Conference Presentation Formats & Instructions

Submit your proposals separately for the following formats. Conference planners will group accepted proposals together into sessions:

• Lightning Paper Session— 4-5 papers centered on a common theme. Papers should focus primarily on key findings or observations, contributions, and methodological rigor. Each presenter has 8 minutes to present. A maximum of 8 slides are to be prepared in advance. After the presentations, sessions will include facilitated group dialogue and interaction.
• Paper Session — 3-4 papers centered around a common theme. Each presenter has 12 minutes to present. After the presentations, sessions will include facilitated group dialogue and interaction, with the hope of identifying priority next steps for the field.
• Poster — A graphical, instructional display containing a short abstract, headlines, charts, graphs,  or other illustrative information. It provides an opportunity for in-depth discussion of presentations with attendees. Posters are scored using the same criteria as papers, symposia, and workshops and are equal in merit to all other formats.
  Poster presenters may choose to use the traditional poster format or a new poster format. See bit.ly/37NYt7x for a video on a new poster format.
• Resource Exchange Roundtable — A special format for the Advancing Family Science and Family and Community Education Sections. See more below.

Submit your proposals as whole sessions of multiple presentations for the following formats:

• Symposium — A presentation and discussion by 3-4 experts on a particular topic. A discussant integrates and summarizes the papers, develops implications for policy and practice from the research, and facilitates audience discussion.
• Training Workshop — A training session in which the presenter leads participants through exercises or skills development in a given field with time set aside for Q&A and discussion.
• Collaborative Workshop— These workshops focus on the co-creation of new knowledge and skills in real time. The focus of these workshops can be quite broad. What is important is that any proposed workshop focus on a collaborative effort to brainstorm or otherwise address a need that moves the work forward. Discussion is possible through the entire workshop.

Special Instructions for Resource Exchange Roundtables

Advancing Family Science Section & Family and Community Education Section

The Resource Exchange Roundtables are an interactive opportunity to demonstrate an educational, administrative, enrichment, or pedagogical resource that has been particularly useful when working with students, families, professionals, or other populations. An overview is given by the leader who then facilitates active discussion about the topic.

Presenters must provide a tangible resource to participants and include that resource in their proposal. Examples of resources include detailed assignment instructions or rubric; a completed student project (must include a statement of permission to use); or a list of useful topical online resources.

Please note: Resource Exchange Roundtable proposal submissions go through the normal proposal review and evaluation process; those accepted for the conference program are peer-reviewed.

Watch our webcasts on how to write and submit a workshop and symposium. Visit ncfr.org/call-for-proposals
All formats are considered of equal value and are reviewed with the same criteria.

For questions regarding content, contact the chair of the section to which you will be submitting. For technical or process questions, email conference@ncfr.org.  

Remember: The more choices in presentation format you provide, the better your chance of being accepted if your review scores are high enough.

Special Instructions for a Symposium Proposal

For symposia, you must add each abstract and all the authors of each abstract.

• Select the “Add Abstract” button.
• Enter the title, short, and long abstracts.
• Enter the general description of the symposia.
• Enter the author information, beginning with the first author. Note that authors must be input in their authorship order so that they appear correctly.
• Choose if the author is the presenting author.
• If you need to add more co-authors, click the “Add” button.
• Add additional participants, such as chair and discussant.