Digital Humanities (DH) is the annual international conference of the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organisations (AHDO), whose constituent organisations are the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing (ALLC), the Association for Computers and the Humanities (ACH), the Society for Digital Humanities/Société pour l'étude des médias interactifs (SDH-SEMI) and, most recently, the Australasian Association for Digital Humanities. The next DH conference will be at Hamburg University in Germany, July 16-22. 2012 (http://www.dh2012.uni-hamburg.de/). DH2013 will be held at the University of Nebraska.

The committees of DH and its constituent organizations now invite proposals to host DH in 2014.  Digital Humanities aspires to be a global organization, and so it moves the conference to different parts of the world in different years. Traditionally, the conference has alternated between North America and Europe, and it will be held in the United States in 2013, so we are particularly interested in proposals from outside the U.S. for 2014.  Those proposals could be for hosting the conference in Europe, but also in Asia, Australia, or other areas where there are developed or developing Digital Humanities communities or organizations. In any case, the local organizer must be a member of one of the ADHO constituent organizations (ALLC, ACH or SDH/SEMI, aa-DH).

The conference normally attracts 300-500 attendees with 3-4 days of papers and posters. There are normally 3-5 parallel sessions per time slot, and a small number of plenary presentations. Meetings of the committees of the constituent organizations precede the conference, and lunchtime slots are normally used for member meetings of constituent organizations.

The academic programme is selected and planned by an international Programme Committee appointed by ADHO constituent organizations.  The local organizer at the host institution is responsible for the conference web site, provision of facilities, the production of a book of abstracts, a conference banquet, and any other social events that the local host thinks would be appropriate.  The conference is entirely self-financed through conference fees and any other financial contributions that the local organizer is able to arrange.  ADHO expects no payment from the local host in the event that the conference makes a profit, but no financial support is provided for the conference by ADHO or its constituent organizations, except in relation to the recipient of ADHO awards, such as named prizes or bursaries, and a modest incentive to ensure that the membership status of registrants is validated by the local host. In consultation with the Program Committee, the local organizer may invite other plenary speakers whose travel, subsistence and registration must be funded from the conference budget.

The local organizer is expected to set (and verify) three levels of fees: members of ADHO constituent organizations, non-members, and students. The difference between the fee levels for members and non-members should be no less than the cost of an individual subscription to ADHO's main print journal, Literary and Linguistic Computing, because subscription to the journal is what qualifies an individual for the member rate.

ADHO uses the conference management system Conftool, and the ADHO Conference Coordinating Committee provides support for this system, including access to data from previous conferences.  Local organizers are required to use the Conftool system for registering participants, including participants in special events such as the banquet, but actual credit card payments are often processed outside Conftool, by the local organizer.

Proposals should include

• overview of facilities at the host institution
• overview of local institutional engagement and support for the local organizer
• possible arrangements for social events, to include the conference banquet
• options for accommodation (with provisional costs)
• travel information and advice
• a provisional budget, with a provisional registration fee
• options for payment (credit card, foreign currency etc) by participants

Proposers must be prepared to give a short presentation and to answer questions at the ADHO Steering Committee meeting at the DH2012 conference in Hamburg, Germany, on July 15th, 2012, and at the meetings of constituent organizations on July 16, 2012.  Budgets and other information about past conferences can be made available on request, for planning purposes.

For further information, proposers are invited to discuss their plans informally with the Chair of the ADHO Conference Co-ordinating Committee, John Unsworth (unsworth[at]brandeis.edu).  Proposals should be shared in draft form with the Chair by the end of May.