Abu Saleh: Fwd: The first step to organizing a panel at a conference

Saturday, February 11, 2017

Fwd: The first step to organizing a panel at a conference

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Dear friend,

Organizing a panel at a conference is an excellent way to bolster your CV. And to do this successfully, a well-thought-out panel proposal is paramount.

Your proposal will contain four elements: (1) the panel title or theme, (2) a list of titles and abstracts for all paper presentations you plan to have on the panel, (3) contact information for each participant, and (4) a condensed CV for each presenter and commentator.

As you invite participants, write your proposal, and submit it to the appropriate conference program committee, you'll want to make note of three things:

The due date for proposals: The deadline for submitting your proposal often falls far ahead the date of the conference. Given the amount of planning you will need to put into your proposal, you will want to begin planning your panel months ahead of time.
The theme of the conference: Each conference is organized around a specific theme, just like an academic journal. If you tailor your panel to the theme, your proposal has a much better chance of getting accepted.

My colleague, Dr. Phil Magness, wrote a much more comprehensive article on this topic. In it, he discusses how to put together a proposal as well as what to do on the day of the conference.