It is our pleasure to invite you to participate in the Ninth International Workshop on Spoken Dialogue Systems Technology (IWSDS 2018). This year's conference theme will be:

"Towards creating more human-like conversational agent technologies" Following the success of a series of eight previous events, IWSDS 2018 will be held in Singapore on April 18-20, 2018. It will be the southernmost IWSDS ever, just one degree north of the Equator! Participants will be able to keep track of the state of the art in spoken dialogue systems while enjoying the year-round summer paradise island that is Singapore.

On behalf of the organizing committee, we welcome you to Singapore, and hope that you enjoy the workshop as well as the glorious mix of cultures and traditions on display.