How to get approval for your proposal from MCL
Presentation ideas must be approved before proposals are submitted to the conference. Here's what you need to do before submitting to the conference committee and afterwards:
- Get your supervisor's approval. This includes both a sign off on the topic you are hoping to present and their approval to use work time to attend the conference if your proposal is approved.
- Email Amy Honisett (amyh@multcolib.org) at least 30 days in advance of the conference's proposal submission deadline. Include:
- The name of the conference
- The deadline to submit your proposal
- Your proposal topic and a brief overview of what you would like to present. You do not need to submit a fully formed proposal at this point.
- Amy will pass your proposal on to the appropriate person or group for approval
- For Public Services employees, the Public Services Management Team will review your proposal
- For other employees, your proposal will be reviewed by the relevant member of the Executive Management Team (EMT)
- Amy will let you know if the proposal is approved
- If it is approved, follow the process determined by the conference to submit your proposal.
- If it is not approved, you will receive information about why it is not approved. If there is an issue that can be corrected, you will have the opportunity to correct it.
- When you find out if the proposal has been accepted by the conference, email Amy(link sends e-mail) to let her know and your name will be added to our list of approved attendees for the conference.
If you learn about a conference's proposal submission deadline less than 30 days in advance, please contact Amy Honisett to determine whether there is time to review your idea.
How to develop a conference proposal
Great conference presentations share information that people from many different kinds of work environments can use. When you are considering whether to submit a proposal to present your work at a conference, you might consider:
Can I make my work generalizable?
- If your work is only relevant to library systems like MCL, it may not be a great choice to present at a conference.
- Are there parts of your work that people from different work environments can learn from? If so, can you highlight those portions of your work?
What tangible outcomes can I share from my work?
Stories are a great way to talk about your work, but be sure to include specific actions, tools, and lessons learned that your audience can take back to their workplace.
Can I present my work in an engaging manner?
- If the conference format allows for interaction, can you add time for activities and/or discussion?
- Have you considered the time limit of the conference session? Make sure you are able to pace your presentation so that you have plenty of time for questions, and so that you don’t run out of time for your conclusion.
- Think about conference presentations or other learning events you’ve been to. What made them great? What didn’t work for you?
Presenting at a conference is a great way to grow professionally and to share your work.
Other opportunities to share your work
You may want to share your work or your experience in other ways, including participating as a speaker on a panel, doing a poster presentation at a conference, or submitting an article for publication. Please talk with your supervisor to get approval for sharing your work in these ways.
How to get help
If you are trying to determine whether to submit a conference proposal, or if you would like some help developing a proposal you have received permission to submit, L+OD can help. Contact us, if you would like a consultation.