Symposia
Please note - ALL presenters must register for the conference.
General Guidelines
Symposium Format
The purpose of a symposium is to provide a structured format, where a series of presentations are organized around a common theme in order engage the audience in critical reflection on key issues and questions relevant to the topic area.
If you are interested in conducting a symposium, please submit an abstract following the guidelines below.
A symposium will consist of a set of thematically integrated oral presentations. The total time allowed for a symposium will be 90 minutes, consisting of two to four presenters, a moderator to coordinate the session and facilitate the discussion, and a discussant (optional). We encourage the submission of symposia in which presenters and moderators/discussants represent different perspectives, such as policymakers, practitioners, and academics.
Each symposium convener should complete the application using the online facility, submitting an overall abstract for the entire symposium that sets out.
On line submission of your abstract takes 4 steps.
Step 1 – Title/Body
There are several boxes to provide the following information:
- Title - the title of the symposium
- Abstract Body - a general description of the symposium session with its purpose, motivation and objectives;
- Moderators - names of moderator and discussant (if appropriate)
Provide the following information for each presentation:
- titles for each presentation;
- names of authors of each presentation; and
- a brief description of each presentation.
Step 2 – Presentation Type / Category
Using the drop down lists, choose
- the type of submission – Symposium;
- up to 3 categories within which the submission falls; and
- a sub-category for each category chosen.
Step 3 – Affiliations
Each of the authors listed in your submission (in the Abstract Body and in the next step) must be associated with an institution. In this step by filling in the appropriate boxes, you can add institutions (department, name, location) for use in designating author affiliations.
Step 4 – Authors
In this step by filling in the appropriate boxes, you can add authors (last name, first name, middle initial, and affiliation), One (one only) of the authors must be designated as Presenter and, for that author, additional contact information is required (via the add author or edit windows). In the case of symposia and workshop abstract submissions, the ‘presenter’ is the session moderator.
Comprehensive instructions are included as part of the on line application process.
The length of the submissions will be limited (numbers of characters) by the on line application facility. The limits are approximately: 250-words for the general summary of the symposium; 200-words for the description of each presentation (a summary of discussants’ comments is not needed); and with a maximum 1000-words overall.
Handouts
Expect that people attending your session will want hand-outs, and if appropriate, attached references, so please plan accordingly.
Audiovisual Guidelines
Symposia can be supported with a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. Each symposium meeting room will be equipped with:
- a screen
- an LCD data projector
- a computer running MS Windows with MS PowerPoint installed (only Windows systems will be available)
- support staff to assist you to get your presentation up and running.