Industry Sponsors of the ACM RecSys Conference over the Years / Quiz (Predict sponsors for 2022: Win Beer or Wine)

The ACM RecSys Conference 2021 has just started, and a large number of companies support the conference including Google, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Twitter, Ebay, Spotify, and NVIDIA. Time, to have a quick look at how the number of sponsors developed over time. I had a look at the websites of all the previous year’s conferences, and create a chart:

The chart shows how the number of sponsors developed over the years. I excluded academic “sponsors” like universities that hosted the conference, and ACM (I made a quick judgment based on the logos; my estimates might be slightly inaccurate as I didn’t spend a lot of time on it).

Between 2007 (first conference) and 2012, only the total number of sponsors is reported by ACM (green line). From 2013, the ACM RecSys conference offered different types of sponsorships (Diamond, Platinum, Gold, Silver, and in 2013, also Bronze). Between 2007 and 2013, the number of sponsors is relatively constant between 7 and 8 (with an outlier in 2013). Then, numbers steadily increase to around 20 or 22 since 2018. Although, in 2020 (due to Corona?), there was a decrease to ‘only’ 11.

Quiz

If you correctly predict the number of sponsors for the ACM RecSys Conference 2022, for each category (Diamond, Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze), RS_c will buy you as many beers (0.5l) or glasses of wine (0.1l) as the conference has sponsors (only the first correct guess wins). So, for instance, if you predict for 2022:

• Diamond: 2
• Platinum: 5
• Gold: 8
• Silver: 4
• Bronze: 0
• Total: 19 (just sum up all the previous numbers)

So, if the total number of sponsors would be 19, you would get 19 beers or wines at the ACM RecSys 2022 from us. You can share them with your friends if you wish.

If you want to participate, post your guess for each of the categories:

a) here in the Blog in a comment. You must post with your real name and mention your affiliation.

OR

b) on Twitter as a reply to the Original Tweet by RS_c. You must post with an account that shows your real name and was registered before 24. September 2021.

Post your guess by or before 1st of October 2021, 13:00 (1 pm), Amsterdam time.

The fine print: If more than one person submits a correct guess, only the person who submitted the guess first, wins the prize. You must correctly guess the numbers for each category listed above (excluding Technical or Special Sponsors). If ACM introduces new categories, they will be ignored in the evaluation; if ACM removes categories, you should have predicted them with 0. Counting sponsors include academic sponsors etc if they are listed in one of the categories. This means the number of sponsors in each category equals the number of organizations listed on the ACM RecSys website in the corresponding category (regardless of whether the organization is a company or university, etc.). Only one guess per person. You must be at least 18 years old. If there should be some ambiguity later in the number of sponsors, RS_c decides who gets the prize. Co-authors of myself and employees of the University of Siegen are not allowed to participate. The winner will get the beer/wine at the ACM RecSys Conference 2022 or 2023. If the winner should not attend any of the two conferences, he will receive a 50US$ Amazon voucher or check or equivalent. The prize is limited to a maximum value of 200 US$. For instance, if there were 30 sponsors of ACM RecSys 2022 and a single beer would cost 10 US$, then the winner could only get 20 beers, and not 30.