Dear ISCA members,

Interspeech 2024

It is with a sad heart that I am writing this message. Interspeech 2024, which is scheduled to take place in Jerusalem, is impacted by the tragic events that are currently happening in that part of the world. We are thinking about all the people in the region and elsewhere who are impacted by these events, and we wish them all strength. I hope we can stand together and support those in need with compassion. For now, the most important thing is that everyone who is impacted by the current events focuses on their family and their lives, including the Interspeech 2024 organisers and their families.

ISCA’s role is to bring together researchers from speech science and technology, and therefore we will work to ensure that Interspeech 2024 will take place. We are in close contact with the Interspeech 2024 organisers, and together we are monitoring the situation. Over the next few weeks all possibilities of the form and location of Interspeech 2024 will be explored. The most important point is the safety of the Interspeech 2024 participants. We will keep you informed about Interspeech 2024 through the ISCAPad and our social media channels. In the meantime, you can expect the calls for papers, special sessions, and workshops for Interspeech 2024 to come in the next few weeks, with similar deadlines as Interspeech 2023.

ISCA activities in 2024

I am delighted to announce that the ISCA Speech Prosody conference will be held in Leiden, The Netherlands from 02-05 July, 2024. The conference aims to showcase all facets of prosodic variation and their role in the production, comprehension, and acquisition of speech in order to obtain a better understanding of the structure and function of prosody. More information can be found at https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/sp2024.

Important dates:

Abstract submission: opens on 20 November 2023.

Full paper submission: deadline is on 7 January 2024.

Call for Interspeech 2027 bids

We also need to think about the future. In order to prepare for this future I encourage the community to propose bids for Interspeech 2027. Interspeech conferences may be held in any country, although they generally should not occur on the same continent in two consecutive years. After this year’s Interspeech conference in Dublin, the conferences in 2025 and 2026 will be held in Rotterdam (The Netherlands) and Sydney (Australia), respectively. In order to prepare the bid, please contact the ISCA conference coordinators at conferences@isca-speech.org well in advance of the deadline in order to prepare a high-quality bid. Information about the bid and the guidelines can be found at https://isca-speech.org/iscaweb/index.php/conferences/guidelines. Note that the deadline for the bid submission is December 1, 2023.

Award nomination season is coming up

The deadlines for the nominations for ISCA Fellow and the ISCA Scientific Medal will be in early 2024. I would therefore like to invite you to think about who of your esteemed colleagues you want to (be) nominate(d) for ISCA Fellow or the ISCA Scientific Medal. More information on the nomination procedure can be found at https://isca-speech.org/iscaweb/index.php/honors.

I hope to see many of our community in Leiden next year!

Odette Scharenborg

ISCA President