Call for Proposals
The UMass IT Conference 2025 Committee invites you to submit proposals for breakout sessions. This year’s conference will reunite a diverse range of UMass IT professionals to explore trends, challenges, and cutting-edge technologies. We encourage innovative, forward-thinking, and practical presentations that inspire and educate attendees on the latest developments in IT. Use the form below to provide a session breakout idea with a session title, short description (500 characters), and a detailed description (4000 characters).
The proposal deadline is Friday, April 11, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Review Criteria
What are the criteria for the review and selection process?
- Relevance of Topic: Is the topic relevant, important, valuable, and/or interesting to higher education?
- Session Outcomes Achievability: Is there alignment between the stated session outcomes and the proposal description?
- Quality of Submission: Does the proposal demonstrate quality, as measured by accuracy, clarity, comprehensiveness, and depth of demonstrated understanding of the topic?
- Engagement/Knowledge Transfer: Does the proposal provoke discussion, audience engagement, and/or facilitate knowledge transfer and development of new competency?
Call for Proposal FAQs
How does the UMass IT Conference selection process work?
Proposals are selected to ensure the conference offers a comprehensive, non-promotional, not commercially biased, objective, and diverse program. Proposals that clearly describe innovative and creative work will receive the highest priority in the selection process. Attention will be given to diversity of topics and cross-campus collaborative presentations.
Proposals will be reviewed by the conference committee. The identity of proposal submitters and presenters will be hidden from reviewers during the review process.
What are my delivery options?
Presentation (Individual or group) – Standard break-out room session; Up to 5 presenters or a panel with a moderator
Hands-on – Brief live presentation followed by a participatory design session
Birds of a feather – Facilitated discussion focused on a specific topic to explore ideas and share information
How long is each session?
Each session is 55 minutes
What if my presentation is not 55 minutes long?
We will try to pair similar presentation topics within a single session
Can I submit an idea for a proposal to be included at the conference even though I do not want to present the topic?
If there is something that you’d like to see covered, please use the Call for Proposals submission form below to submit your ideas. We will consider your idea alongside the proposals.