The American Society of Plant Biologists is now accepting proposals for concurrent symposium topics for Plant Biology 2023. The deadline for concurrent symposium submissions is November 20, 2022.
Proposals should span the range of interests of ASPB members, including exciting new scientific developments and interdisciplinary areas, and they should represent the demographics of our memberships.
Proposals will be reviewed by the conference program committee, with up to 14 topics selected to be included within the scientific program. Each symposium will receive one full registration to Plant Biology 2023 that may be assigned to the symposium chair or one of the 5 speakers (additional funds may be available to defray costs to assist with inclusion).
Format for Plant Biology 2023
Plant Biology 2023 will be in-person with an option to participate online for select sessions. However, all concurrent symposium speakers must present in person at the event.
Key Dates
- October 18, 2022: Call for proposals opens
- November 20, 2022: Deadline for receipt of concurrent symposium proposals
- December 16-22, 2022: Selected concurrent symposia will be notified
Symposium Proposal Guidelines
Please review the following guidelines before submitting a concurrent symposium proposal:
- Each concurrent symposium will be given 105 minute sessions, with 5 minutes allocated at the beginning for an introduction by the chair and then five 20-minute slots for each speaker’s presentation. Each concurrent symposium speaker can use their 20 minutes as desired – we typically see about 15 minutes of presentation and 5 minutes for open questions from the audience.
- Symposium chairs are responsible for identifying, inviting, and confirming speakers for their session; however, we ask that you run your proposed slate of speakers through the Program Committee through the submission form and receive approval before any formal invitations are issued to them.
- To ensure that we have a high-quality and inclusive conference, ASPB’s Program and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committees are collaborating in recruiting and selecting concurrent symposium proposals. The organizers should consider the ASPB speaker diversity rubric with particular consideration for career stage, institution type, and identity.
- Ideally, proposed speakers should not have spoken at recent Plant Biology conferences.
- If desired, symposium chairs may reserve one of the five speaking slots at their session for themselves, but there is no requirement for them to do so.
- Individuals can only be listed as a symposium chair for one proposal (either for concurrent session or workshop), although they may be listed as an invited speaker on another proposal. Preference will be given to organizers who have not chaired a concurrent session in the past two years.
- An individual is permitted to give only one talk at Plant Biology 2023. In the event that a speaker is invited to two successful symposium applications, organizers should consider a back up.
- Symposium chairs should provide a description of the proposed symposium (250 words max) that will be made public if selected.
- The symposium chairs will also provide a description of how their proposal brings forward ASPB’s objectives in support of diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as any additional information for the committee to make an informed review (250 words max).
- Symposium chairs will be required to moderate their symposium and associated discussion sessions to ensure the conference is a safe and respectful environment for all participants at all times. Moderator training will be made available to symposium chairs.
Access information can be found on the submission portal. If you can not access the form, please contact pbabstracts@aspb.org.
