SIGIR is the premier international conference in Information Retrieval. Now in its 21st year, SIGIR showcases new research and technology in areas such as text retrieval, multimedia database systems, Web technology, and user interfaces. It is attended by representatives of both industry and academia. SIGIR is held annually under the auspices of the Association for Computing Machinery, the main professional body for Computer Science, and is organised by their Special Interest Group in Information Retrieval.
The conference is expected to attract theoreticians, developers, publishers, researchers, and educators; and designers of systems, interfaces, information bases, and related applications. Many of the overseas attendees are also active in other research communities, and there is considerable overlap between SIGIR and the Digital Libraries community, the World-wide Web community, and the Hypermedia community. SIGIR'98 in Melbourne represents a unique opportunity for developers and planners to mingle with the people who are driving these fields at the highest international level.
Steve Kirsch, the head of InfoSeek, is the keynote speaker at SIGIR'98. The five-day event also includes research papers, a poster session, workshops, tutorials, demonstrations of commercial and research software, and several social events, including a tour of the nearby Yarra Valley and a visit to an Australian Rules football match. There will also be a display of IR-related products, including textbooks and research monographs.
The principal venue is the Sofitel Hotel on Collins Street, with some associated events to be held at the Melbourne Town Hall. The conference follows on from highly successful events in Dublin (August 1994), Seattle (July 1995), Zurich (August 1996), and Philadelphia (July 1997). In 1998 the conference is jointly hosted in Australia by the Departments of Computer Science at RMIT University and the University of Melbourne, and represents the first time the conference has been held outside North America and Europe.
Morning Tutorials
Afternoon Tutorials
To register for the conference, complete the on-line registration form and return the required confirmation and payment by fax or mail to the address below. Registration confirmations received after 15 June will automatically be subject to a late penalty of $A100. Off-site registration closes on 12 August; after that date please register in person at the conference. All payments must be made in Australian dollars, and can be made using Visa and Mastercard but not American Express or Diners.
Rough guide (as at 7 June): $A1 approx $US0.62. A full table of conversion rates is available from the conference home page.
| Full registration | $A590 |
| Member registration | $A490 |
| Student registration | $A290 |
| Day registration | $A200 |
| Late fee (after 15 June) | $A100 |
| Tutorials, half-day | $A150 |
| Workshops, all-day | $A75 |
| Additional dinner tickets | $A80 |
| Additional proceedings | $A60 |
| Yarra Valley tour | $A80 |
| Australian Rules football game | $A30 |
"Full" and "Member" registration includes a copy of the proceedings, attendance at all conference sessions (but not tutorials or workshops), morning and afternoon coffee breaks, the welcoming reception, the conference banquet, and, for first time attendees, the SIGIR newcomer's breakfast.
"Student" registration includes all of these except attendance at the banquet. There are no discounted student rates for any events other than the main conference.
"Day" registration includes attendance at all sessions for a single day of the conference (Tuesday 25th, Wednesday 26th, or Thursday 27th), and morning and afternoon coffee breaks on that day.
The pre- and post-conference excursions, and tutorial and workshop attendance, are additional to the Conference Registration fee for all registration categories. Extra copies of the proceedings and dinner tickets may also be purchased.
"Member Registration" is available to members of ACM, SIGIR, BCS-IRSG, GI, and IPSJ. "Student registration" is available only to full-time students. Proof of entitlement in either category may be requested at the commencement of the conference. (For information on joining ACM or SIGIR, contact ACM by phone at +1-212-626-0500, by fax at +1-212-944-1318, by email at acmhelp@acm.org, or see their web page at http://www.acm.org/membership/join.html.)
Accommodation reservations must be made directly with the hotel of your choice. Here is the accommodation information again in case you missed it earlier.
We are indebted to our various sponsors:
Major sponsor,
Other sponsors,
And the publishers who will be attending the book display on Wednesday 26 August,
Email: sigir98@cs.mu.oz.au
Phone:
+61 3 93449100
Facsimile:
+61 3 93481184