. Registration furthermore supports the infrastructure needed to host and support the virtual conference.

Registration Support

There will be funding available for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows to get registration reimbursed, with similar conditions to the Travel Support Application. If you have already applied for and received a travel grant for ICLR 2020, you will get free registration for ICLR 2020. The Travel Application on the website will be updated soon, to accept applications for free registration, with the deadline extended to April 10, 2020.

Workshops

We will send details for workshops through the workshop organisers soon, but it is expected that these will follow a similar virtual format to the main conference.