[Note: Since PLDI joined the PACM-PL journal, what was previously called Program Committee is now called Review Committee. In the following, we use the term Program Committee (PC) because it is a better-known term.]

Prior to PLDI 2021, the PLDI conference always held in-person program committee meetings. Starting with PLDI 2021, the PLDI Steering Committee agreed that in-person PC meetings would no longer be required, but that this would be reviewed via a community survey in 2024.

A survey was conducted during summer 2024, asking the following main multi-choice question:

Should PLDI stick to the decision to drop in-person PC meetings?

The answer options were:

• Yes: I think in-person PC meetings should not be required for PLDI
• No: I think in-person PC meetings should be required for PLDI
• Neutral: I am undecided / I do not have an opinion on this either way

A link to the survey was circulated to authors of all papers submitted to PLDI 2022, 2023 and 2024, and to members of the Review Committees for those editions of PLDIs.

The survey received 486 responses, with answers to the above question divided as follows:

• Yes: I think in-person PC meetings should not be required for PLDI: 311
• No: I think in-person PC meetings should be required for PLDI: 80
• Neutral: I am undecided / I do not have an opinion on this either way: 95

Based on this response from the community, the PLDI Steering Committee have decided to stick to the 2021 decision, so that holding in-person PC meetings will not be a requirement. This does not preclude the PC chair of a particular edition of PLDI from holding an in-person PC meeting; it simply means that doing so is not required.

Respondents were also asked for their views on what the PLDI community, and the SIGPLAN community more generally, currently offers or could offer in relation to networking and mentoring for junior faculty members. These responses will be very useful to the PLDI Steering Committee in the planning of future editions of the conference, and to SIGPLAN more generally in the planning of a range of conferences and other events.

Below is a brief summary of the kinds of responses that were received.

Many respondents who had answered “yes” to the main question noted that networking should be part of the conference itself.

Many respondents who had answered “no” to the main question emphasised that in their view the networking value of in-person PC meetings likely cannot be delivered by other means.

A number of responses noted the value of having a PC dinner or other social event at the main conference. There were also suggestions about the conference featuring a PC workshop event, or PC-only networking event, to attempt to replicate some of the networking opportunities that would previously have been afforded by an in-person PC meeting.

More generally, many respondents were positive about PLDI featuring mentoring opportunities for junior faculty, with the RTFM workshop that took place at PLDI 2024 being praised by several respondents. The SIGPLAN-M mentoring program was also noted as valuable.

Several responses had ideas for networking opportunities outside of the conference time frame, including:

• SIGPLAN supporting events for junior faculty that are not co-located with conferences, potentially including regional meetups and “birds-of-a-feather” sessions.
• The creation of more invitation only Dagstuhl-like workshops to facilitate deep scientific discussion.
• More remote networking events, like the very successful PLTea event that has taken place for several years.

There were also a number of comments and suggestions about the pros and cons of in-person meetings, and whether some compromise might be possible. These comments included:

• Notes that it can already be hard to find childcare support to attend PL conferences, with the need to attend in-person PC meetings increasing this burden
• Many comments about the impact on climate change associated with the travel required for in-person PC meetings
• A number of comments noting that this impact is likely to be minimal in the grand scheme of things, and should be weighed against the benefits that in-person meetings provide
• Comments that the financial cost of attending in-person PC meetings is high
• Comments on the fact that obtaining visas for in-person PC meetings can be problematic
• Ideas about having in-person PC meetings in alternate years, holding hybrid PC meetings, or holding multiple smaller in-person meetings in different geographical locations, to reduce overall travel

Regardless of whether in-person PC meetings are held or not, a useful suggestion from several respondents was that more might be done to mentor new PC members in their task, and that first time PC members could be assigned a “review mentor” – a more senior member of the community who could provide them with guidance.

Disclaimer: These posts are written by individual contributors to share their thoughts on the SIGPLAN blog for the benefit of the community. Any views or opinions represented in this blog are personal, belong solely to the blog author and do not represent those of ACM SIGPLAN or its parent organization, ACM.