National AfterSchool Association (NAA) Convention 2015: Proposal Prep Webinar September 16, 2014

Transcription

1 National AfterSchool Association (NAA) Convention 2015: Proposal Prep Webinar September 16, 2014 Hosted by Erin Leonard Associate, Collaborative Communications POC for Presenters:

2 Webinar Assumptions 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

3 Webinar Overview About the Convention Creating Your Proposal After You Hit Submit Your Questions

4 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

5 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.

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7 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%) Youth Served

8 Convention Audience NAA Members 80% of Audience Afterschool program directors, decision makers, program staff Membership at Convention Non-Members in Attendance Educators, policymakers, school administrators, funders NAA Members Non- Member

9 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!

10 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

11 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

12 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.

13 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 Presenters will be limited to a maximum of two sessions to present at convention, a new rule to give opportunity to more presenters.

14 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!

15 Presentation Formats Workshop Breakout Session Mostly 75-minutes long, including 15-minutes of audience Q&A Tip: Prepare a 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!) minute presentations that focus on sharing something participants can use right away Two presentations times: Monday and Tuesday afternoon 3:15-4:30pm

16 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.

17 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: 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.

18 Writing Your Proposal Other Aspects Session length (30 minutes, minutes, 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)

19 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?

20 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.

21 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

22 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.

23 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 by December 6, please check your spam box Still nothing, then reach out to us! We are very excited to read your proposals!

24 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

25 If Not Selected If you don t get a happy 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.

26 Your Questions Please state your name, organization and question You can also questions to Erin Leonard:

27 Thank You! We look forward to reading your proposals and hope to see you in DC for the convention!