Organized Poster Session Proposals

About Organized Poster Sessions

We invite proposals for organized poster sessions for the 2017 ESA Annual Meeting. Organized poster sessions will consist of sets of posters in multiples of 5 that are organized around a specific topic with all of the presenters invited by the organizer. Organized poster sessions will be scheduled during one of the regular poster sessions at the annual meeting, from 4:30-6:30 PM, Monday-Thursday.

All posters in each organized poster session will be placed as a group in the exhibit hall. Proposals are encouraged to address the meeting theme, “Linking Biodiversity, Material Cycling and Ecosystem Services in a Changing World,” if appropriate, but doing so is not necessary. Any timely and coherent subject of broad ecological interest will be considered. We also welcome proposals that explore interdisciplinary connections with areas of social and natural science outside of ecology or that relate to ecological education at any level.

Proposal Format

All proposals must include:

• Session title.
• Organizer (Name, institution, email). This person is the point of contact for the session and responsible for communicating with speakers.
• Co-organizers (Name, institution, and email for each).
• 5-20 presenters in multiples of 5. (Name, affiliation, and tentative title for each). Only presenters who have been contacted and have committed to the session should be listed.
• Session description (< 400 words): Should focus on the theme of the session. May include background information, goals, objectives, importance, and interest to the membership of ESA. The description should avoid overly specialized language. Any ecologist attending the meeting should be able to understand it. It will appear in the online program and be read by attendees deciding whether or not to attend the session.
• Session justification (< 250 words): The justification should focus on how the review criteria are met by the proposal. It should not simply repeat the description.
• One sentence session summary (<50 words): This is a very short version of the session description. It will appear in the print program and be read by attendees deciding whether or not to attend the session.

Other Details To Consider

In the interest of broadening participation, an individual is allowed to be the lead organizer for only one scientific session (symposium, organized oral, or organized poster). presenters who commit to speaking in an organized poster session should be aware that the one presentation rule will be enforced. That is, anyone who is the presenter in the session cannot also present in another scientific session (symposium, organized oral, organized poster, contributed talk, contributed poster). Organizers are responsible for notifying any presenters they recruit about this rule. The one presentation rule does not apply to participants speaking in Ignite sessions, special sessions, workshops, or a plenary.

There is an exemption to the one presentation rule for an author submitting an abstract for a second presentation IF the second abstract is directly related to education or outreach. Please note that meeting registration is not waived or reduced for anyone participating in any capacity in an Organized Poster Session.

This includes the session organizer(s), moderator, and presenters. All meeting attendees must register at the appropriate one day or full week rate. Organizers are responsible for making this clear to everyone they recruit to help with the session. No ESA funds are available for honoraria or to support participant travel.

Review Criteria

All proposals will be peer reviewed and scored by reviewers selected by the ESA Program Committee. The Program Committee may accept, decline, or offer an opportunity to present the proposed work in a more appropriate format (organized oral session, workshop, or special session). Session organizers will be notified of decisions by December 8, 2016. Proposals will be assessed using the following criteria. The weighting of particular criteria may vary depending on the nature of proposals.

A strong organized poster session proposal will:

Scientific strength

• feature significant contributions to or advances in ecological understanding
• present innovative and original work

Structure and organization

• form a coherent whole through contributions from individual presenters
• offer a range of perspectives through the collection of presenters
• avoid the appearance of biases toward their organizers’ own perspectives

Presenters

• list 5-20 CONFIRMED presenters in a multiple of 5 (presenters who have been contacted and have committed to the session)
• include a specific title for every presenter’s poster
• offer a diverse mix of presenters, each of whom brings new contributions to the session

If Your Proposal Is Accepted

After acceptance decisions have been made and the scheduling for the meeting is underway, cancellations and schedule changes are very disruptive to meeting planning. It is therefore very important that session organizers obtain firm commitments from their invited presenters before submitting their proposal. If a proposal is accepted, the organizer will be required to submit an up to date version of the session details and confirmed presenter list in January. Organizers will be informed of their session’s time and date in mid February. Organized poster sessions may be scheduled for any poster session timeslot between Monday and Thursday (always 4:30-6:30 pm). The program committee will attempt to avoid any overt conflicts between sessions and will give organizers an opportunity to notify us of known scheduling conflicts (strictly defined as conflicts between accepted sessions).

Communication With Presenters

If a proposal is accepted as a session, it is very important that the organizer communicates with presenters between December and August about the acceptance status of the session, the confirmation status of presenters, abstract requirements and deadlines, session scheduling information, and expectations for participation in the conference.

Here are a few details that all presenters should know up front. Miscommunication about them can disrupt session planning later in the process. We are unable to honor scheduling requests. When asking presenters to commit to the session, organizers should inform them that the session could be scheduled any day Monday through Friday. We cannot schedule or move a session to accommodate the availability of presenters. presenters who fail to submit an abstract on time will be removed from the session. It is the responsibility of the session organizer to make sure each presenter submits an abstract for his/her talk using the unique link that will be emailed to each presenter in early February. It is important to make sure all of your presenters are aware of the abstract submission deadline early on. All presenters are required to register for the conference. Registration will not be waived or reduced for any presenter. We greatly appreciate the contributions of invited presenters, but due to the number of organized sessions, we typically invite over 800 presenters each year. ESA is not able to provide any financial assistance, stipends, waived or reduced registration, travel assistance, or paid lodging to presenters. Organizers are responsible for making this clear to their presenters early on when it is easier to replace presenters.

Cancellations

For Session Organizers

Once an organized poster session has been accepted and listed online, cancellation imposes a serious burden. Do not submit a proposal if you are uncertain that you will be able to fulfill your obligation to organize and conduct the session. Once a session is accepted by the Program Chair, cancellation by the session organizers will preclude the organizers from being allowed to submit any proposals for sessions for the 2018 ESA Annual Meeting.

For Presenters

Instructions for how to cancel are included in all notification emails sent to presenters. Presenters should reply to any of those emails to cancel. For more detailed information, see our Cancellation Policy.

Important Dates

To Submit

You must submit your proposal using the online submission form. Proposals sent by email will not be considered. When you submit your proposal, you will be automatically notified of receipt by an email sent to the address that you provide. If you do not receive such a notification, please contact Program Coordinator Jennifer Riem at jennifer@esa.org to confirm that your proposal was received. You will be able to return to the proposal to edit it until the submission deadline has passed. Information on how to do so will be included in the automated email.