Session Proposal Process

Submissions for clinic and workshops at the 2024 Convention are now closed.  The deadline to complete your submission was 4:30 PM (PST) on Tuesday, June 18th.  All submissions must be completed using the online submission form.

Proponents will be informed of the results by July 26.  Please do not contact UBCM about results before this date. 

There are two opportunities for session participation at the 2024 Convention: workshops and clinics. Please refer to the session details and tips offered below prior to submitting a proposal. 

Workshops

These are limited to four sessions of approximately two hours. While some proposals are accepted as submitted, preference is given to those that have multi-party participation. UBCM will review such proposals and may suggest combining them with other proposals that have similar themes.

Clinics

These are early morning sessions of 45 minutes in length that generally involve a presentation by a group to a small audience of delegates. Typically, five clinics are offered on Tuesday, and three to five each on Wednesday and Thursday. Approximately 13-15 clinics are held, making this the best opportunity for inclusion in the Convention program.

Proposal Guidelines

The proposal submission process is comprised of the following steps:

  • Call for proposals opens: April 17
  • Deadline: June 18, 4:30 pm
  • Convention Committee deliberates: July 18
  • Proponents are informed of results by July 26. Please do not contact UBCM about results before this date. 
  • Successful applicants must confirm their session description and list of presenters with UBCM by August 8, for inclusion in the Convention program booklet
  • Presenters must agree to submit all PowerPoint and multimedia files for their presentation to the Convention Presentation Management upload site no later than September 11.

Writing your session description

Please write a session description and session title that UBCM delegates would read in the Convention program booklet when determining which clinics and workshops to attend at the 2024 UBCM Convention. The session description must not exceed 125 words in length. The session description and title are required when submitting your session proposal to the Convention Committee.  Successful applicants must submit their final session description and title to UBCM by August 8 for inclusion in the Convention program booklet.

Criteria

  1. Proposals must be submitted following the application process provided by UBCM. Submissions sent in any other format will not be accepted.
  2. UBCM will accept applications until June 18.
  3. The application must be completed online.
  4. All questions and fields of the online application form must be completed.
  5. All successful applicants must provide a properly labelled electronic copy of their presentation to the Presentation Management System no later than September 11. Once uploaded, the presenter must inform their UBCM contact person. Information on accessing this website will be provided by the UBCM staff contact person assigned to each successful applicant.
  6. These requirements apply to all proposals, including those from UBCM staff, UBCM Committees and external groups.

Committee decision

The Convention Committee will carefully weigh all final proposals to determine which contributes the most to delegate knowledge and contain subject matter currently relevant to local governments. Proponents will be informed of the Committee's decisions by July 26.  

Once accepted, proponents must commit to having a clinic/workshop description and title complete by August 8, should the initial application description not be sufficient. This final description will be published in the convention program. The description must be 125 words or less in length.

Should proponents fail to meet the program description deadline, the Committee may substitute with another proposal.