Welcome to INTERSPEECH 2019  - Willkommen in Graz, Austria, Sept 15-19, 2019
http://www.interspeech2019.org

Important Dates Coming Up Soon          

• Early bird registration deadline 15 July 2019, for registration go to https://www.interspeech2019.org/registration/registration_overview_and_fees/.

• Childcare – the INTERSPEECH Kids: Bring your family along to Graz, Austria! Childcare will be provided free of charge for conference participants. For terms and conditions, see the conference webpage http://www.interspeech2019.org/venue_and_travel/childcare and apply immediately together with your conference registration. Furthermore, an INTERSPEECH parenting community will be set up on the collaboration platform Slack. To secure a place for your kids, we recommend to apply for either service at your earliest convenience by sending email to childcare@interspeech2019.org.

• Hotel accommodation through Graz Convention Bureau, rooms are only blocked until
  1 August 2019, sobe sure to make your booking before that date on:https://www.graztourismus.at/kongress/en/interspeech-2019_kongressformular-9507 Bookings made through this site can be cancelled at no charge if cancellation is received in writing by email or fax up to three working days before date of arrival.

• Sponsoring and Exhibition opportunities are going fast: see http://www.interspeech2019.org/sponsorship_and_exhibition/letter_to_our_partnersWhat is new?With the highly appreciated support by our generous sponsors, we are able to lower the fees for both full and student registrations. As ISCA will continue its tradition of supporting a sizeable number of student travel grants, we are confident to raise the number of participants to a new all-time record.

INTERSPEECH 2019 is the 20^th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association ISCA and this anniversary edition will introduce several innovative features. These innovations will certainly contribute to raise the attractiveness of the conference beyond the high levels developed already over the past two decades:

Crossroads of Speech and Language: Our conference theme comprises three key elements important in speech research today: language diversity, diversity of applications, and diversity of representation. A complete list of the scientific areas and topics including special sessions is available at https://www.interspeech2019.org/calls/areas-and-topics/.

Survey presentations have been evolved from the perspective talks at INTERSPEECH 2018 in Hyderabad. The presentations will be scheduled at the start of suitable oral presentation sessions, and will be allocated a 40-minute time slot for presentation and discussion. Presentations should aim to give an overview of the state-of-the-art for a specific topic covered by one or more of the main technical areas of the conference. The presenters will also be invited to submit survey papers to the ISCA supported journals of Computer, Speech and Language and Speech Communication. For further details, see https://www.interspeech2019.org/program/surveys/.

For our Show & Tell Demonstrations we have evolved the submission format in order to improve the reviewing process. Therefore, next to a two-page description, we have asked for the upload of a simple video of your demonstration that will help deciding which demonstrations will raise the highest interest at the conference. For more details see https://www.interspeech2019.org/program/show_and_tell/.

The 1^st INTERSPEECH Hackathon will set a stimulating atmosphere for the most creative developers in our community and beyond: through jams and challenges, we will bring together some of our brightest minds, students who are speech science and technology aficionados and who come to Graz as conference participants, as well as students who are representing the highly interdisciplinary community of several partner universities in Graz and beyond. Watch out for details on our website https://www.interspeech2019.org/program/special_events/ or contact directly our hackathon chairs Elmar Nöth (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg) and Johanna Pirker (TU Graz) at hackathon@interspeech2019.org.

We look forward to your participation in INTERSPEECH 2019! We strive to make this a memorable event for all of you - one highlight to watch out for will be the Dancing INTERSPEECH Soiree, An Austrian Ballroom Extravaganza at Congress Graz. If you have time to arrive a few days earlier, you can enjoy the 'Aufsteirern' festival of Styrian folk culture https://www.aufsteirern.at/aufsteirern/english-information/ and right after the conference the 'Steirische Herbst' takes over - a contemporary arts festival of all genres https://www.steirischerherbst.at/en .

General Chairs:

Gernot Kubin, TU Graz, Austria
Zdravko Kacic, University of Maribor, Slovenia

Technical Chairs:

Thomas Hain, U Sheffield, UK
Björn Schuller, U Augsburg/Imperial College, Germany/UK

Organising Committee Members:

Michiel Bacchiani, Google NY, USA
Gerhard Backfried, Sail Labs Vienna, Austria
Jamilla Balint, TU Graz, Austria
Eugen Brenner, TU Graz, Austria
Mariapaola D‘Imperio, Aix Marseille U, France
Dina ElZarka, U Graz, Austria
Tim Fingscheidt, TU Braunschweig, Germany
Anouschka Foltz, U Graz, Austria
Anna Fuchs, AVL Graz, Austria
Panayiotis Georgiou, USC Los Angeles, USA
Franz Graf, Joanneum Research Graz, Austria
Markus Gugatschka, MU Graz, Austria
Martin Hagmüller, TU Graz, Austria
Petra Hödl, U Graz, Austria
Robert Höldrich, KU Graz, Austria
Mario Huemer, JKU Linz, Austria
Dorothea Kolossa, RU Bochum, Germany
Christina Leitner, Joanneum Research Graz, Austria
Stefanie Lindstaedt, KNOW Centre Graz, Austria
Helen Meng, CU Hong Kong, China
Florian Metze, CMU Pittsburgh, USA
Pejman Mowlaee, Widex/TU Graz, Denmark/Austria
Elmar Noeth, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
Franz Pernkopf, TU Graz, Austria
Ingrid Pfandl-Buchegger, U Graz, Austria
Lukas Pfeifenberger, Ognios Salzburg, Austria
Johanna Pirker, TU Graz, Austria
Katharina Pollack, TU Graz, Austria
Christoph Prinz, Sail Labs Vienna, Austria
Michael Pucher, ÖAW Vienna, Austria
Philipp Salletmayr, Nuance Vienna, Austria
Barbara Schuppler, TU Graz, Austria
Dagmar Schuller, audEERING, Germany
Jessica Siddins, U Graz, Austria
Wolfgang Wokurek, U Stuttgart, Germany
Kai Yu, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China