Your Committment to Speak
It is an honor and a privilege to be asked to speak at a SWE conference. By sharing your expertise, you make an invaluable contribution to the advancement of women in STEM and to the individual learning of all the participants.
If you are selected, please view this opportunity as a commitment like any other and ensure that you are able to deliver the session by securing the support of your organization and managing your workload to keep this time open. We understand that things do happen and appreciate your advance notice in the event of extreme circumstances that prevent your attendance.
Target Audience
A majority of the conference participants are women engineers, managers, executives, students and academics from around the world. The conference audience ranges from undergraduates to highly experienced full-time professionals. The expected attendance for the 2010 Annual Conference is more than 6,000 participants from over 10 countries. Please ensure that your content is suitable for a diverse audience and try to include examples and research from beyond the United States.
Tracks and Topics
In order to create a well-rounded conference program and respond to feedback from attendees, SWE conducted a survey of attendees to plan the 2010 conference education program.
SWE is seeking proposals that are in line with the program tracks. Proposals for topics outside this programmatic framework will only be considered if the content substantially supports the overall program.
International submitters: Please ensure that your presentation of the topic includes the perspective of your own country/region.
Session Development
SWE conference sessions are first and foremost, learning experiences.
- Content should be informative and relevant, with clear and immediate application to the learner’s work
- Moderate use of PowerPoint slides
- Include interactive and/or hands-on methods to support the learning
- Correspond to the learning objectives stated in your proposal
- Materials should reflect the content and are a resource for later use
Session Description
Please write your description clearly and concisely, making sure to include all necessary information. The focus of the description should be on the content that will be delivered, not an editorial on the topic or an advertisement for the speaker or topic. Please write in the second person (you) and avoid references to the speaker and his/her published work by title. Good content with clear, learning objectives showing application to the job will “sell” the session, not a sales pitch. Please support your statements with appropriate citations of published works or studies.
Learning Objectives
SWE places a great emphasis on how learning objectives are crafted for all of our professional development activities. We strongly encourage speakers to think deeply about the session they are proposing. We want all activities to be top-of-the-line in terms of content, delivery and applicability for the learner. Session participants evaluate sessions positively or negatively according to how much they can use the information back on the job or in planning their career. Speakers are giving guidelines on how to craft objectives for their proposed activity.
Guidelines
- Ensure that your objectives are reasonable and achievable within the timeframe and session structure. Limit learning objectives to three (one or two are also acceptable) which answer the one or both of these questions:
- How will the learner be able to take action on the information from your session back on their job, or in planning their career?
- What results will they be able to produce because they came to your session?
- To make learning objectives application-focused begin your objective with words like apply, analyze, develop, examine, assess, and evaluate.
- Avoid passive words like learn, understand, and know and extra words like learn creative techniques to design or determine how to analyze. Go right to the action word: design, analyze, develop etc. for the lead in.
Delivery Methods
How you plan to deliver your session is as important as the content. All speakers are being asked to partner with us to maintain a high quality of both content and delivery of sessions. Even if you aren’t a seasoned trainer or facilitator, you can still meet this requirement by researching and practicing some of the key strategies for facilitating learning. There are a number of resources that SWE can direct you to in learning more about effective strategies in adult learning.
- Limit your use of PowerPoint as a primary delivery method
- Design interactive means to engage with the participants and have them engage with each other
- Make sure that your content supports the learning objectives
- Model as many of the concepts you are delivering in the session as possible and practical
Online Proposal Submission Steps
- You will have 60 minutes to complete your submission once you enter the template. Please contact us as at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you wish to modify a submission after it has been submitted until the deadline, February, 19, 2010
- Proposals must include all requested information and must be submitted online by the deadline, February 19, 2010
- Prepare your proposal before entering the online submission template using MS Word or other software and keep a copy of your proposal(s) for your records
- Listed below is the information you will be required to submit in the electronic submission form. Please review this information before you begin the submission process
- Speaker name, full mailing address, phone, and email plus a brief bio (bio maximum: 2000 characters including the spaces)
- Name, full mailing address, phone, email, and bio for each co-speaker
- Session description
- Session type (e.g. workshop, panel)
- Learning objectives
- Program Tracks
- Career and Life Transitions
- Careers in Academia
- Careers in Government and Military
- Inclusion and Cultural Awareness
- Innovation in Technology and Business
- Management and Strategy
- Outreach
