Daniel Weinreb sent this along and asked I post it to Planet Lisp, so here it is (lightly htmlized from the original).

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS INTERNATIONAL LISP CONFERENCE 2009 Lisp: The Next 50 Years http://www.international-lisp-conference.org Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

March 22-25, 2009

Sponsored by the Association of Lisp Users

General Information:

The Association of Lisp Users is pleased to announce the 2009 International Lisp Conference will be held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sunday through Wednesday, March 22-25, 2009. The emphasis will be on present and future applications of technologies that have been or might soon be associated with the Lisp programming language and/or related languages and software.

We encourage submissions in diverse areas, including but not limited to: language design and implementation, memory management, software engineering, mathematical and scientific computing, artificial intelligence, database processing and data mining, business intelligence, performance analysis, parallel processing, quantum computing, bioinformatics, telecommunications and networking, the semantic web, music, domain-specific languages, and entertainment technologies. ILC09 is not limited to topics discussed in previous symposia. Authors concerned about the appropriateness of a topic may communicate by electronic mail with the program chair prior to submission.

Explaining a known idea in a new way may make as strong a contribution as inventing a new one. We encourage the submission of "pearls": elegant essays that illustrate an idea, for example by developing a short program. (A pearl should be concise, instructive, self-contained, and entertaining. Your pearl is likely to be rejected if your readers get bored, if the material gets too complicated, if too much specialized knowledge is needed, or if the writing is inelegant. The key to writing a good pearl is polishing.)

There is no formal separation of categories and no need to explicitly label pearls as such: all papers, whether pearl or otherwise, will be judged on a combination of correctness, significance, novelty, clarity, and elegance. Each paper should explain its contributions in both general and technical terms, identifying what has been accomplished, explaining why it is significant, and comparing it with previous work. Authors should strive to make their papers understandable to a broad audience.

Alongside our usual four-day program of tutorials, prominent invited speakers, and excellent technical sessions, this year we will also consider demonstration sessions.

The official language of the conference is English. Further details are available at the conference web site: http://www.international-lisp-conference.org

Technical Program:

Original submissions in all areas related to the conference themes are invited for the following categories.

Papers: Technical papers of up to 15 pages that describe original results ("research papers") or explain known ideas in new ways ("pearls").

Demonstrations: Abstracts of up to 4 pages for demonstrations of tools, libraries, and applications.

Tutorials: Abstracts of up to 4 pages for in-depth presentations about topics of special interest for at least 90 minutes and up to 180 minutes.

Panel discussions: Abstracts of up to 4 pages for discussions about current themes. Panel discussion proposals must mention panel members who are willing to partake in a discussion.

Lightning talks: Abstracts of up to one page for talks to last for no more than 5 minutes.

Important Dates:

Please send contributions before the submission deadline to the program committee (ilc09-program-committee at alu.org).

Deadline for submissions: December 9, 2008

Notification of acceptance or rejection: January 9, 2009

Deadline for final paper submissions: February 9, 2009

Organizing Committee:

Conference Chair: Daniel Weinreb (ITA Software)

General correspondence: ilc09-organizing-committee at alu.org

Program Chair: Guy L. Steele Jr. (Sun Microsystems Laboratories)

Contact: ilc09-program-committee at alu.org

Local chair: Howard Shrobe (MIT)

Technical Program Committee: to be announced soon