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Guidance for session organisers

Please read this guidance before circulating your call for papers and submitting your session proposal.

We have plenty of capacity for online and in-person formats, but will have limited capacity for live hybrid sessions at this year's event. We want to make sure those we host offer a really positive experience for online and in-person presenters and attendees. In total we expect to have only 40-50 hybrid session timeslots (out of an expected 350-400 total sessions).

Consequently, we will be allocating these on an open, competitive basis, with priority for sessions that make the most of hybrid opportunities and functionality. We will be asking you to make the case for why you would like a hybrid format at the time of the submission of the session and how you will ensure all presenters and attendees online and in-person will get the most out of the session.

This will be assessed against the following criteria:

Clear plan for how to make the most of hybrid capacity, including how you will engage both in-person and online participants and attendees
Innovative uses of the hybrid format and capacity
Who you wish to include as session contributors and participants, and how they would benefit from the hybrid format
Plan for sharing any recorded content after the session

Asynchronous content

This year you and your presenters will be able to upload additional content to presentations in the online programme (such as pre-recorded presentations, posters, papers, slides, and so on), to be viewed before, during, and after the conference. We encourage you to make the most of this capacity and to build this into your session plans.

Conduct at the conference

By submitting a proposal for the conference programme, you agree to abide by the conference code of conduct. Please ensure that your session contributors are also aware of this.

Planning your session

As you plan your proposed session at the conference, we encourage you to think about the kinds of spaces and conversations that you would like to curate, and how you want to engage session attendees in person and/or online.

Find out more about session types and formats
Apply for Research Group sponsorship for your session
Think about how to make your session more inclusive, including circulating your call for papers as widely as possible. Please see our guidance on how to organise an inclusive conference, and our information about accessibility at the conference.

Key points to note

All sessions will be reviewed by the AC2024 Conference Planning Committee before being accepted for the conference (please see below under Next steps).
Sessions will be limited to TWO timeslots in the programme. A timeslot is 1 hour 40 minutes. Sessions wishing to request a third timeslot for their session should contact ac2024@rgs.org to discuss ahead of finalising their session submission.
Please remind contributors of the limits on individual contributions when accepting abstracts/contributions for your session.
Sessions do not need to be sponsored by a Society Research Group in order to appear in the programme.
Sessions may be scheduled at any time from 09.00 on Wednesday 28 August and 18.00 on Friday 30 August. Please see our planned programme structure for more details.
Every effort is made to prevent timetable clashes for individuals in the conference programme and to minimise clashes for sessions sponsored by the same Research Group, or on a similar topic. In some cases, clashes cannot be avoided. All conference participants are asked to check the provisional programme carefully and advise the organisers of any potential problems, and to then also check the final programme for any changes.
Session organisers are asked to be as flexible as possible about scheduling arrangements, which can be requested at the time of submission.
Please encourage your session contributors to let us know about any accessibility requirements via the submission form.
Session organisers are responsible for ensuring that all their contributors register to attend the conference by the early bird deadline of Friday 14 June 2024, so that the session can be confirmed as going ahead for the programme. More information about registration is available here.
Session organisers should ensure that they have sufficient confirmed contributors to allow the session to go ahead if one or two withdraw. For paper sessions, we will consider those with four papers provided there are contingencies for replacing papers should any of the papers be withdrawn.
Successful proposals, including the names and affiliations of session contributors, will be made public via the Society’s website and will be kept on record as part of the Society's historical archive.
Publishers or others proposing a plenary lecture or other high-profile event for the conference programme are encouraged to contact the conference organisers (ac2024@rgs.org) as soon as possible to discuss this.

Circulating your call for papers

You may want to circulate a call for papers for your planned conference session. We recommend that you set the deadline for submissions no later than Friday 23 February 2024, to give yourself time to review these, decide on which to include, notify participants, and upload these to the programme submissions portal.

Full details of all papers must be finalised along with your session expression of interest form by the overall submission deadline of Friday 1 March 2024.

You can add your session to the list of advertised calls for papers by completing the initial submission of your session proposal much earlier (follow the instructions in the next section). It will then appear in the Public Panels List which prospective delegates can view. Please include details of how prospective contributors can contact you to submit their abstract in your panel description.

You can choose to have them email you directly with the information for you to review. For example:

'Please email a title, abstract, and keywords, along with details of all authors, to [your email address] by Friday 16 February 2024.'

Or, you can encourage them to submit their abstract directly within Ex Ordo for you to view and consider. For example:

'Please use the 'Submit to Panel' button above to submit your abstract for consideration by Friday 16 February 2024.'

Remember to switch off the option for new submissions after the deadline you have set (set submissions to by invite only) on the title and abstract page. You will have the option to remove any submissions you do not want for your session and to reallocate these to the open call for papers.

Submitting your session proposal

Session proposals should be submitted through the online programme submissions portal.

You will be prompted to log in to the portal. If it is your first time submitting via Ex Ordo, you will be prompted to set a password. If you have previously used Ex Ordo (such as for our 2021 conference), you can reset your password if needed.

Important note 1: Please use the same email address/Ex Ordo account for all your submissions and to register for the conference.

From the homepage, click the 'Submit a New Panel' button, and follow the step-by-step instructions. When prompted to select the track for submission, choose 'Panels (to submit session overview details only)'. Panel is the overall term used for any organised session submission, even if it will have a different format.

After completing your submission, you will be able to generate a direct link to your session which you can share with your contributors. They can upload their submission directly to your panel by selecting the 'Submit to Panel' button on your session details page.

Important note 2: If you are submitting more than one timeslot for your session - e.g. Urban Geographies (1), Urban Geographies (2) - you will need to submit this as two separate panels please.

Important note 3: Your session submission will appear in the 'Public Panels List' and will be viewable by other prospective authors who may consider submitting an abstract for the session. If you do not wish to accept additional submissions via Ex Ordo, you can limit submissions to by invitation only by selecting this as you input your title and abstract.

You can continue to edit your proposal up to the deadline of 1 March 2024.

Submit your session proposal

Further guidance is available in a short video below, and in this PDF guide. If you have any questions please contact us at ac2024@rgs.org

Further guidance for session organisers

Next steps

All submissions will be reviewed by the conference organising committee after submissions close on Friday 1 March. We aim to notify all potential contributors as to whether your submission has been accepted on or around Monday 22 April. Registration for the conference will open at this point, and timetabling will get underway.

We are intending to publish a provisional programme by mid-late May 2024.

Please see the conference timeline for further information.