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National AfterSchool Association (NAA) Convention 2015:
Proposal Prep Webinar September 16, 2014
Hosted by Erin Leonard Associate, Collaborative Communications
POC for Presenters: [email protected]
• You’ve visited the convention website (naaweb.org/convention)
• You’re familiar with NAA (if not, visit naaweb.org) • You’re planning to submit a proposal for a poster
or workshop breakout session • You’ve read through the Proposals/Presenters
webpage • You’ve prepared a few questions for our discussion • After this, you will use the proposal template and
read through the presenter FAQs
Webinar Assumptions
Webinar Overview
About the Convention
Creating Your Proposal
After You Hit Submit
Your Questions
About the Convention
March 8-11, 2015 Washington, DC Hotel and Convention Hosted at the Gaylord National Harbor
Hotel group rate: $224 + tax Lead presenter registration fee: $230
2015 Convention
Audience: More than 2,000 afterschool professionals, the largest professional gathering in the field. ��� Theme: Passionate Professionals, Powerful Stories Afterschool for All! Challenge hosted by the Afterschool Alliance is an annual event that brings afterschool leaders and champions from across the country to educate Congress about the importance of afterschool. Challenge is Tuesday, March 10, 8am-3pm.
Convention Audience
Demographic Info • Many first-time attendees (54%) • Mostly female (83%) • Many have worked in afterschool
before, prior to attending the convention
Youth Served • Mostly K-5 (89%) • Middle ages also well served
(57%) • Special interest in special needs
(20%)
0 20 40 60 80
100
Youth Served
Convention Audience
NAA Members – 80% of Audience • Afterschool program directors,
decision makers, program staff
Membership at Convention
NAA Members
Non-Member
Non-Members in Attendance • Educators, policymakers,
school administrators, funders
Why Attend Convention
The premier professional development opportunity for afterschool and out-of-school time professionals • Gain new insights, understand what’s cutting edge in the field • Learn from the successes – or mistakes of others • Network and make connections across the country, engage with other
participants • Take home tools, information, templates, worksheets and other tools
they can share with their organization • Meet with leaders in the field, connect with presenters • They want to meet with you!
What Our Participants Expect Participants Want • Sessions that get to the heart of the content and include best
practices and tools that can be use right away • Sessions designed to engage and educate • Tip: small group or on-you-own activities help engage audiences
• Differentiated content for site staff, single site and multi-site administrators
• Sessions showcasing cutting edge innovations in the field • Plenty of time for discussion, Q & A • Tip: Be available after session for follow-up
Participants DO NOT Want • Sales pitches and product promotions (will hurt your evaluation) • Lectures with no engagement • Rushed sessions
Creating Your Proposal
Key Dates Call for Proposals Open: September 9-October 17 Notification of Acceptance: December 5 Confirmation Deadline: December 15 Notification of Presentation Date, Time: January 8 Presenter Webinar: January 14 Registration Deadline: January 16 Convention: March 8-11
Session Content
We are most interested in quality content that covers a wide variety of topics. We don’t want to have too many sessions dedicated to one kind of topic, and last year participants told us we focused too heavily on STEM. We’re interested in learning from you – and what you’re doing that others should learn from or replicate. You don’t have to have experience giving a presentation, just a great idea and confidence to deliver it! We’ll train accepted presenters with two follow-up webinars.
Acceptance Rate 2014
Last year we had more than 500 proposals submitted, and accepted 162 (including posters). An acceptance rate of 32%. We expect this year to be more competitive. We are able to schedule about 135 workshops and 25 posters, though we may alter based on the proposals we receive. New! We’re holding 20 workshop slots for our top presenters from 2014. Presenters will be limited to a maximum of two sessions to present at convention, a new rule to give opportunity to more presenters.
Guidelines
Our goal is to provide an engaging and comprehensive professional development convention for afterschool professionals. We’re most interested in sessions that include hands-on activities, practical trainings, and professional development opportunities. To be considered for review, all proposals must be fully completed and submitted and include: title, description, contact info for all presenters. All aspects of the proposal should be written in complete sentences. This is your opportunity to make an impression, please be as professional as possible.
Tip: You don’t have to complete your proposal in one sitting!
Presentation Formats
Workshop Breakout Session • Mostly 75-minutes long, including 15-minutes of audience Q&A • Tip: Prepare a 55-60 minute presentation, focus on audience engagement,
interactivity • A few two-hour long sessions available (Deep Dive) • Can be a training, panel, lecture, hands-on activity Poster Presentation • On display throughout conference in Exhibit Hall, 1 hour presentations 3/10
Learning Express (new!) • 30-45-minute presentations that focus on sharing something participants can
use right away • Two presentations times: Monday and Tuesday afternoon 3:15-4:30pm
Session Strands
Select the one strand that best suits your content. 1. Developing Afterschool and Youth Professionals – focused on
professional development, leadership, career pathways, etc. 2. Building Partnerships and Sustaining Programs – engaging
communities or partners and/or securing funding to sustain programs 3. Quality and Innovative Programming – share what you’re doing
to engage kids, align to the Common Core or go above and beyond in the day-to-day of your program.
4. Supporting the Whole Child – for sessions about working with children of certain ages, special needs, health and wellness, social-emotional development or other ways to engage a child that are not academically focused
5. Telling Your Story – new! Share how you’re talking about your program, using social media, communications, engaging officials, etc.
Writing Your Proposal
Two key aspects 1. Title: Five-15 words that are carefully written to excite and draw an
audience. We are only printing titles in the program book, descriptions will be online and in the app.
2. Description: 35-50 words that will be available online and on the app. Make sure it’s brief, aligned to your content and interesting. Consider the learning outcomes or why a participant would want to join.
You’ll also need to identify 3-4 questions your session will answer. This will help us understand your content beyond the title and description, but also ensure you are considering participant learning outcomes.
Writing Your Proposal Other Aspects Session length (30 minutes, 60-75 minutes, 75-120 minutes) • Deep dive workshops will be offered for a few sessions focused on training.
Content Level • Beginner (For participants with 0-2 years of experience in afterschool) • Intermediate (3-7 years of experience) • Advanced (8+ years of experience)
Target audience (select all that apply): Afterschool Practitioners, Fundraisers/Development Specialists, Intermediaries, Mutli-Site Leaders, Policy Specialists Program Leaders, Researchers, School/District Leaders, Trainers, Other Presentation Format (select one): Workshop, Panel (maximum of 3 panelists and 1 moderator), Lecture, Poster, Active (no tables & chairs), Hands-On Activities (must have tables)
Turning Your Idea Into a Session Start With An Idea What do you have particular expertise in? What do you do particularly well? What new tool or approach are you using that others should use? Why is it important – and to whom? Consider the Participant What do your audience members do? What skills do they need? What issues or questions do they regularly face? Why they would want to attend? Plan Your Major Points First What’s the point? How will you get there? What examples will illustrate your point? Share Tools – Before, During and After Your Session What will participants get out of your session? What will they share with their colleagues? Will they be able to use this information right away? Do they need background info? Where can they get more information?
After You Hit Submit
On October 18, we begin to review proposals.
Our review committee consists of NAA board members, afterschool and educational leaders that will meet in-person and virtually. We review all aspects of your proposal and any incomplete proposals will be automatically disqualified. We will rank sessions based on quality and variety. If two sessions are on the same subject we will select one.
What We’re Looking For
We know it when we see it, but overall • Variety of subject matter • Best practices, ways to professionalize and continually improve the field • New, interesting content that is relevant to the field • Content we haven’t covered recently, or that participants have asked for • Sessions for all levels (beginner-advanced) of audience members • Sessions for all kinds of audience members • Sessions that sounds interesting to us! • Tip: Title and description are key in impressing us and participants
• Hands-on trainings or engaging activities – not just the presenter talking at the audience
• Special focus on storytelling, advocacy, communications, social media and integrating technology
Benefitting Your Proposal
A few ways to draw extra attention to your proposal(s)
• We invite our best presenters back (new!) • Past NAA presenters are some of our favorite people to accept, and
we’ll look back at your past evaluation scores to influence our decision. • NAA members receive priority. • If you’re an NAA member, that will help raise your proposal to our
attention. • Uploaded handouts, resources, resumes are your opportunity to give us
more context and info on you/your session – so use it! (new!)
Most importantly, we look at the quality of your content, audience interest in the topic, and the quality and clarity of your proposal. Grammar and spelling matter.
Next Steps
• Complete your proposal and hit submit by October 17 • Tip: Read through the entire convention website • Tip: Read through last year’s program book to see the kind of content
we cover • Tip: Use the session template to get your ideas ready • Tip: Plan handouts or other resources you would share and upload them
with your session – this could impress us! • Get in touch with any questions • We’ll also reach out to you with any questions • You’ll hear back from us back December 5 • If you don’t see an email by December 6, please check your spam box • Still nothing, then reach out to us!
We are very excited to read your proposals!
If Selected
Notification of Acceptance: December 5 Confirmation Deadline: December 15 Notification of Presentation Date, Time: January 8 We’ll also share A/V, room set-up, etc. at that time. Presenter Webinar: January 14 Likely a Second Webinar: February 18 Registration Deadline: January 16 ($230 for lead presenter only) Convention: March 8-11 Evaluations/Feedback: End of April
If Not Selected
If you don’t get a happy email on December 5, please don’t be discouraged! We get a lot of proposals and selecting the top choices is difficult. We have less slots available this year than compared to past years, so we expect it to be very competitive. Feedback We can give you feedback on your proposal, tips on how to improve for the future. We’ll also take your feedback on how we can improve the process. Join us in DC! We also would still love to have you at convention! There, you can connect with presenters ad participants and get a better sense of what we’re looking for, our audience and our convention feel.
Your Questions
Please state your name, organization and question You can also email questions to Erin Leonard: [email protected]
Thank You!
We look forward to reading your proposals and hope to see you in DC for the convention!
