APA's 2009 National Planning Conference

April 25–29, 2009 • Minneapolis

Tips for Successful Proposal Submissions

Criteria used to evaluate proposals

• Overall quality
• Well-defined focus
• Concrete examples that support ideas
• Timeliness of topic
• Relevance to the planning profession
• Practical application of material
• Presentation skill of the proposed speaker(s)
• Applicability to a national audience
• Quality of written proposal

Tip 1
All proposals will be submitted online. If you have difficulty with the online database submission process, contact speakerinfo@planning.org.

Tip 2
Propose an entire session. Session proposals that present a complete overview of a topic are the ideal type of proposal.

Tip 3
Sessions should provide a variety of perspectives. Do not propose a session in which three team members from the planning department or consulting firm talk about the same project. Provide comparisons from community to community, from different perspectives within the community, from different parts of the country, or from differing points of view. We're looking for multi-faceted presentations.

Tip 4
Understand that all your speakers are giving a live presentation; make certain your presenters are good speakers.

Tip 5
Prepare the description of the proposal in a word processing file first. Put effort into the proposal. Edit the description carefully. After you have edited the proposal, cut and paste the description into the proposal form. We strongly recommend that you do not try to compose your proposal description online.

How well your proposal is written strongly influences the selection committee. The more thought you put into the proposal up front, the smoother the process of pulling your session together will be. Again, be certain to review and edit your written proposal. It may be helpful to have someone else look it over to make certain your ideas are expressed clearly.

Tip 6
The proposal must be complete. If your proposal is selected you will be asked to provide more information on your invited speakers at a later date. For the proposal, you need to indicate who your potential speakers will be. It is very important that you complete this information.

Tip 7
We welcome non-planners; planning is an encompassing field. If you are a planner, consider recruiting elected and appointed officials or colleagues from allied professions, agencies, and departments as speakers.

Tip 8
The optimal number of speakers for a panel is two, and the maximum is three. Keep in mind that in a 75-minute session, three speakers would have only 20 minutes each with the remaining time devoted to moderator's comments and Q&A.

Tip 9
Try something new! APA encourages innovative and well-designed sessions. Please note that due to the large attendance at sessions, meeting rooms will be set up to accommodate as many attendees as possible — therefore, we will not set session rooms with tables except for training workshops. Also, we do not limit attendance; any attendee may attend any session, as long as there is room in the session room. Below are some things we suggest as a departure from the traditional three-speaker panel format:

Moderated Discussion (Hint: these were very well received at recent conferences)
Have the moderator break the session into short units of 3-7 minutes. The moderator will ask a question of each speaker, who will have 3-7 minutes to respond. After 15-20 minutes, the moderator will stop the speakers and ask for questions from the audience. The moderator may also pass out cards and collect the questions, selecting the most pertinent ones. Then the moderator will ask one of the speakers to respond. After each Q&A segment, the moderator will return to the pre-programmed questions directed to various speakers.

Debate
Have a good, disciplined moderator conduct a debate. Two or more speakers, with differing points of view, would act as the debaters. Questions can be given to the debaters by the moderator or a panel. Several times during the debate, the moderator could turn to the audience to ask for questions or comments.

Tip 11
Diversity in speakers is encouraged. If you need assistance in identifying speakers, the APA's divisions are willing to help. For assistance, contact the division officers.

Click here for the websites of APA's divisions with contact information. APA's special interest divisions are:

City Planning and Management
County Planning
Economic Development
Environment, Natural Resources , Energy
Federal Planning
Gays and Lesbians in Planning
Housing and Community Development
Indigenous Planning
Latinos and Planning
International
New Urbanism
Planning and the Black Community
Planning and Law
Planning and Women
Private Practice
Regional and Intergovernmental Planning
Resort and Tourism
Small Town and Rural Planning
Technology
Transportation Planning
Urban Design and Preservation