Call for Workshops

We invite proposals for workshops to be held in tandem with the 2nd Conference on Language Modeling (COLM).

Submission link: to be posted on https://colmweb.org/

Questions can be directed to: colm-workshops@googlegroups.com

Key Dates

All deadlines are 23:59 AoE (anywhere on earth)

  • Workshop proposal deadline: April 14, 2025
  • Proposal decision notifications: May 8, 2025
  • Suggested submission deadline for workshop contributions: June 23, 2025
  • Mandatory accept/reject notification for workshop contributions: July 24, 2025
  • Workshops day at COLM: October 10, 2025

Scope

COLM workshops should cover topics that intersect and expand upon the subject areas solicited in the COLM call for papers (https://colmweb.org/cfp.html). In particular, we are primarily interested in hosting workshops that serve the following two purposes:

  1. Building new communities and connections. For example, we would prefer a workshop that aims to bring people together who are interested in a new/emerging area of research than one that focuses on a topic that is already well-represented in the main conference. Workshops should therefore provide opportunities for discussion and presentation of works in progress. At the same time, a workshop's scope and focus should be sufficiently broad to attract a meaningful number of attendees, and workshops whose primary function will be to highlight work by a single researcher or lab are discouraged.
  2. Provides opportunities for junior researchers and underrepresented groups. The other primary goal of workshops is to provide a way for individuals who might not have the impetus or support to otherwise attend COLM. We are particularly interested in workshops that provide (possibly unconventional) ways to solicit and highlight the work of junior researchers and underrepresented groups.

Workshop proposals should highlight how they serve these purposes as appropriate.

Logistics

All workshops will take place on October 10, 2025 (the last day of COLM 2025) and will be 7-9 hours long. We anticipate being able to host 8-10 workshops. COLM is unable to provide funding for workshops, but will provide a limited number of complementary conference registrations to workshop organizers (which can be used either for the organizers themselves, workshop attendees, or invited speakers). Workshop organizers are welcome to solicit funding for travel or other purposes. We encourage workshop organizers to explore options for organizing their own live-streaming. COLM will be unable to provide streaming services. Workshop organizers cannot be invited speakers to their own workshop (though they can moderate discussion) and workshop co-chairs cannot be invited speakers at workshops or be an organizer for any workshop.

Proposal format

Workshop proposal submissions should include up to two pages of proposal plus unlimited pages for organizer bios and references. No specific template must be used but the proposal must be legible (e.g. 11-point or larger font, 1-inch margins, single spacing, etc.). We suggest the following format for your proposal:

  1. Workshop title
  2. Description of the workshop, including the intended scope, why the workshop is important and timely, how the workshop will help build community, how the workshop will support and highlight the work of junior researchers and those from underrepresented groups, and a justification of why the workshop will attract a meaningful number of attendees.
  3. If the workshop will solicit submissions, a description of the submission format, reviewing procedure (including how conflicts of interest will be managed), submission management system (we recommend OpenReview), and timeline (noting the suggested submission deadline and mandatory accept/reject deadline from the Key Dates). Workshop papers should be non-archival and workshop organizers are not required to release proceedings.
  4. Outline of the workshop schedule (a precise minute-by-minute schedule is not necessary), including enumeration of any speakers (and, briefly, their bios) who have already tentatively agreed to talk at the workshop.
  5. A list of past workshops on related themes and how this workshop stands apart. If the workshop has happened at a previous venue, please include a brief discussion of why it's important to hold the workshop again and a "post-mortem" of the workshop (e.g. what went well, how many attendees there were, and how past success/failures influenced the current proposal).
  6. Optionally, any special technical requirements.
  7. Bios (\~1 paragraph each, including affiliations and email addresses) of all workshop organizers, ideally highlighting each organizer brings to the workshop based on their research and past experience.
  8. References.

Reviewing

The workshop co-chairs will review all workshop submissions, except in cases where a conflict of interest (https://colmweb.org/coi-policy.html) arises, in which case they will solicit expert reviewers who are not conflicted. Apart from evaluating workshops in terms of the goals set out under "Scope" above, priority will be given to selecting a set of workshops that cover a diverse range of topics. We will also take into consideration the experience and credentials of the organizing scheme, the relevance and quality of invited speakers, and the extent to which the workshop will encourage diversity in all forms (across the organizing team, invited speakers, and expected attendees). In the event that there are multiple high-quality proposals that cover highly overlapping topics, we may selectively choose to ask the organizers to merge their efforts.

Guides and Policies

Conflict of Interest Policy. The COLM program committee and all submitting authors must follow the COLM conflict of interest policy (https://colmweb.org/coi-policy.html). Please consult the policy to update your OpenReview profile as requested.

Code of Conduct. All COLM participants, including workshop organizers, attendees, and speakers, are required to adhere to the COLM code of conduct (https://colmweb.org/CoC.html). More detailed guidance for authors, reviewers, and all other participants will be made available in due course, and participation will require acknowledging and adhering to the provided guidelines.

Code of Ethics. All participants of COLM must abide by COLM’s code of ethics (https://colmweb.org/CoE.html).