Late-Breaking Conference Sessions - March 4-6, 2025
We are opening limited submissions for late-breaking conference sessions. These sessions are identical to standard conference sessions (see details below) in structure, audience, and content, but are intended for new and emerging research, partnerships, and discussions still in development by the standard session deadline. Due to the late nature of this submission, we require greater detail from submitters, including all participating parties/speakers, a public-facing description, and an agenda for the session.
There will be a limited number of spots available, at two time slots a day: 8am ET and 4pm ET.
On Monday, March 3rd CAFE will host a series of pre-conference workshops relevant to the climate and health community. Subsequent conference days of March 4th-6th will consist predominantly of concurrent sessions designed to encourage cross-sector collaboration and discussion. These sessions can vary in format (examples of possible formats described below), but are intended for the general conference audience as a means of expanding knowledge, fostering conversations across academic disciplines and sectors, and sparking new collaborations that extend beyond the scope of this conference.
Ensuring this conference is welcoming to the global climate and health community is a high priority for us. We have extended our conference hours, with sessions starting at 7am EST (UTC-5), to make our virtual conference more time-zone friendly. We also welcome submissions of pre-conference workshops or sessions in other languages (please note that translation services will not be provided).
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:
Presentation of individual abstracts for oral presentations - See abstract submission.
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 January 31st, (23:59 EDT). Session facilitators will be informed of tentative acceptance (or rejection) and scheduling in early February. Acceptances are tentative, pending confirmation of session scheduling acceptance by session facilitators. 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:
Use the following form to provide your proposal information.
All proposals (regardless of session format) must include:
Public-facing description of the session for the conference agenda (300 word max)
Detailed plan for the session, and any intended outcomes (if applicable).
Contact information for the session representative
Facilitating individuals or institutions/organizations
Full details of moderators, speakers, etc.
Geographic location/time zone(s) of involved parties.
2. All proposals will receive either a tentative acceptance or a rejection by email in early February.
*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