All Conference Sessions: 

• Have no capacity restrictions and are intended to be accessible to all conference attendees

• Are intended for an audience consisting of other professionals within the climate and health community rather than the general public, acknowledging that our community is diverse in terms of disciplinary and substantive expertise. 

• Will be scheduled for 60 or 90 minute blocks, with timing selected based on the geographic location and time zone of those facilitating or presenting. 

• Will be held entirely remote, through the Accelevents platform. 

Examples of possible Session formats: 

• Symposia - A collection of speakers who present on a common topic or theme in a manner that brings new insights to the field or community. Symposia are fully developed by the facilitator* (community member) and proposed complete with topic, anticipated speakers, and a clear description of the intended goals of the discussion.

• Panel Discussion - A collection of panelists gathered to engage in interactive discussion on a unifying topic or theme. These sessions are fully developed by the facilitator* (community member) and proposed complete with clear descriptions of the topics to be discussed, the speakers involved, and the procedures that will be used to manage the discussion among panelists and with the audience.

• Technology/Tool Exhibitions - Collections of brief (10-15 minute) demonstrations or explanations of new technology or tools relevant to the community of practice. Presentations can be made by developers (including from industry) or users of the tool. 

• ** These sessions can be proposed incompletely (singular) or collaboratively. CAFE will coordinate assembly of sessions from individual (non-collaborative) submissions. At this time, CAFE is not accepting submissions for individual demonstrations of technology or tools lasting a full session length (60-90 minutes).

• Other - We welcome sessions of other structure or format. Provide complete details of intended structure, involved parties, and the intent of the session. (Please note, we are unable to restrict conference sessions to a specific subset of the audience or capacity size. See instead: pre-conference workshops). 

Sessions are not intended for:

• Poster presentations - Poster submissions will be included as part of abstract submission for oral presentations opening November 1st.

• Presentation of individual abstracts for oral presentations - There will be a call for individual abstracts opening November 1st.

• Workshops or discussions designed for a limited or restricted group of people. See instead: Pre-conference workshop submissions. 

• Excessive self-promotion in such a manner that does not serve the climate and health community. 

Session proposals are due December 6th, (23:59 EDT). Session facilitators will be informed of tentative acceptance (or rejection) and scheduling no later than the end of January. Acceptances are tentative, pending confirmation of session details and speakers. CAFE reserves the right to initially accept a session but deny it from the final schedule if facilitators do not provide final details or updates in a timely manner. 

To submit:

1. Use the following form to provide your proposal information. 

All proposals (regardless of session format) must include: 

Description of the session (300 word max), including topic/theme, plan for the session, and intended outcomes (if applicable). 

Contact information for the session representative

Facilitating individuals or institutions/organizations, including any moderators, speakers, etc. 

• We request that facilitating members include a member of the CAFE Community of Practice. To become a member of our Community of Practice, if you aren’t already, simply fill out our intake form here. This is not an application process, it just allows us to stay connected with you and the work that you’re doing in the climate and health field by signing you up for our monthly newsletter and gathering information about your interests and work.

• Confirmation of speakers can occur after tentative acceptance

Geographic location/time zone(s) of involved parties. 

2. All proposals will receive either a tentative acceptance or a rejection by email no later than the end of January. 

3. After receiving tentative acceptance, session facilitators are responsible for confirming session details, including confirmed speakers/moderators/others, and adding the session and speaker details into the conference platform, including a public-facing title and session description.

*The CAFE team may ask similar session proposals to merge or revise to avoid duplicate sessions on a topic. Similarly, if the CAFE team feels that a session would best serve the community by combining with a session from a different sector, in order to highlight cross-sector efforts and stimulate cross-sector collaboration, such sessions may be combined. If this is necessary, the CAFE team will reach out to facilitators following the submission deadline. 

For any questions, please contact climatecafe@bu.edu