Call for Proposals: IAF North America & Caribbean Conference

30 August 2016

We are pleased to present the following Call for Proposals for professional development workshops to be held during the “IAF North America & Caribbean Conference,” May 8-11, 2017, at the Hilton West Palm Beach Hotel, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA.

IAF’s mission is to promote, support, and advance the art and practice of professional facilitation through methods exchange, professional growth, practical research, collegial networking and support services. As a participatory organization, the work of the IAF is reliant on volunteer leadership and the contributions of its members, who work in government, nonprofit, educational, community, and corporate environments; they hold positions as consultants, teachers, in-house facilitators, negotiators, organizational specialists, coaches, and more. Proposed workshops should speak to the day-to-day experiences of facilitators.

The 2017 conference theme The Relevance of Facilitation is the priority and focus for workshop proposals. Within our theme there are three areas of concentration broadly titled Rethink, Reshape, Renew.  More specifically, we hope the following concepts will help you determine where your proposal best fits:

  1. New Ideas encourages presenters to offer, try out, pilot or practice new facilitation techniques with an opportunity to receive feedback from participants in a supportive learning atmosphere.
  2. Creating Strategy focuses on best practices in the facilitation of strategic thinking, planning and action.
  3. Cultivating Change explores the role of facilitation in helping groups, organizations, and communities be successful in the change they are seeking.

All proposals should provide high-quality content, solid training, and interactive learning experiences. The extensive range of facilitation experience and diversity of facilitators at all levels should be taken into consideration. Each workshop must be aligned to one or more of IAF Core Competencies:

  1. Create Collaborative Client Relationships
  2. Plan Appropriate Group Processes
  3. Create and Sustain a Participatory Environment
  4. Guide Group to Appropriate and Useful Outcomes
  5. Build and Maintain Professional Knowledge
  6. Model Positive Professional Attitude

Workshop Proposals

We are seeking innovative and creative workshop proposals that will increase our personal and professional understanding of The Relevance of Facilitation in our daily practice as facilitators. What works?  What doesn’t?  What are the challenges?  What have we learned already, and what do we need to learn?  What are the skills and proven practices that are effective and relevant? What’s the value of facilitation? What will help us and hinder us as we strive to The Relevance of Facilitation in our communities of practice?

Instructions

Proposal submission forms with instructions on how to submit are available for download on or after August 22, 2016 by clicking here

NOTE:  Use the form provided. Proposal MUST be emailed as an MS Word document or PDF document.  Large file sizes will be problematic, so please keep files to less than 1MB in size.

Schedule of Important Dates and Information on Proposal Review Process

  • October 14, 2016 – Proposal submission deadline.
  • December 2, 2016 – Notification to proponents of successful proposals. Constructive and summary feedback will be provided on an individual request basis by proponents whose submissions were not selected.
  • January 2, 2017 – Online publication of IAF North American & Caribbean Conference 2017 Program.
  • January 15, 2017 – Return signed letters of acceptance and Deadline for Workshop Leader registration at the Conference.

NOTE: Deadlines will not be extended except in case of critical extenuating circumstances.

Please note proposals are reviewed by a team of IAF peers using a three point rubric scale that is in alignment with IAF Core Competencies, while considering the conference theme of Exploring New Shores, and the three focus areas of New Ideas, Creating Strategy, and Cultivating Change. Quality and clarity of workshop description and outline are important.  Incomplete proposals will not be reviewed. 

Workshop proposal assessments are confidential, and are only seen by the Conference and Program Committee Chairs and lead reviewers. The names of individual reviewers are confidential and will not be included with the summary assessments. All correspondence between a proposal reviewer, lead reviewer, and the Program and/or Conference Chair is confidential.

Questions

If you have any questions about the overall process for submitting workshop proposals, please contact the Conference Chair, Ginger Adams (ginger@advantagefacilitation.com) or Program Committee Chair, Corky McReynolds (corky@leadteamconsulting.com).

Help us Explore The Relevance of Facilitation in West Palm Beach, Florida, May 8-11, 2017!